Page 17 - Grapevine March-April 2020

In The Winery

allows Alex to pinpoint the exact plots of land that Chardonnay blend fruit from both volcanic, basalt-
will work best for producing particular types of based soils and sedimentary, sand-stone-based
wine. “This selection process preserves the heart soils. The complexity of this wine is due to their
and soul of the individual vineyards so they can all restrained use of aging in new French oak.
speak for themselves,” he said.
Five FACES Pinot Noir tends to be on the lighter
According to Alex, this diversity allows him to side, with refined tannins and high but well-in-
blend with consistency, as he has a vast palette of tegrated acidity. Notes of spice, smoke, and wet
grapes at his disposal that he can use to craft spe- earth speak to the mixed berry aromas and fla-vors
cific wines. Furthermore, by having vines scat-tered like fresh marionberry, strawberry, and cherry.
throughout the Willamette Valley, Fullerton Wines
can still harvest grapes should one re-gion experi- Five FACES Chardonnay speaks to the growing
enced a severe weather crisis such as drought or acceptance of white wine grapes in the Willamette
fire. Valley. This wine has a medium-plus body with
an elegant tension between acidity and texture.
Still, Alex admits it can be draining to run around Underneath the intense aromas of apple, pear, bri-
sampling the vines. He decides when it’s time to oche and citrus, is a sense of min-erality and spice
harvest a particular vineyard based primarily on his notes.
taste assessment. A refractometer helps him assess
the sugar and when to mash the grapes. Then he In 2014, Fullerton launched its Three Otters line
titrates the wine and uses a spec-trometer to eval- with the intention of offering an intriguing value
uate the enzymes. wine. The line is geared towards the broader mar-
ket by appealing to consumers who are seeking a
Less is More quality wine in the $15-$25 range. The label honors

the family’s Northern European heritage, as three
Zoning restrictions and the desire for a mod- otters have rested prominently on the Fullerton
ernized facility led the family to move the winery family crest since the 13th century. This label also
to Corvallis, Oregon. Here Alex puts his “less is highlights the playful nature of this approachable,
more” belief into practice. For example, the reality lighter and easier drinking wine.
that wine can be made naturally with the aid of
wild yeast, combined with Alex’s years of tasting In addition to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, the
hundreds of inoculated and spontaneous fermen- Three Otters line includes Pinot Noir Rosé and Pinot
tations, led to his preference for spontaneous Gris. The rosé was crafted as the result of a friendly
fermentations. He eschews fining, which results in competition between Alex and his fa-ther, Eric. It
producing vegan-friendly wines. Also, only select has soft floral undertones and a light, breezy struc-
wines will receive cross-flow filtration once testing ture with notes of watermelon, strawberry and
proves they will benefit from the pro-cess. citrus. Even though Alex admits that Pinot Gris can
be a “boring wine,” he want-ed to add one to the
Fullerton’s Single Vineyard and Reserve wines Three Otters line because he had a unique chance
point to those selections that Alex believes come to work with some fifty-year-old Pinot Gris vines.
from the best barrels from their premier vineyard
sites. Each bottle represents the unique condi-tions While the winery is not open to the public, visitors
of that particular vineyard, and are marketed who take a trip to Fullerton’s wine bar and tasting
towards the serious wine connoisseur. room in Northwest Portland can take a mini-tour
through the range of wines produced by the entire
Their Five FACES label, an acronym for the five Willamette Valley. That way, they can sit and savor
Fullerton family members—Filip, Alex, Caro-line, without spending the day navi-gating traffic.
Eric and Susanne—was created to make a true
Willamette Valley blend. Five FACES Pinot Noir and

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