{"title":"Willamette Valley Wine Auction!","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Willamette Valley Wine Auction is one of the most coveted wine events in the American wine calendar, a gathering that brings together Oregon's finest producers to create small-lot, one-of-a-kind bottlings made exclusively for the auction and never available through normal retail channels. Each wine is hand-numbered and signed by the winemaker, produced in editions so limited that the total bottle count fits on the label. We were thrilled to secure lots from this year's auction and from previous editions, and what you're looking at are three of the most distinctive bottles to come out of the Willamette Valley in recent memory: a Bethel Heights Chardonnay from 45-year-old own-rooted vines, a collaboration Pinot Noir from two of the Eola-Amity Hills' most beloved estates, and a fully mature 00 Wines Richard's Cuvée from a landmark 2017 vintage. None of these wines exist anywhere else. Free shipping is included on any quantity, one bottle or more.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"bethel-heights-cristom-winery-willamette-valley-wine-auction-pinot-noir-willamette-valley-2024","title":"Bethel Heights Cristom Winery Willamette Valley Wine Auction Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2024","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eTwo of the Eola-Amity Hills' most storied estates, one bottle. Bethel Heights was founded in 1977 by the Casteel family on volcanic Jory and Nekia soils at 480 to 620 feet of elevation, one of the pioneering plantings of the appellation, now farming over 80 organically certified acres with some of the last own-rooted Pinot Noir vines in the region. Cristom was founded in 1992 by Paul Gerrie, a Burgundy devotee who hired Steve Doerner (Calera's winemaker of 14 years and a student of Jacques Seysses of Domaine Dujac) to make the wine. Doerner's whole-cluster, ambient-fermentation philosophy shaped a generation of Willamette winemakers, and today winemaker Daniel Estrin (formerly of Littorai) and second-generation owner Tom Gerrie continue that legacy on biodynamically farmed hillsides named after members of the Gerrie family. Both estates are anchored to the same volcanic ridgeline, both share a conviction that Eola-Amity Pinot Noir is some of the most compelling in the valley, and this collaboration bottling (made exclusively for the Willamette Valley Wine Auction in an edition of 42 signed, numbered bottles) is the rare chance to taste both houses in a single glass.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eExpect the lifted aromatics, bright red fruit, and mineral tension that define this corner of Oregon: cherry, rose petal, violet, dried herb, and that cool saline undercurrent that the Van Duzer Corridor winds drive into these hills every afternoon. This is a collector's bottle in every sense, both for what's inside and for what it represents.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"First Bottle","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53484684116265,"sku":"2000473","price":259.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0793\/2706\/8457\/files\/BethelHeightsCristomWineryWillametteValleyWineAuctionPinotNoirWillametteValley2024_2000473_FB_Rack.jpg?v=1789504818"},{"product_id":"bethel-heights-willamette-valley-wine-auction-chardonnay-willamette-valley-2024","title":"Bethel Heights Willamette Valley Wine Auction Chardonnay Willamette Valley 2024","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eBethel Heights has been farming the same volcanic hillside in the Eola-Amity Hills since 1977, when twin brothers Ted and Terry Casteel and their families planted the first vines on 50 acres of south-facing slopes northwest of Salem. Nearly five decades later, some of those original plantings (own-rooted Chardonnay from Wente and Dijon clones) are among the last surviving own-rooted vinifera in the entire Eola-Amity Hills AVA. Ben Casteel, Terry's son, took over as winemaker in 2006 and has continued his father's philosophy: let the Jory volcanic soil and the Eola-Amity's signature marine winds do the talking. The estate grows Chardonnay here not as an afterthought but as a genuine statement of terroir, and this bottling, made exclusively for the Willamette Valley Wine Auction in a numbered, signed edition, is that statement at its most concentrated and intentional.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eRecent Bethel Heights Chardonnay has drawn scores as high as 97 from Decanter, and the 2024 follows a run of critically acclaimed releases. Expect the estate's characteristic balance of restraint and richness: stone fruit, white flower, and a mineral salinity that is the unmistakable signature of Jory soil Chardonnay, knit together by the kind of structure that comes only from old vines and careful hands. This is one of Oregon's most compelling white wines, made in a quantity so small the number is printed right on the label.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"First Bottle","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53484684542249,"sku":"2000472","price":239.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0793\/2706\/8457\/files\/BethelHeightsWillametteValleyWineAuctionChardonnayWillametteValley2024_2000472_FB_Rack.jpg?v=1789504578"},{"product_id":"00-wines-willamette-valley-wine-auction-pinot-noir-richards-cuvee-eola-amity-hills-2017","title":"00 Wines Willamette Valley Wine Auction Pinot Noir Richard’s Cuvée Eola-Amity Hills 2017","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eChris and Kathryn Hermann founded 00 Wines in 2015 with a singular conviction: that Oregon Pinot Noir and Chardonnay belonged in the same conversation as the world's finest. The Richard's Cuvée is named for Chris's late father, Dr. Richard Hermann, a plant geneticist at Oregon State University whose blessing and encouragement made the project possible when he was 91 years old. The fruit comes from an unnamed vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills (a site so well-known the winery couldn't put it on the label) planted in volcanic soils at the cool, elevated end of the appellation. Decanter describes the Richard Hermann Cuvée site as delivering wines of great finesse, elegance, and freshness that balance out the powerful fruit sourced elsewhere in the 00 portfolio. The winemaking is as precise as the sourcing: whole single berries fermented in a 500-liter Tuscan terracotta amphora, then 16 months in 20% new French oak.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eNow eight years in bottle, the 2017 is entering a particularly beautiful window. Reviewers noted perfumed, cool aromas of red berries, rose petal, lilac, and sandalwood with fine delineation on the palate, a wine that absolutely needed at least five years of bottle age and should reward ten or more. That time has passed, and then some. This is one of 66 signed, numbered bottles released through the Willamette Valley Wine Auction: a mature, deeply expressive Eola-Amity Pinot Noir from one of Oregon's most quietly serious producers, in a format that doesn't come around again.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"First Bottle","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53484698566953,"sku":"1015553","price":259.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0793\/2706\/8457\/files\/00WinesWillametteValleyWineAuctionPinotNoirRichardsCuveeEola-AmityHills2017_1015553_FB_Rack.jpg?v=1789504746"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0793\/2706\/8457\/collections\/IMG_5936.jpg?v=1789511935","url":"https:\/\/firstbottlewines.com\/collections\/willamette-valley-wine-auction.oembed","provider":"First Bottle Wines","version":"1.0","type":"link"}