By Kiley Evans

We get asked pretty regularly about the name of our flagship red blend Orion’s Nebula. How did you come up with that name? What does it mean? How does that connect to wine? Are you astronomers?

Dreamers? Definitely. Stargazers? Maybe.

In a broad sense Orion’s Nebula is a creative outlet for Ledger David Cellars just as Orion’s Nebula gives birth to new stars. We call upon our estate vineyard’s star vines to compose Orion’s Nebula as the celestial stars make up Orion. We further personalize the strength in unity of our winegrowing and winemaking efforts much like Orion is visible in both the Earth’s hemispheres. Colloquially, we call Orion’s Nebula our “Right Bank” red blend based on Cabernet franc as an ode to the great wines from St. Emilion along the Eastern bank of Bordeaux’s Dordogne river, the “Right Bank.” Our priority is a wine of elegance and authority that embodies the beauty of the night sky and the power of the warrior hunter. Bold yet sophisticated. Powerful yet refined.

Orion is visible in the northern hemisphere from Fall into Spring. Besides the star Betelguese, a red supergiant whose color is apparent with the naked eye, the most immediately discernable feature of the constellation Orion is a small southeast-to-northwest line of three distinct stars referred to as Orion’s Belt. Descending from that “belt” is a second line of three stars known as the hunter’s sword. The sword’s middle star is in fact not a star at all, but a cluster of stars and gas known as Orion’s Nebula, which is actually a stellar “nursery” where new stars are born.

Orion. His enormous size, supernatural strength, and cunning skill with the sword made him a legendary warrior and hunter. So much so that he was retained by Kings to rid their kingdoms of vicious beasts. His prowess led to him being in the company of the virgin goddess Diana, sister of Apollo, as a companion and friend. Upon seeing their mutual infatuation, Apollo became enraged. He sent an invulnerable scorpion to chase Orion into the sea while he taunted his sister as she strolled the shoreline that she was not his equal with the bow and arrow. He pointed out a tiny dot in the ocean that she certainly could not hit. Diana unleashed an arrow with mortal accuracy then cried incessantly as Orion’s body washed ashore later. She placed him and his sword among the stars so she might enjoy his company as she rode her chariot across the night sky.

By Winemaker Kiley Evans

Well here I sit, Macbook on lap, trying to find the words to express the vintage we are experiencing in 2014 at Ledger David Cellars. Yes, I know the hype in Oregon this year has been early, hot, bountiful, and great quality. I’ll go along with all but the first. You remember my recent post about how our vineyard is a cool spot in a warm area? The evidence is at hand. Let’s dive into our white harvest so far.

Ledger David vineyard in Talent at sunrise during Harvest 2014.

The Ledger David whites are all in the barn (I’m from the South, remember? Everyone has a barn in the South and that’s where crops go when harvested). Our first pick, Sauvignon blanc, or savvy as one of my dear Aussie compadres calls it, is fermented dry and aging. Crisp, clean, concentrated aromas and flavors.

Our second pick was Chardonnay. The Chard has completed its primary fermentation, as well. We kept our vineyard’s two clones separate this year and are again using roughly 20% new French oak and 30% ML fermentation. The wine right now is hard to read. It just finished the alcoholic fermentation and hasn’t fully integrated as of this morning. The component parts, intense tropical fruit, balanced acidity, toasty oak, caramel and butterscotch tones, are there, but they aren’t all playing the same page of music just yet. Patience required.

Chenin blanc came in next. We turned the Chenin into a grand experiment. We have a great combination of stainless steel drums and neutral oak barrels and we have multiple yeast strains at work including “native” yeast, which are the yeasts that come into the winery on the fruit. We will bottle several different tiny lots of this wine for future tasting to see which of these trial wines comes closest to expressing our vineyard site when compared to prior vintages.

