You might not know that St. Innocent was originally going to be a sparkling wine-based winery. In fact, marking sparkling wines was the original idea for the winery. St. Innocent owner and winemaker Mark Vlossak worked as a physician’s assistant and during his medical training in Colorado. He and his best friend would drink sparkling wines and champagnes on the weekend. He was inspired to eventually make sparkling wines. He stated “I was drinking champagne and buying Bordeaux futures. We went to some amazing tastings and one was a tete d’.cuvee tasting. Another was a vintage Krug tasting which blew my mind. My mother always liked champagne more than still wines and one of my birth wines, a bottle of ’52 Haut Brion and drank that when I was 21. I had a case of Chateauneuf du Pape from ’52. My dad collected this before Robert Parker was into this region.” His father eventually worked as a French wine importer “And he bought German Mosels and Rheingaus and they were the wines that I drank as a kid. My dad bought all the great GG wines from the great producers and I was drinking this stuff in its youth.”
In March 1983 he was inspired to make wine based on his experiences with top champagne. For five years he learned how to make sparkling wines, taking UC Davis enology and viticulture extension classes, learning from legends like Mark Cleaver. “Everybody was there because this was a post-masters level update on the new research and how it affected what was going on” he said. For years he took those classes and Mark also worked in a vineyard, the people who started Seven Springs. He apprenticed for two years with the first person in Orgon to make sparkling wines, Fred Arterbury, who made sparkling wine and Pinot Noir. Fred was the first person to be on Wine Spectator’s Top 20 wines of the year for his 1985 Marsh Vineyard Pinot Noir. “I learned his incredible way to make Pinot Noir” he said. “He was the fist person to use significant amounts of Freedom Hill and that was their first years of making Pinot Noir. From this site it was ripe enough but it had well-developed tannin structure and nice acidity and it took me more than a decade to figure out why.” Vlossak made Chardonnay from this site “Because it got ripe and it had nice acidity. I called it ‘Reserve’ in the early years.”
Vlossak wanted to make wines that “Tastes like the place rather than someone’s idea of Pinot Noir.’ He has been making sparkling wines for many years but they have been only on the retail market for the past several years. “I wanted to make sparkling wine that had a flavor profile that spoke to the source and vintage.” He mentioned that he initially was selling his hand-made and hand-riddled sparkling wines for 15 dollars USD. In 2000 he said that he didn’t want to make the sparkling wines anymore. He stated “you make a base wine and then age it on its lees for nine months and build more texture than you have in the bottle. Then I was aging for three years which is align with the French rules in Champagne. People in Oregon were making the wines and then selling after 18 months. But that doesn’t work because it didn’t have the texture.” A visit to France in 1998 inspired him to start making sparkling wines again. He said “Stayed at this woman’s house for four days and she asked me to go to lunch. Rapidly this becomes very awkward because I was sitting alone and she and her girlfriend were sitting on high chairs basically watching me eat. She says that her son makes champagne and I have gone to my heroes, Paul Barra, Moet, Ruinart.” He said “She pours this wine in my glass and I am expecting something that is not a lot. Put the glass to my nose, taste the wine and it is like I have been drinking Gallo all week. I was like ‘who is your son?’ And she says ‘Ansolm Selosse’ and I don’t know who this is.” He went to visit Selosse “And there are all these loading docks, farmers warehouses and I have no idea where I am going. I see these journalists and we are going to this old wooden warehouse that has heavy pine floors. I walk in and in the middle of the room is two rows of barrels. All lined up except those in the mlddle. We started tasting the base wines and I had them lined up with the magnetic direction of the earth.” He talks about his compost program “And this is not a normal compost and there are shredded bags and wooden things and this is crazy. Yeah it seems like they have garbage everywhere. We get in this rusty elevator, holes in the bottom of the elevator and it is chalk. Go through the chalk layers, there are four levels. Get out and taste wines and by the time I am going to the bottom one he is pulling out his vintage. I don’t care if I die because I am in heaven.” He made sparkling wines in 1998 and 1999 and then he realizes “That I can make sparkling wine as well as they do in champagne. I say that what I really want to do is make vintage Selosse.”
