ORCA - Domaine Serene

A passion for Pinot noir led Ken & Grace Evenstad to Oregon in 1989 where they established their state of the art winery and named the Domaine after their daughter, Serene.

Deciding from the beginning to produce premium quality wines, they purchased three of the best vineyard sites in the Dundee Hills and instituted vineyard management and winemaking practices designed to ensure complex, concentrated and elegant Pinot noir and Chardonnay year after year.

Domaine Serene farms to produce very low crop levels for concentrated flavors, with a 14-year average of 1.7 tons per acre. Vineyards are dry farmed and grapes are handpicked and sorted. Individual lots from each vineyard are kept separate in small open-top fermentors, and cooperage is selectively sourced from several French oak forests and seasoned for 3 years. There is minimal intervention in the winemaking process and gentle gravity flow is employed to move the wine from harvest to bottling. The Pinot noir is bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Winemaker M. Eleni Papadakis earned a B.Sc. in Enology from CSU Fresno and has broadened her understanding of old and new‐world techniques by participating with winemaking teams globally. From tractor to end consumer, Eleni has pursued her interest in wine with Wine MBA studies at the Bordeaux Ecole Superiore de Commerce in Bordeaux, France and its partner universities in Santiago, Adelaide, and Davis. Prior to joining Domaine Serene Eleni worked as a winemaker in the cool‐climate of California’s Santa Cruz Mountains, making her ideally suited for the unique challenges of producing ultra-premium wines in Oregon.

TASTING NOTES
The bright, floral nose gives hints of citrus, flower, ripe pear, key lime, mineral, crème brûlée, kiwi and baked apple. The long, rich palate displays sweet anjou pear, ripe kiwi, white peach and green apple with beautifully balanced acidity and long, lingering finish.

VINEYARD
Côte Sud is one of seven vineyards of Domaine Serene’s Evenstad Estate located atop the southernmost of the Dundee Hills of Oregon. It is situated on a south-facing slope ranging from 550 - 680 feet in elevation. The majority of this vineyard was planted to Chardonnay in 1992 and is a combination of Dijon clones.

CROP YIELD & AGING
2.74 tons per acre. Aged 13 months in French oak barrels of which 48% were new.

In addition to Clos du Soleil, Domaine Serene also produces Côte Sud Vineyard, and Etoile Vineyard Dijon clone Chardonnays in limited quantities.