I have to say the wines are beyond interesting with unctuous mouthfeels and textures unlike anything we have done in the past. Viognier was next. All I can “legally” share about our Viognier from 2014 is that it is simply astonishing, a first for Ledger David, and an exceedingly rare style of wine. Trust me when I say it will blow the status quo out of the water. Lastly, we harvested our Malvasia bianca. Malvasia is a very late ripening variety and the wine has only just begun to ferment. We have a little something special planned for this, too.

Fresh reds from the 2014 Harvest show signs of future award-winning wines.

Our first red in the barn was Syrah. As I tasted the three bins of fermenting black marbles this morning I was struck first by the intense inky color. Then the aromas took my nose for a ride. Blue and black berries, earth, game, road tar, pepper, all-spice, grilled bread, and an intriguing herbal note that reminded me of dried herbs de provence and garrigue. Tempranillo came next, or at least part of it. What we have fermenting right now astounds me with its depth of flavor, richness of texture, and structure considering its age. This earlier-ripening clone tasted in the vineyard like it had something special to show, which is becoming a bit more obvious now. Reserve, you ask? I can’t say for certain just yet, but am definitely leaning that way.

All of our Malbec came next. Wonder why my hands are stained? Wonder no more. Malbec inspired the “Society of the Black Hand”, of which I am a proud member every harvest. It stained the inside of the glass as I swirled and is staining my keyboard now. Intense black and red fruit, lavender, and freshly roasted coffee with an oily, thick, chewy, and extracted texture, mouth-filling body, and long, pure finish. All I could say was, “Wow.” We have harvested a portion of our Sangiovese and Cabernet franc, but those wines have not begun to ferment yet. Given the Syrah, Tempranillo, and Malbec thus far I am seeing this as one of those rare vintages in which Mother Nature blesses our vineyard with exceptional fruit and we do our best to coax from those grapes an expression of her goodness, vitality, and indomitable spirit. It won’t be long before we start thinking about pressing the reds off the skins, selecting and filling barrels, and shortly after that blending. The process comes on fast, but with wines like these it is such happy torture.

The last of the wines were picked the first week in November – Cabernet franc and Petit verdot.

Stay tuned…

By Kiley Evans, Winemaker

Winemakers read. Some of us read fiction, some read biographies, but invariably we all read about wine in some way at some time. People, really smart people, all over the world write on Grape Growing, Wine Production, Wine Branding, Wine Marketing, Wine Sales, Wine Inventory, Wine and Climatology, Wine and Geology, Wine and Soil Science, you get the idea. I read about wine and the wine industry more that I probably should, but it’s almost an escape for me at times. A few months ago I was reading about the Aesthetics of Wine and ran across a great line that provoked me. “Many of the world’s most profound places for growing wine can be filtered down to two ideals, a warm spot in a cool climate or a cool spot in a warm climate.” Remember, in the Northern Hemisphere the south- to west-facing slopes are hottest while north- to east-facing slopes are cooler than flat land (in the Southern Hemisphere the north-facing slopes are warmest).

I started thinking. Where are the world’s great places for wine? For argument’s sake let’s take a look at Germany. Riesling is the grape, of course, but where in Germany exactly? Germany has the world’s most northerly vineyards, but take a close look at a map of Germany’s greatest vineyards, its Grand Crus. Practically all of them lie along a river, the Rhine and Mosel, on steep, south-facing slopes with slate soils. Why? What makes those places so special? The answer lies in a unique combination of factors. The rivers moderate the temperature. The slopes intercept more sunlight and thus heat that the surrounding flat lands. The slate soils warm rapidly and then radiate that heat back into the vines as the temperature falls after the sun goes down. In other words, it’s a warm spot in a cool climate. Check out the Doctor vineyard above the town of Bernkastel along the Mosel River.

Now take a look at our own Rogue Valley. We have what most would consider a moderately warm area. In such areas the cooler spots tend to be at higher elevations, shaded, such as at the base of a cliff, and/or oriented away from intense direct sunlight.