He was inspired to make great wines like Selosse and aged a wine for six years, from 2006 and 2007 vintages. He tastds the wines in 2014 and 2015 “And I realized that this is not what I wanted. People like it but there are 96 cases and my wife likes it but I am not thrilled with it.” He said “Now I know what I want to do. I want to make this wine this way and I want to make this blanc de blancs and I don’t have access to the grapes. I want to make a Brut, do that for a few vintages and then transition to blanc de blancs. I am going to plant a dedicated region at my block for Pinot Noir where it rolls off to the northeast and it has more shade. If I plant Dijon clone on a late ripening stock then I can do it. We planted about 1.2 acres and then filled in the space with Riesling above it.”
Mark is fully focused on making world-class sparkling wines again. I have really enjoyed the past few releases that he has done. A fabulous wine for the price, the 2020 St. Innocent ‘Cremant de Innocent’ Sparkling Wine (OB, 92) is bright and shows great tension with good nuance. Even better is the fabulous 2018 St. Innocent Blanc de Blancs Sparkling Wine (OB, 94) which is deep and concentrated, showing the warmth of the vintage. Learn more about the great wines of St. Innocent at https://stinnocentwine.com/ and here are my reviews of the new wines by St. Innocent.
2020 St. Innocent ‘Cremant de Innocent’ Sparkling Wine- The beautiful Cremant de Innocent is 100% Pinot Blanc from the Freedom Hill Vineyard. This spent 27 months en tirage. Right away shows a silky mouse with bright pear, kiwi and starfruit flavors alongside macadamia nut notes. Soft and refined with beautiful effervescence, enjoy now and over the next few years. Drink 2024-2030- 92
2020 St. Innocent ‘Cremant de Innocent’ Rose Sparkling Wine- The brilliant 2020 St. Innocent ‘Cremant de Innocent’ Rose Sparkling Wine is very pure and pretty in terms of bright red fruits with strawberry and pomegranate seed alongside shades of salty minerals. Showing a soft mousse, this is brilliant stuff that will also age gracefully. Drink 2024-2034- 93
2018 St. Innocent Blanc de Blancs Sparkling Wine- (Disgorged Feb 2024) This spent 51 months en tirage and comes from the Freedom Hill Vineyard. A golden color, this offers serious ripeness with citrus oil alongside ripe melon, oyster shell and shades of marzipan on the palate. Showing serious weight and viscosity, this is a stunning wine that has a long way to go. Drink 2024-2034- 94
2023 Not So Innocent ‘Grauburgunder’ Pinot Gris- Coming from the Momtazi vineyard, this Rose colored wine offers orange blossom on the nose alongside guava and red cherry notes. The palate is fresh and neatly textured with a touch of sweetness. This shows nice weight from the extended skin contact. Drink 2024-2029- 91
2023 St. Innocent ‘Oeil de perdrix’ White Pinot Noir- This is white Pinot Noir from the Momtazi Vineyard. This is very impressively textured stuff with melon, Yakima cherry and salty minerals alongside damp soils on the palate. Fresh and neatly textured, don’t serve too cold. Drink 2024-2030- 93
2018 St. Innocent ‘777’ Pinot Noir- This was a single clone and single vineyard wine coming from the Freedom Hill Vineyard, made from winemaker Mark Vlossak’s five best barrels. It comes off rich and layered with black truffle shavings, sea salt dusted black cherry and marionberry pie. The palate is lush and ripe with serious texture and weight. A joy to consume now, this is drinking marvelously right now, offering serious weight and length. Drink 2024-2038- 95
2018 St. Innocent ‘Terrace Block’ Shea Vineyard- This wine comes from the Terrace Block as this 2018 Pinot Noir was stored in 33% new French oak before bottling. Made from three barrels, this delivers garrigue and beautiful red fruits on the nose alongside pink grapefruit blossom accents. The palate is refined and elegant with serious texture, length and salty essence from the marine sedimentary soils with sand underneath the vines. Fabulous right now, this beauty still has a long way to go in the cellar. Drink 2024-2036- 95