Shea West Hill Pinot Noir 2011
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Wine
Enthusiast -
Wine
Spectator -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
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Wine Enthusiast
Sourced from a delineated section of this sloped, expansive vineyard, this Pinot has a fair amount of peppery herb, along with brambly berry flavor. It's tart, spicy and sharp, but beautifully balanced. Still quite young and tight, this one needs plenty of breathing time, or cellar it for a few more years.
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Wine Spectator
This fresh and silky red offers finely tuned tannins balancing the supple currant and pomegranate flavors on a light, enticing frame. Lingers pleasantly.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Representing a new but essentially self-explanatory site-designate totally 419 cases, the 2011 Pinot Noir Shea West Hill was treated to 60% new barrels, but their resinous contribution has been very well digested into a seamlessly, finely but tightly tannic, fresh cherry- and pomegranate-dominated whole. Hints of ginger add to the sense of finishing invigoration in energetic and long-lined if relatively firm Pinot. With time this should loosen up a bit and let itself and us in on a bit more fun. I suspect it will perform admirably through at least 2022.
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Spectator -
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Robert
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Shea Vineyard, located in the Yamhill Foothills of Oregon's Willamette Valley, was first planted to wine grapes by Dick Shea in 1989 and 1990. Today the vineyard property consists of 200 hillside acres of which 140 are planted to wine grapes, largely Pinot Noir and a few acres of Chardonnay and Pinot Gris. The south facing vineyard sits in a viticultural region called the Willakenzie District. The soil of the vineyard is shallow and very well draining with sandstone subsoil. The vineyard has never been irrigated.
Currently the winery supplies several top Pinot Noir producers in Oregon (Archery Summit, Beaux Freres, Ken Wright, Panther Creek, and St. Innocent) and one in California (Sine Qua Non). The Wine Enthusiast in its annual review of Oregon wines in December 2000, wrote, "It is no coincidence that our two top rated wines... were made from fruit from Richard Shea's perennially superb Willamette Valley vineyard."