So here we are at a time of year that would normally be the middle of harvest, but this has been one of the hottest years on record for the Rogue. As a result, nearly all of the valley’s wine grapes have been harvested. But not at Ledger David Cellars. What? Everyone else has picked but us? What are we doing wrong? What is happening? Well…our estate vineyard ranges from 1,844 to over 1,975 feet elevation and enjoys eastern and northeastern exposures. The result? We are quite a bit cooler than most other vineyards and that results in a much slower, more even ripening of the fruit. Our site also allows us to achieve maximum “hang time”, a term in grape growing and winemaking that describes the seasonally late time frame in which the grapes ripen enzymatically without increasing in sugar content. Essentially the grapes develop aromatic complexity while the flavor compounds intensify. Late season ripening doesn’t happen very easily, if at all, if the grapes are exposed to the direct sun. They tend to raisin and take on a cooked fruit quality that isn’t necessarily desirable in wine. But on our elevated slopes the vines are gently warmed by the morning sun and caressed by afternoon shade. In other words, it’s a cool spot in a warm climate, and that is one of the things that makes it so special.

Kiley Evans Joins Ledger David Cellars as its First In-House Winemaker
Evans Produced Highest-Scoring Southern Oregon Wine by Wine Enthusiast

The Ledger David Cellars Family is delighted to announce the addition of winemaker Kiley Evans to our team of talented professionals! We seized the opportunity to hire Kiley, and bring him back to the West Coast as our first in-house winemaker. Kiley comes to us with more than 15 years of wine industry experience. Most recently, he worked at Raffaldini in North Carolina – a winery with European origins that specializes in Italian wines.

We first met Kiley at World of Wine in 2010, had him come to our vineyard to inspect our 3^rd leaf Tempranillo and then ended up taking the fruit to Agate Ridge as custom crush clients. It was there that he made Ledger David’s San Francisco Chronicle award-winning 2010 Tempranillo, which was celebrated in Sunset Magazine’s October 2013 issue as one of the editor’s top “Wines to Try.” He also produced Ledger David’s wine club and event exclusive Tempranillo Port-style wine and its first reserve wine of the same varietal.

Originally from the South, Evans moved to North Carolina in 2011 to be closer to family – but his winemaking roots actually began on the West Coast. After graduating in 2002 from U.C. Davis’s prestigious winemaking program as a Winkler scholar with a double major in viticulture and enology, Evans accepted a position with Abacela Winery in Roseburg. It was there that he made a name for himself producing award-winning Tempranillo and Syrah for the internationally recognized southern Oregon winery.

“We have a great respect for Kiley who initially earned his reputation with the Tempranillo grape at Abacela,” says owner Lena Varner. “Beyond Tempranillo, Kiley has continually demonstrated his prowess in producing excellent wines from a variety of wine grapes, including Rhone blends and Italian varietals.”

And he has the accolades to prove it. Among them is a World of Wine ‘Best of Show’ for Daisy Creek’s 2009 Triple Play – a Rhone-style blend of Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne; a San Francisco Chronicle International Wine Competition ‘Best in Class’ for Raffaldini’s 2011 Montepulciano Rerserva; and, a Wine Enthusiast score of 95 points for Abacela’s 2005 Syrah Reserve – the highest score a southern Oregon wine has ever received by the influential wine review publication.

“His reputation in hand-crafting the highest quality wines with a range of varietals is a key attribute that makes Kiley a great fit for Ledger David, “ says owner David Traul.  “We have 11 varietals and 22 different clone/rootstock combinations at our vineyard in Talent, many of them less widely planted varietals in southern Oregon including Chenin Blanc and Sangiovese. That could prove challenging for any winemaker, but Kiley embraces the diversity.”

When Kiley expressed an interest in returning to southern Oregon, Ledger David trusted our inner compass and brought him back to discuss details, including vision and winery plans. Hiring Kiley marks the intro into the next leg of the Ledger David journey.

Having lived in southern Oregon for several years, he’s happy to be back to where he says is “the best place in the world to live.”

