One of Oregon's most prestigious wineries, Archery Summit was named after the road on which it sits (not the other way around). Driving up to it is impressive, and visitors can get some sense of its size on the approach. After that, Archery tries very hard to conceal its size.
Take, for example, the way copious flowers cover and drape the outside of the building. The grounds are gorgeous, although a little over the top-nothing understated here-but the intention seems to be to hide the building. Add the layout of the building itself, which puts a small façade in front of a small parking lot, which leads into a tasting room that could be described as cramped. A large flat screen TV featuring vineyard and winery shots falls short of its mission, and looks like a sports bar. The black counter top, dark maroon walls and subdued lighting makes the small tasting room seem even more intimate.
All of this belies the size of the operation, because Archery Summit is a huge, gravity flow winery of 15,000 case production. The distance from point of entry for the grapes to their exit as bottled wine is ¾ of a mile. The only way to fully grasp this is to take the thrice-daily tour, which is interesting and entertaining. The wines are expensive, and upon first taste seemingly overpriced. In fact, they're often closed when they're young. However, Archery Summit wines age beautifully. These wines are investment caliber.
Opening the show, the 2010 Premier Cuvee exhibited bright red fruit, crushed cherries, berries and briars. This was followed with intense red cherry and raspberry flavors. Not the most subtle of Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs-there's power here.
Renegade Ridge is their youngest vineyard. The 2009 was darker than the Premier, with black cherry flavors, black plums and blackberries. It's a gorgeous, showy, opulent wine with very intense and concentrated flavors and silky mouthfeel.
Looney Vineyard is not owned by Archery Summit. The fruit is Ribbon Ridge AVA, darker sedimentary soil than Archery Summit's red, Dundee Hills, Jory soil. It's a real curve ball in the tasting flight with plums and tobacco in the nose, followed by red plum and raspberry flavors. Obviously, this is going to be either the high or low for a taster. We saw this happen as customers came and went.
Arcus Estate has produced some of the best wines in the world for Archery Summit. Unfortunately for us, the wine had just been opened and it was very tight. Arcus is known for it's dark flavors and 2010 was no exception. Black cherry, black plum and blackberry flavors, with the long, lingering finish one expects from a wine of this price range. But today, there was little in the way of a nose, although the next crop of customers might have fared better. And again, Archery Summit makes wines to age. This one's going to be ready in 2020.
That's something that might have been better transmitted by the sales staff, who at best could be called cool. Perhaps they didn't want to interrupt the scribbling of tasting notes, but they seemed distant and aloof. Don't expect a red carpet here, but Archery Summit's wines are excellent, and worth the visit-and long term investment.
