Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
A delectable red-fruited Pinot Noir from the long, steep Meyer Vineyard at high elevation in the Dundee Hills AVA. Fresh cranberry relish and dusty mint aromatics denote the early harvest for this fruit from south-facing vines. The bright palate offers tart red cranberries, blood orange pulp and savoury notes of sage. The wine finished with a lifted stony minerality.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A youthful ruby red hue, the 2021 Pinot Noir Meyer Vineyard is ripe and polished with notes of sweet cedar spices, preserved strawberries, herbes de Provence, and anise. Moving to the palate, it’s medium to full-bodied, with a saturating feel, lively, ripe acidity, juicy, fine tannins, and clean lift on the finish, with good freshness and purity throughout. This highly charming and attractive wine will be best enjoyed over the coming 5-7 years.
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Wine Spectator
Fragrant and expressive, with vibrant cherry and strawberry flavors accented by notes of fresh violet, orange blossoms and toasty spices that zip along the crisp finish.
Lemelson Vineyards began as a dream to create a winery grounded in nature, inspired by tradition in winemaking, and driven by innovation in technology. From the beginning, organic farming was at the core of that vision. Through organic viticulture and gravity-flow production, Lemelson crafts estate-grown Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, and Riesling that honor Oregon’s Willamette Valley.
Founder Eric Lemelson planted his first organically farmed vineyard in Yamhill County in 1995. Realizing that he loved the work involved in growing wine grapes, two years later he planted an additional 30 acres of Pinot noir and began planning the construction of a gravity-flow winery. Sustainability and organic practices were guiding principles from the start, both in the vineyards and in the winery, which was ultimately constructed using recycled and renewable materials. The intention was building something that would not only serve consumers but also the longevity of their pristine home state of Oregon.
Their commitment to organic farming and sustainability extends to all facets of winery life and ensures that all living components, be they land, vine, or human, are well cared for. It’s their belief that the glass you’re enjoying at home starts before vines were ever planted. The process from planting to drinking must be nurtured at all steps.
When you drink Lemelson wine, you are not only drinking an elegant, expressive Willamette Valley wine, you’re taking part in their journey to protect the earth for generations to come, and they thank you for that.
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.”
Home of the first Pinot noir vineyard of the Willamette Valley, planted by David Lett of Eyrie Vineyard in 1966, today the Dundee Hills AVA remains the most densely planted AVA in the valley (and state). To its north sits the Chehalem Valley and to its south, runs the Willamette River. Within the region’s 12,500 acres, about 1,700 are planted to vine on predominantly basalt-based, volcanic, Jory soil.