Winemaker Notes
The initial nose is warm raspberry jam, chili pepper and chipotle balanced by flinty notes of gunsmoke and red clay that open to rose petals, magnolia, cloves, and salt air. The mouth holds long , dark tannins of cola, white pepper, and spices of star anise, cardamom, and juniper, finishing with an explosion of blue fruit. Laurelwood soil meets Burgundy in this glass.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Bright and vibrant nose with strawberries, blood oranges, crushed spices, pine resin and dried herbs. Hints of bergamot. Very fine and tense phenolic structure, almost giving some chalky chewiness to it, but it’s very textural and refined. Medium-bodied with a mineral backbone.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Pinot Noir Laurelwood District bursts from the glass with inviting scents of blueberry, red cherry, dried herbs, tobacco and orange peel. The medium-bodied palate offers generous, perfumed flavors and well-integrated new oak spice. It’s structured by silky tannins and bright acidity and has a long, floral finish.
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Wine Spectator
Shows elegance and a polished structure, with refined flavors of raspberry and cherry accented by rose petal, dusky spice and orange peel notes that sail toward fine-grained tannins.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A rich, red color, although a bit brighter, the 2022 Pinot Noir Laurelwood District comes from the Laurelwood District and leads with notes of toasted cedar, red cherries, licorice, and sweet sage. Medium-bodied, it’s more refined and a bit more linear, with fine, ripe tannins and an approachable feel. This is a more easygoing offering, with good freshness in a ripe style to drink over the coming 4-5 years.
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Vinous
The 2022 Pinot Noir Laurelwood comes together slowly in the glass, dusty and floral, with cedar and crushed black raspberries. It’s round with a tension-filled core of tart red berry fruits and spice elevated by juicy acidity. This tapers off long and staining yet is still relatively fresh, leaving violet inner florals to fade through the juicy finale.
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.