Chehalem Ridgecrest Vineyard Pinot Noir 2015
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James
Suckling -
Wine &
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Wine
Spectator -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of earth, rose petals and orange skins. Full body, firm and velvety tannins and a medium to long finish. Drink or hold. Screw cap.
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Wine & Spirits
Sleek and stylish, drawn from old vines, this wine has an initial herb scent of rosemary. The flavors need a day to show themselves, and they’re pretty when they do, offering a light-fruited cranberry briskness with sandalwood accents.
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Wine Spectator
Precise and well-knit, with expressive raspberry and pomegranate fruit accented by green tea and anise notes. Drink now through 2021.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Pinot Noir Ridgecrest Vineyard has a pale to medium ruby-purple color and a fragrant red and black cherry nose with suggestions of anise, tar and black tea. The medium-bodied palate is structured with soft, plush tannins and a lively acid line, supporting the generous red berry flavors and finishing a little spicy.
Other Vintages
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Robert
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James
Suckling -
Wine
Spectator
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Wine
Spectator
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Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker -
Wine
Spectator
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Wine
Spectator -
Wine &
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Chehalem is considered a vineyard winery, aiming to reflect what the vineyard has produced, purely, with minimal processing and without compromising great fruit. Their name, Chehalem, translates to Valley of Flowers in the Native American language, Calapooia. It’s their goal to follow the example set centuries ago: to treat the land with great care and to continue the mission of creating a sustainable future.
Their story starts in 1990 with the inaugural Pinot Noir harvest at Ridgecrest Vineyard. As those wines were releasing in 1993, Bill Stoller joined as co-owner. He subsequently purchased his family farmlands at the southern tip of the Dundee with the vision of planting it as our second estate vineyard.
In 1995, they purchased Corral Creek, the vineyard surrounding the winery. It became the third estate vineyard.
In early 2018, Bill became the sole owner of Chehalem, and by July, they had become the sixth Oregon winery to achieve B Corp status. This rigorous certification assesses companies to ensure they meet the highest standard of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability.
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.”
Ribbon Ridge is a regular span of uplifted, marine, sedimentary soils (called Willakenzie), whose highest ridge elevations twist like a ribbon. An early settler from Missouri named Colby Carter noticed this unique topography and gave the region its name in 1865—though it wasn’t declared its own AVA until 140 years later, in 2005. The AVA is enclosed by mountains on all sides between Yamhill-Carlton and the Chehalem Mountains, and is actually part of the larger Chehalem Mountains AVA. Its soils have a finer texture than its neighbors with parent materials composed of sandstone, siltstone, and mudstone. Given its presence of natural aquifers in this five square mile area, most vineyards are actually easily dry farmed!