Winemaker Notes
This wine is sleek and elegant, redolent of hibiscus tea, fresh cherry, cinnamon bark, and nutmeg. These aromas are echoed on the palate and framed by finessed, fine-grained tannins.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Pretty and inviting, the medium-bodied 2021 Pinot Noir Breaking Ground pours a ripe ruby color and has a perfume of rose petal, wild raspberry, and wet stone. It moves seamlessly to the palate with a weightless feel, fine tannins, and a clean freshness of lift on the finish. It is elegant and easy-drinking, though it will have some longevity for sure.
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James Suckling
This has a dusty character with spices, chocolate orange, red plums, cherries and blueberries. Smooth and supple with a medium body and silky texture. Refreshing and flavorful.
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Wine Enthusiast
The wine’s earthy aromas of loam and wild mushrooms are joined by a sweet blackberry and lilac note that is perfumelike. Vigorous acidity and silky tannins back flavors of tangy red raspberries, cacao nibs and a trace of spicy Ligurian olive oil. Such a lively Pinot Noir
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Chardonnay Breaking Ground was matured for 12 months in 21% new French oak barrels and puncheons, plus an additional five months in stainless steel. It has open-knit aromas of quince paste, papaya, baking spice, honeycomb and toast. The light-bodied palate is ripe, spicy and textural with bright acidity and a long, honeyed finish.
Established in 1971, Adelsheim is a family-owned and operated winery with estate vineyards located in Oregon's northern Willamette Valley. Over the past 41 years, the Adelsheim Vineyard estate has grown to include twelve exception vineyard sites throughout the Valley, totaling 237 acres. Company co-founder, David Adelsheim, has done work throughout the years to benefit both the Oregon and American wine industries: grape and wine research, wine labeling, industry education, and promotion. He is recognized for his "outstanding service" to the industry and has played a vital role in building the Oregon wine industry and establishing its reputation worldwide. Today, he leads a current generation of passionate staff devoted to leading the industry in crafting consistently transcendent wines.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
The Chehalem Mountains is a northwest-southeast span of several distinct mountains, ridges and peaks in the northern part of the Willamette Valley. Of all of Willamette Valley's smaller AVAs, it is closest to the city of Portland. Its highest summit, Bald Peak at an elevation of 1,633 feet, serves to generate cooler air for the rest of the AVA and its hillside vineyards. The region covers 70,000 acres but only 1,600 acres are planted to vines; soils of the Chehalem Mountains are a mix of basalt, ocean sediment and loess.