Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2022 Pinot Noir Yamhill-Carlton has a jeweled ruby/magenta hue and an iron-rich, mineral nose joined by cherries, cedar, and polished leather. Medium to full-bodied, with ripe tannins and balanced acidity, red fruit drives its focused, long finish.
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James Suckling
Bright forest-berry aromas mingle with pine and wildflowers, silky and fruit-forward. On the palate, sweet red-fruit flavors are fresh, juicy and mouth-filling. Approachable and pleasing.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Pinot Noir Yamhill-Carlton has intense aromas of pomegranate, rhubarb, damp earth, mushrooms, tea leaves and spice. The medium-bodied palate is silky and seamless with layered, nuanced flavors, vibrant acidity and a long, spicy finish.
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Vinous
The 2022 Pinot Noir Yamhill-Carlton opens with notes of licorice and dusty rose, complemented by dried strawberries. Lifted and graceful in feel, it offers cooling acidity and silken textures that usher in ripe red and blue fruits. A gently chewy sensation and sweet tannins remain as sour citrus refreshes the palate.
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.”
Yamhill-Carlton, characterized by pastoral, rolling hills composed of shallow, quick-draining, ancient marine soil, is ideal for Pinot noir and other cool-climate-loving varieties. It is in the rain shadow of the Coast Range to its west, whose highest point climbs to an altitude of 3,500 feet. Yamhill-Carlton is actually surrounded by mountains on three sides: Chehalem Mountains to the north, the Dundee Hills to the east and the western Coast Range to its west, which, when it lets Pacific air through, serves to cool the region.
Vineyards grow on the ridges surrounding the two small communities of Yamhill and Carlton and cover about 1,200 acres of this 60,000 acre region, which roughly makes a horse-shoe shape on a map.