[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][dipi_image_gallery main_autoplay=”on” autoplay_delay=”3500″ main_navigation=”on” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″][dipi_image_gallery_child item_image=”https:\/\/www.sasswinery.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Blog-Photo-1.jpg” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” title_text=”Blog-Photo-1″ sticky_enabled=”0″][\/dipi_image_gallery_child][dipi_image_gallery_child item_image=”https:\/\/www.sasswinery.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Blog-Photo-2.jpg” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” title_text=”Blog-Photo-2″ sticky_enabled=”0″][\/dipi_image_gallery_child][dipi_image_gallery_child item_image=”https:\/\/www.sasswinery.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Blog-Photo-3.jpg” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” title_text=”Blog-Photo-3″ sticky_enabled=”0″][\/dipi_image_gallery_child][dipi_image_gallery_child item_image=”https:\/\/www.sasswinery.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Blog-Photo-4.jpg” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” title_text=”Blog-Photo-4″ sticky_enabled=”0″][\/dipi_image_gallery_child][\/dipi_image_gallery][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
A small winery in the south Salem foothills recently earned \u201cPinot Noir of the Year\u201d honors at the\u00a02021 Sommeliers Choice Awards<\/a>\u00a0in San Francisco. Not familiar with Sass Winery? You need to correct that oversight post haste.<\/p>\n Sass Winery\u2019s 2016 \u201cVieux Amis\u201d Pinot Noir received top scores from wine buyers and wine directors from top American restaurants like The French Laundry in Yountville and Spruce in San Francisco. The judging panel included 12 of the 269 people in the world who hold the title of\u00a0Master Sommelier<\/a>.<\/p>\n This year, one of the judges was David Hunter, the wine director for\u00a0Tavern on Kruse<\/a>\u00a0in Lake Oswego. According to Hunter, wineries from around the world, from Australia and New Zealand to Italy and France, entered close to 1,400 wines in the competition\u2019s various categories.<\/p>\n Was Hunter surprised an Oregon wine earned the top pinot title?<\/p>\n \u201cWillamette Valley pinot noir is top-notch, so no. My only surprise was that I wasn\u2019t familiar with the producer. Sass is definitely on my radar now,\u201d Hunter said.<\/p>\n Jerry Sass is the owner and winemaker at Sass Winery. He came to winemaking the traditional way: by doing something else first. Sass\u2019 Twitter bio reads, \u201cWinemaker, journalist, teacher \u2013 a semi-lethal combination.\u201d<\/p>\n Sass\u2019s journalism career spanned three decades, starting with the University of Kansas student newspaper and ending in 2003 as The Oregonian\u2019s copy desk chief. Along the way, he developed a healthy skepticism that suits him well when assessing wine competitions.<\/p>\n \u201cI definitely look at competitions with a jaundiced eye,\u201d Sass said.<\/p>\n For Sass, wine needs to be evaluated by how it interacts with food and whether it faithfully represents the grape listed on the label.<\/p>\n \u201cToo often judging rewards wines that stand out simply because they are different. Varietal typicity is important to me. Pinot noir should taste like pinot noir rather than something else,\u201d Sass said.<\/p>\n These concerns are taken into account at the Sommeliers Choice Awards. Points are assigned based on how well the wine will pair with a wide variety of foods, typicity, quality, value and packaging. According to the competition\u2019s website, their goal \u201cis to provide on-premise buyers and sommeliers a valuable benchmark for understanding which wines would make a compelling addition to a wine list.\u201d<\/p>\n A competition that catches the attention of restaurant buyers is important to Sass Winery, where 75-80% of their wines are sold to restaurant accounts across the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t argue with the kind of reaction something like this gets. I received a few orders within a day or two of hearing about the award.\u201d Sass said.<\/p>\n Eager to try the award-winning wine, I headed out to buy a bottle of the \u201cVieux Amis.\u201d The drive to the winery, which is located within wine-spitting distance of the\u00a0Enchanted Forest<\/a>, is like going back in time.<\/p>\n The gravel road leading to Sass Winery is dusty and dotted with ramshackle farmhouses and scurrying quail. The unassuming barn-like winery structure manages to squeeze out 3,000 cases of wine a year that disappear quickly. If you couldn\u2019t see Willamette Valley Vineyards off in the distance, you would swear you were buying wine in 1971 instead of 2021.<\/p>\n The 2016 Sass Winery \u201cVieux Amis\u201d Pinot Noir, which sells for $48, is excellent. It is packed with aromas and flavors of blackberries, black cherries, bittersweet dark chocolate, smoke and a trace of tart citrus that comes across like white grapefruit. It is easy to see how such a balanced, graceful wine as the \u201cVieux Amis\u201d won over those high-powered sommeliers and wine buyers.<\/p>\n In the Sass tasting room I noticed four other wines that received awards at this year\u2019s Sommeliers Choice Awards. Sass Winery\u2019s 2018 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ($28) and 2019 Gamay Noir Ros\u00e9 ($20) took gold medals. Their 2015 Wild Winds Vineyard Pinot Noir ($48) and 2019 Pinot Blanc ($22) earned silver.<\/p>\n So far, I\u2019ve only been able to try the gamay noir ros\u00e9. My wife and I polished off the entire bottle while watching triple-digit temperatures melt the garden hoses this past Sunday. The wine\u2019s shiver-inducing acidity and refreshing red cherry and peach flavors couldn\u2019t save the hydrangeas, but it helped us beat the heat in style.<\/p>\n If you are looking for a new wine adventure on a less beaten gravel path, I highly recommend a trip to Sass Winery.<\/p>\n Sass Winery, 9092 Jackson Hill Road, Salem,\u00a0<\/i>sasswinery.com<\/i><\/a>,\u00a0<\/i>info@sasswinery.com<\/i><\/a> or 503-391-9991.<\/i><\/p>\n — Michael Alberty writes about wine for The Oregonian\/OregonLive. He can be reached at\u00a0<\/i>malberty0@gmail.com<\/i><\/a>. To read more of his coverage, go to\u00a0<\/i>oregonlive.com\/wine<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Not many winemakers can claim they were managing editor of the Daily Kansan, the University of Kansas student newspaper. Then again, Jerry Sass\u2019 path to winemaking isn\u2019t exactly typical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1925,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"dipi_cpt_category":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sasswinery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sasswinery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sasswinery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sasswinery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sasswinery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1932"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sasswinery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1950,"href":"https:\/\/www.sasswinery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932\/revisions\/1950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sasswinery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sasswinery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sasswinery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sasswinery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1932"},{"taxonomy":"dipi_cpt_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sasswinery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/dipi_cpt_category?post=1932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}