Winemaker Notes
#19 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2025
This wine reflects the region’s distinct textures, flavors and terroir, with beautiful elegance and balance. Since the inaugural vintage in 1998, founding winemaker Lynn Penner-Ash has drawn upon long standing relationships with grower neighbors and friends, to source fruit from the most distinguished vineyards. The 2018 vintage explores six sub-AVAs, culminating in a Pinot Noir emblematic of the Willamette Valley, and of the Penner-Ash winemaking style – a textural experience from start to finish.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Spectator
Capturing the essence of Willamette Valley, this Pinot is elegantly structured and vibrant with acidity yet plush and polished. Flavors of raspberry and cherry are accented by orange peel, floral tea and spices as this glides along the vibrant finish.
-
James Suckling
Aromas of blackberries, sarsaparilla, fresh plums and flowers. The palate is mid-weighted with firmly framed tannins and balanced acidity. Nicely constructed.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley is scented of red cherry, blackberry, forest floor and floral potpourri. The medium-bodied palate is silky and bright with concentrated, crunchy flavors and a long, spicy finish. This is dangerously easy to drink!
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.