Brittan Gestalt Block Pinot Noir 2014
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James
Suckling -
Wine
Enthusiast -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
The dark purple color is impressive with aromas of blackberries and blueberries galore. Yet there is restraint and tone to this young red with a fantastic texture and intensity on the finish. Always tight and toned.
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Wine Enthusiast
This black-fruited offering has the winery's signature stamp all over it, with a vein of herb and wet rock that slices through the aromas and into the palate. Tangy acids prop up the blackberry and black-cherry fruit, and suggest that this can age. Drink now through 2030 at least.
Cellar Selection -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale to medium ruby-purple in color, the 2014 Pinot Noir Gestalt Block has a singular nose of crushed granite, violet and lilac over a core of blue fruit preserves and warm black cherries with notes of baking spice, dried leaves and salted licorice—still very tightly coiled. Medium-bodied and very silky in the mouth, it gives concentrated black and blue fruits with exotic spicy accents and a wicked line of crushed rock minerality. It’s framed with fine, grainy tannins and great freshness carrying the long, layered finish. This needs time in bottle.
Rating: 93+
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2019-
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Robert
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James
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Robert
Parker -
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James
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Enthusiast -
Robert
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Robert
Parker -
James
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Enthusiast -
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Spectator -
Robert
Parker
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Wine
Enthusiast
Robert Brittan left Stags’ Leap Winery in Napa after 16 years as Winemaker and Estate Manager to fulfill his dream of making Pinot Noir and Syrah from unique sites in cooler climates. His winemaking career began in his dorm room at Oregon State University, where he was a physics and philosophy major.
Being both geeky and broke, he soon realized that alcohol was an attractant to co-eds, so he began his career in fermentation sciences in order to get a date. He ultimately completed his education at UC Davis and moved to Napa Valley, where he made wines for Far Niente, Saint Andrews and Stags’ Leap Winery.
With over 40 years of experience growing grapes and making wine, he brings a significant amount of viticultural and winemaking knowledge to Brittan Vineyards. He has always had a passion for Pinot Noir, and hopes that with the fruit from the Brittan estate vineyard in the foothills of the Coastal Range, he can bring a new voice to the McMinnville AVA, and help form the style and definition of Pinot Noir from this recently designated winegrowing region.
In addition to his own wines, Robert is also the winemaker for several other brands, to include: Blakeslee, deLancellotti, Fairsing, Noble Pig, Winderlea and Youngberg Hill. As a result, Robert is now making wines from all six of the sub-AVA’s of the Willamette Valley and has learned first hand that Pinot Noir lends itself to many wonderful interpretations, depending on the soils and microclimates where it is grown.
Home of some of the planet’s most amazingly elegant and expressive Pinot noir, the Willamette Valley is a pastoral, mixed landscape of green, bucolic rolling hills, dramatic forestlands and small, independent, friendly wine growers. As a leader in environmental stewardship, the valley has some of the nation’s most protective land use policies, with two-thirds of its vineyards farmed sustainably and over half, organically. While the valley claims a cool, continental climate, and is heavily influenced by the cold, moist winds of the Pacific Ocean, its warm and dry summers allow for the steady, even ripening of Pinot noir.
The potential of Willamette Valley Pinot noir continues to attract the investment of serious growers and winemakers both locally and from abroad, as naturally the finished wines bring accolades from professionals and enthusiasts. With a range of styles from delicate dried cherry, raspberry and hibiscus to stronger notes of truffle, mocha, plum and spice, a fine Willamette Valley Pinot noir is a perfect expression of both character and grace.