J.C. Somers Joie de Chien Pinot Noir 2023
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The Land
People call the Dundee Hills a volcanic site, which is true but misleading. No young lava here. The famous red Jory soil is basalt that has been sitting in the rain for roughly 15 million years, weathered down into deep iron-rich clay, and that depth is the point: it holds water through a dry Oregon August without ever waterlogging a vine. Set that against the marine sedimentary soils elsewhere in the Willamette Valley and the difference shows up as red fruit and perfume rather than black fruit and structure. The hills rise out of the valley floor with vineyards planted on the slopes above the frost line and the morning fog. This is the most recognizable terroir in Oregon, recognizable precisely because the soil is so uniform across the hill.
The Wine
J.C. Somers Joie de Chien Pinot Noir 2023 is Dundee Hills Pinot Noir made with no stems at all. Fruit is fully destemmed, fermented with native yeast, carried through a natural malolactic, then aged 20 months in barriques with 25 percent new oak and bottled with no fining and no filtration. Twenty months is a long elevage at this price, and it shows as resolved tannin rather than extraction. The 2023 season began cool, then a warm May into the upper 80s put the vines back on pace. July and August were stable and dry with little disease pressure, picking started around mid-September, yields ran slightly below average, and the fruit came in riper than 2022. The style is deliberate: red cherry and cranberry, dried rose and forest floor, a savory earthen core, fine acidity and tannin that arrives late.
The People
Jay Christopher Somers is a native Oregonian with more than 30 years in the Willamette Valley. He learned under John Paul at Cameron, worked at Adelsheim, and spent time at Dry River in New Zealand before founding J. Christopher with his wife Ronda Newell-Somers in 1996. He has since moved on from that label and makes wine under his own name. His position has not softened: "We do not make fruit bombs. We want wines that have a fine balance of fruit, acidity and texture." He buys from established Dundee Hills sites including La Colina, Abbey Ridge, Bella Vida and the Nicholas family's vineyard, dry-farmed by growers he has known for decades. Joie de Chien, joy of the dog, is the second label, and the dog on the bottle looking at the moon is Aja, whom Somers calls the greatest dog ever.
Food Pairing
Pour this with braised short ribs finished with a splash of red wine vinegar, where the late-arriving tannin handles the fat and the acidity resets between bites. Mushrooms on toast, cooked hard in butter with shallot and thyme, go straight at the forest floor character. Grilled lamb merguez with couscous and mint brings enough spice to meet the savory side without flattening the red fruit. A wedge of Taleggio at the end works on the earthiness. This is a Dundee Hills Pinot Noir priced to drink, which is rarer than it should be.
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The Willamette Valley, nestled in Oregon, is a region renowned for its cool-climate wines, particularly its Pinot Noir. While Pinot Noir is its most celebrated variety, the valley is also home to other cool climate varieties like Chardonnay and Riesling. The region's unique terroir, characterized by rolling hills, volcanic and sedimentary soils, and a maritime climate influence, contributes to the elegance and complexity of its wines. The wines of the Willamette Valley offer a delicate balance between fruit, acidity, and earthiness. Its increasingly growing reputation places it among the world’s top regions for Pinot Noir.
Oregon - Willamette Valley
Pinot Noir is a thin-skinned, notoriously difficult-to-grow, low-yielding grape that finds its ancestral home in Burgundy, France, where it produces some of the world's most elegant and nuanced wines. While Burgundy remains its spiritual heartland, Pinot Noir has since traveled the globe, finding success in other cooler climates, notably in California, Oregon, New Zealand, and Germany. This grape is a challenge for any grower, as it requires specific conditions to show its best, and yet the wines it produces are capable of such a captivating and singular character.
