Grapefruit peel, early spring flowers, zingy lemon juice. Lime wedge, flowing mountain spring, underripe nectarine. Cool quartz and beach sand, mint sprig and balsa wood. Laser beams of fresh citrus and sour apple cut cleanly through shiny stainless steel with relentless featherweight force, resting only momentarily to allow slight hints of honeysuckle and candied ginger to emerge. Intense mineral energy lies lurking beneath the feisty fruit expressing itself distinctly throughout the long lingering finish. Light bodied and lean yet textured and mouth-filling, with ferocious acidity that provides tart mouthwatering refreshment in droves. Clean, complex, and zesty. This 2018 "Rhapsody" Willamette Valley Pinot Blanc by Bells Up Winery is a spirited, sprightly, and serious Oregon white.

Oregon's Willamette Valley has long been known as a world class region for growing quality Pinot Noir, but in recent years this area has also been gaining significant recognition for its white wines. This bottling, crafted by Bells Up Winery using 100% Pinot Blanc sourced from the Plum Hill Vineyard in the northwestern corner of the valley, is a wonderful example of this emerging genre. This wine is tremendously focused and vital, pulsing with citrus-laden energy and a wonderful mineral backbone. It is weightless but not thin, possessing a sense of lean power one might expect in legendary whites from Alsace or Germany. Oregon undoubtedly has amazing potential to create many unique styles of wine and it's terrific to come across an example like this one where that potential is realized.