Antica Terra Pinot Noir "Antikythera" 2017 Eola-Amity Hills, Oegon

This is an 11 acre vineyard located on a rocky hillside in the Eola-Amity Hills of Oregon’s Willamette Valley. In most of the region, vineyards are planted in the relatively deep, geologically young soils left
behind by either the Missoula floods or the volcanic events that formed the Cascade Range. In this place, the remains of a far older pre-historic seabed rise to the surface, leaving the vines to struggle, without topsoil, amongst a fractured mixture of sandstone sown with fossilized oyster shells. The west wind moves constantly through the vines. Clouds fissure over the vineyard and allow the sun to ray through, at an angle and with a clarity that makes the site feel bright, even on the bleakest day. The oldest vines look like infants. Instead of the gnarled trunks and robust canes one expects from vines planted over two decades ago, these are spindly and frail. The fruit is diminutive as well. The tiny clusters of thick-skinned berries are less than half the usual size and fit easily in the palm of the hand. The Antikythera Mechanism is a geared, bronze-age device that was used to calculate astronomical positions with incredible precision. Antikythera looks remarkably like Antica Terra. This similarity has become a way to understand the changing identity of their site. Choosing the name Antikythera allowed to link the wine to the history of the site while indicating that it was something completely different than what had come before.