Outstanding Oregon Pinot Noir Winemaker Zena Crown Debuts a Chardonnay

In-the-know wine lovers are familiar with the Pinot Noirs from the Zena Crown Vineyard, one of the most exciting sites in Willamette Valley‘s Eola-Amity Hills. The winery produces critic- and collector-pleasing Pinot Noir from its eponymous vineyard and is also a fruit source to well-known brands such as Gran Moraine, Penner Ash, Beaux Frères, and Hamilton Russell. After much anticipation, Zena Crown Vineyard has dropped its first Chardonnay, 2021 Desiderium, and it is right up there with the vineyard’s reds.  

Winemaker Shane Moore first planted Chardonnay vines here in 2014, and even after they came to maturity it took several attempts to get it right before finding a wine that the team thought was worthy of the Zena Crown Vineyard name on the bottle. “Often, I find Chardonnay from young vines to be all fruit, lacking in depth and complexity,” Moore says, explaining the longer-than-expected wait for this wine. Although he was ready to produce a small amount of Chardonnay in 2020, the Labor Day fires in the Central Oregon Cascades caused smoke taint in the wine. “We decided to punt that year and make 2021 our first release,” he says.

Anyone familiar with Burgundy knows that soils and climactic conditions that favor Pinot Noir can be ideal for Chardonnay as well, and Zena Crown is no exception, offering a cool climate that oscillates between maritime and Mediterranean. Moore points to “the Goldilocks amount of cooling summer wind in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA,” as being just right to maintain freshness and acidity as well as “the ancient low-productivity volcanic basalt-based soils” as factors that add to the perfect environment. Desiderium is defined as “an ardent desire or longing.” Moore explains that on his long, bucolic drives on winding country roads to and from work each day for the past 11 years he contemplated the terroir of Zena Crown and what its expression of Chardonnay would be before settling on the name.

Desiderium spends 17 months in oak with primary fermentation using only native yeast, it then undergoes secondary malolactic fermentation, and ultimately it has a period of rest in barrel before being transferred to stainless steel tanks for another six months of maturation. The wine was bottled in May 2023 and then underwent additional bottle aging prior to release. Zena Crown Vineyard 2021 Desiderium Chardonnay is medium straw to the eye and has aromas of lemon curd, Bartlett pear, and freesia. It is soft on entry and has flavors of lemon meringue pie, vanilla, Meyer lemon zest, chalk, and kumquat with a bright splash of acidity on the lengthy finish.

See Also

The 9 Best Rosé Wines in the World to Drink This Summer in 2024

Moore is a big fan of bottle aging before sending wine into the market. “Generally, I find our wines don’t start opening up until at least a year in bottle,” he says. “While some people may conceive of a 2021 Chardonnay as being old for release, I wonder why they are in such a hurry.” We agree with Shane; in our opinion this one has definitely been worth the wait.