We made mistakes after this, but this is how we broke in Friday afternoon.
Sun Break has been posted here a few times, but I haven’t seen this direct pour.
The interesting modality of this producer’s offerings is that they are largely split by treatment of the fruit at fermentation. The Colette is fully de stemmed, the Marie-Paule is a blend of destemmed and whole cluster fermentations, and the Arianne is a fully whole cluster ferment.
My hypothesis: I would prefer them by percentage destemmed.
I was wrong.
For the primary comparison, we poured all 2022 vintages. Halfway through, I grabbed a 2023 Marie-Paule.
2022 was an interesting vintage in the Willamette Valley. Cold and wet to start, with a milder summer heat but a longer extended period into September. 2023 is likely to be an all time vintage – so the comparison wasn’t fair across vintages.
As these wines shared fruit source, they are largely similar in character, so I won’t waste space repeating each wines notes. Generally, these wines are rather fruit forward on the nose and the palate follows. Bright red fruit, baking spice, restrained oak, a muted earthy mushroom note, and finishing with a pleasing wet stone mineral backbone. All were quite good.
The Wines:
Adrianne (fully whole cluster): substantially more body and fullness, deeper, chewable fruit, a slight pyrazine vegetative note, but generally a fruit dominated profile.
Marie-Paule (blend) (22): this was our least favorite of the four. It felt like rather than the blend taking the best of both worlds, it magnified only the lesser traits. This wine did open quite a bit as we tasted. It went from a far last place, to a close fourth. It may improve with age, and with more air.
Colette (fully destemmed): this was my wife’s favorite of the three. More composed, lighter, and a clearer expression of fruit. It felt slightly more acidic, with less body and less depth than the Arianne. The minerality was less river stone, and more ferrous and slate. It had a hollow middle, almost gamay-esque.
Marie-Paule (23): wow, just a delicious wine. This felt like the “best of both” we were hoping for. Brighter fruit, clean and crisp with great balance.
The order:
- 23 Marie-Paule 94pts
- Adrianne 92pts
- Colette 91 pts
- Marie-Paule 89 points
by MyWineAccount