“I’m thrilled to be working with Ledger David Cellars,” says Evans. “It’s a winery committed to producing the highest quality estate wines that can compete on an international level. Most recently, the winery earned a 93-point Gold for their Premier vintage 2011 Malbec at the 2014 Los Angeles International Wine competition. That’s where I’m setting my sights. Quality is my number one priority.”

For Evans, quality assurance starts in the vineyard. He uses his background in viticulture, enology and his time spent as a sommelier to handcraft the grapes into wine that ultimately best expresses the terroir of the vineyard.

“After working with many reputable southern Oregon winemakers, we’ve found that the best winemakers are often the ones who want to be involved in the vineyard,” says Varner. “From harvest to winemaking to bottling, Kiley will be intimately involved in the entire process to ensure that what goes into the bottle is of the highest quality.”

Ledger David is in the final planning stages of its gravity-fed, estate winery – which is expected to be complete by the fall of 2015. The owners have been working diligently on winery plans since 2010 with Brian Westerhout of Ron Grimes Architect, PC.

“As with winemaking – all good things take time,” says Varner. “And all great things take a little longer.”

The Ledger David team is committed to staying the course.

Ledger David will continue to operate its Le Petit Tasting Room in Central Point with an expansion project underway to accommodate its growing number of patrons.

Meet the Winemaker: Save the Date

August 29 & 30, 5:30-8:30pm
Talent Vineyard

Wine Club Members: Meet the Winemaker August 29 & 30 at the Vineyard in Talent. Reserve your spot at 5:30, 6:30 or 7:30pm. Event is open to wine club members and one guest. Seating is limited. Separate invite to follow later this month. Reservations required.

September 14, Noon-5pm
Le Petit Tasting room

Wine Club Members, Friends and Guests: Meet the Winemaker September 14 from noon-5pm at Le Petit Tasting Room.

Join Ledger David Cellars at the 2014 World of Wine event set for August 19-23 at the historic Bigham Knoll campus in Jacksonville, Oregon. The annual festival boasts wines from more than 50 southern Oregon wineries. and offers attendees a rare opportunity to meet local winemakers. “The World of Wine festival is a rare opportunity for a person to taste the broad selection of award winning wines from the region while connecting with vintners, vineyard owners and winemakers,” says Lena Varner, owner of Ledger David. Participants also have the opportunity to partake in events throughout the weekend which consist of a wine competition, sensory classes, and a medal dinner and auction. The medal dinner is your opportunity to be the first to hear who the winners are from this year’s wine competition as well as a chance to meet judges; Dilek Caner, Amy Christine, and Mike Dunne. 

Chef, Jeremiah Herzig will be preparing a five-course meal for the Gold Medal Dinner on Friday, August 22, which will be paired with the Best of Show and Gold Medal wines. Don’t miss out—seating is limited and reservations are required. On August 23, at the Grand Tasting, sample all the wines entered in this year’s competition.

Events
The event schedule is as follows:
• Tuesday, August 19 – Sponsor Meet & Greet Wineries Cocktail Party, Bigham Knoll
• Wednesday, August 20 – Friday, August 22 Sensory Classes in the Big Tent at Bigham Knoll
o Cost: $39 – $75
• Friday, August 22 – Medal Dinner & Auction where the wine competition winners will be announced and their wines will be paired with spectacular food
o $250 per person
• Saturday, August 23 – World of Wine Grand Tasting & Silent Auction
o $100 per person

New this year, event organizers have teamed up with Asante Foundation and funds raised during the Southern Oregon World of Wine will go to Children’s Miracle Network and other programs supported by Asante Foundation. For more information about the Foundation, click here.

Grand Tasting Tickets are available to purchase at Ledger David Cellars Le Petit Tasting Room in Central Point (limited availability). Wine club members will receive 10% off tickets to the Grand Tasting on August 23.

Visit http://worldofwinefestival.com/ for more information.