Pinot Noir, 'Savoya', Ken Wright

Savoya is located in the Yamhill Carlton AVA and was planted between 1999-2003 to its current size of 40acres (18 undervine). The vineyard sits on ancient marine sediment at 350-450ft that is southeast facing.

Long before the Editors’ Choice awards, the 94-point scores, or the “blackberry, black cherry and  hints of truffle on the complex, deliciously satisfying finish” accolades – long before Ken and Karen  Wright even planted grapes on the property and coined the name “Savoya” for the first vineyard  property that they would own – there were wagon trains headed to these fields, and pioneers and  settlers who heard that there was prime agricultural land being given away to the west, in Oregon, to  anyone who would homestead the land for four years.

Surrounded by orchards of fruit and walnuts, the property remained in agricultural use through  the pre-vineyard years of the ‘50s and ‘60s. Anthony C. Harmon, who was a large landowner and farmer  in the region, owned the property at least from the mid-‘50s until his death in 1994. A local man who  attended Carlton and McMinnville high schools, Harmon raised fruit and sheep and drove a log truck  after serving in the U.S. Navy during the Korean conflict. His estate sold the property in 1994 to Victor  Von Schlegell, and four years later, in 1998, it was acquired by Ken and Karen Wright, and was the first  vineyard property that they owned outright.

Located on a southeast facing inclination with an elevation of 350 to 400 feet, the vineyard was  planted in 1999 on 4.5 acres in Dijon clones 777 and 115, on phylloxera resistant rootstock. Subsequent  plantings over the years increased the vineyard to 17 acres. The first wine to be released from the  Savoya vineyard was in 2002, and subsequent vintages have seen Savoya single-vineyard wines receiving  some of the top scores in KWC’s history, including a 94-point Editor’s Choice to the 2010 Ken Wright  Cellars Savoya Vineyards Pinot Noir.