2018 Trousse-Chemise Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 750 ml

In early 2019, one of NYC’s most respected sommeliers, Raj Vaidya of Restaurant Daniel, reached out to the brilliant young winemaker, Anne Sery-Martindale, wondering if the two could collaborate in the making of a special Oregon Pinot Noir cuvée for chef Daniel Boulud’s gastronomic palace. 

By spring, Anne had assembled three distinct lots. They were 92% identical. The other 8%, Anne called “shading”, accounting for the subtle differences in Lots #1, #2 and #3. 

Not surprisingly, given the elegance and subtlety of Boulud’s cuisine, Vaidya chose #1, the most restrained and Burgundian of the three, which carries the label Trousse-Chemise Cuvée Daniel Boulud. 

Then there was Lot #3: Slightly deeper and darker, “shaded” more towards black fruits than cherry red, a luscious blend that straddles the line between Oregonian plushness and Côte de Beaune finesse. Anne made a call to Wine Access. We took as much as we could get

As compared to $18 per glass at Restaurant Daniel, it’s $20 per bottle only for Wine Access members. Just 10 barrels or 250 cases are up for grabs, so in fairness to others, please limit orders to no more than 12 bottles. 

Anne Sery-Martindale finished at the top of her class at the University of Bordeaux’s school of enology, where her palate and winemaking skills were honed under the watchful eyes of the late, great Professor Denis Dubourdieu. But unlike many of her classmates who, upon graduation, snapped up posts at the most famous addresses of the Left Bank, young Sery followed her nose and headed across the country to Burgundy, where she landed stages with Maison Bouchard in Beaune, Hubert Lignier in Morey-St-Denis, and Jean-François Coche at Coche-Dury in Meursault. After graduation, now smitten by the wildly aromatic sophistication of world-class Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, Anne packed her bags and headed to the Pacific Northwest and the storied hillsides of Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

In 2014, while serving as assistant winemaker to another graduate of Dubourdieu’s program, Laurent Montalieu, young Anne decided to throw her hat into the ring, launching her own winery brand called Trousse-Chemise. Production was tiny in that first harvest, focused on fruit drawn from a few small blocks in Dundee Hills and Yamhill-Carlton. The wine captured the attention of a boutique East Coast importer, and every drop was sold upon release. 

By 2018, the cat was out of the bag and Anne’s reputation for crafting highly aromatic, high-tension Pinot Noirs that exhibit her Burgundian roots had spread from Oregon to NYC’s Upper East Side. With her gorgeously textured 2018s now in barrel, Anne received the call from Raj Vaidya at Restaurant Daniel. Vaidya asked Sery if she would partner with him in the assemblage of a special Pinot Noir cuvée that would be featured at chef Daniel Boulud’s gastronomic palace on East 65th Street. The young sommelier and winemaker went right to work. 

In the spring of 2019, after dozens of blending experiments, all drawn from Sery’s barrels from the gorgeously honed 2018 vintage, Sery presented Vaidya with three blends which she simply labeled Lot #1, #2 and #3. The basic differences between the three lots was subtle, as the core of each wine was drawn from the identical mix of 92% small berry Pinot Noir drawn from Sery’s favored sources in the Dundee Hills, Yamhill-Carlton and Chehalem Mountains. The remaining 8% provided what Anne called “shading”—small splashes from a blend of other barrels that distinguished Lots #1, #2, and #3. 

Lot #1 was the most chiseled and high-toned of the three, featuring explosive red fruit aromatics, a hint of Côte de Beaune sous bois, and a long persistent finish. 

Lot #2 featured somewhat darker fruit “shading,” was somewhat plumper and round in the mid-palate, finishing with similar tension and length. 

Lot #3, while cut of common cloth as #1 and #2, was the richest and most pliant of the three, infused with more small black fruit intensity, the most New World of the three, just as #1 was the more classically Burgundian.

Not surprisingly, given the refinement and subtlety of chef Boulud’s 3-star Michelin star cuisine, Raj Vaidya settled on the entire 10-barrel production of Lot #1 which would be labeled as Trousse-Chemise Cuvée Daniel. Lot #2, another small production batch, was also snapped up, by a handful of the city’s most venerable addresses. 

As to the more full-throttle Lot #3, we were all over it. 

As compared to Lot #1 at $18 per glass chez Daniel on the Upper East Side, 10 barrels or 250 cases of Trousse-Chemise Pinot Noir Lot #3 are now up for grabs at just $20 per bottle! Absolutely not to be missed by those enamored of lavish Oregon Pinot Noir that walks the tightrope between the opulence of the Dundee Hills and the chiseled complexity of the Côte de Beaune. 

Today’s 2018 Trousse-Chemise Pinot Noir Willamette Valley, the richest and plushest of the three, is Lot #3.