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It has been a true pleasure introducing our customers to Antiquum Farm wines. The wines are impeccably, lovingly grown in the South Willamette Valley and are every bit as gorgeous as the labels. The Antiquum style of Pinot noir is bold and luxurious, plush and sumptuous in texture, with ripe aromatics.
From winegrower/owner Stephen Hagen: “Some folks tell me I am crazy. I grow wine differently. They say my methods are slow, difficult, and simply too much work. I say, life is work. It’s a gift to have work you love. Some do not see how the use of draft horses, grazing livestock and poultry in the vineyard, or infinite hours of meticulous hand labor can create a wine that is more unique, intense and full of life. I don’t understand how it couldn’t.
I often say my wines are made cluster by cluster. It means countless hours of work that can only be done by hand. Going slower. It means that many times a season I personally touch, inspect, admire and yes, love every single beautiful cluster. It means rigid culling without regard to my pocketbook. This attention to detail is inspired by love for my life’s work. I am not a landowner overseeing the operations of a vineyard. I am the operations and a part of Antiquum Farm.
Antiquum Farm is a place of anomaly. Almost an oddity. This site, bearing both traits of a warm ripe site and a high-elevation late ripening site, defies any clear classification. Antiquum consistently records some of the warmest daytime vineyard temperatures in the valley. The fruit maturity here is regularly well advanced in comparison to most other sites.
Why does this happen? Antiquum is also a high elevation site. 800 feet above sea level puts us nearly at the edge of the what is considered a growable elevation for pinot noir in the Willamette Valley. Despite this elevation, the slope seems to collect and amplify heat during the day. Stranger still, the vineyard is warmer the higher up the slope you go. The nights see the trend reverse. This, especially as the days shorten, causes the fruit to hold its acids. These acids balance the massive dark fruit tones produced by the warm daytime temperatures giving the fruit structure, finesse, and complementing bright high tones.
The soil type is a classification known as bellpine, which are typically late maturing due to their thin top soil and depleted base material combined with high elevation. An early maturing site on bellpine soil such as Antiquum Farm is very rare indeed and an unusual blessing. When these components come together it constitutes what many call the Holy Grail of Pinot. Depth, power, structure and finesse in perfect balance."
