Haden Fig Chardonnay Willamette Valley 2018

Twenty years ago, Erin Nuccio was in Washington D.C. working at a high-end wine retailer selling to politicians, high powered businessmen and suits with deep pockets working on K Street. As you can imagine, all kinds of requests came in for some of the hardest to procure bottles in the world, from Bordeaux to Burgundy to Vintage Port. That granted him access to some of the most expensive bottles from Italy and France as well as the elite Napa Cult wines.  But even with all the glitz and glamour being poured around him, he couldn’t help but shake his obsession with the wines coming out of Oregon. 

He and his wife Jordan decided to move to the West coast to pursue his passion. He studied in Northern California and wrote to wineries up and down the Oregon Coast hoping to break through in the fast growing region. By chance, he met Russ Raney, a winemaker who founded Evesham Wood winery in the Eola-Amity Hills (Bethel Heights, Cristom) in the 1980s. Russ was an apprentice under the guidance of Henri Jayer of Vosne-Romanee, so his education in Burgundian varietals was second to none. He taught Erin everything he knew and a friendship and partnership was born.

In 2007, Erin made his first vintage of Haden Fig wines with help from his friend and mentor. The wines turned out to be exceptional. The next year he doubled his production in what would also turn out to be a landmark 2008 vintage in Oregon. The rest you can say is history. 

Erin quickly began racking up accolades and media attention as he established himself as a name to watch in Oregon. Around the same time, his mentor Russ had decided to retire and live in France full time, so he sold Evesham Wood to his student. Instead of merging the two wineries, Erin lets the two sister wineries stand alone.  At Evesham Wood, he would follow the playbook and continue in Russ’ tradition. At Haden Fig, he could express himself more, experiment more with native yeast and push his winemaking boundaries to new heights. 

Erin’s 2018 is one of the end products of these new heights. This wine is an absolute bombshell, sourced from some of the best vineyard sites in Oregon. I’d say more about it but really Paul Gregutt from Wine Enthusiast Magazine says what I want, “holds its own with many Chardonnays costing three times as much”, it’s a “delicious wine with exception depth of flavor” and it 100% “excels on all levels”.

Read the full rave review below.