ROCO Private Stash Pinot Noir 2012
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Wine Spectator
Polished, sleek and expressive, open-textured and almost plush, featuring black cherry and red plum flavors shaded with hints of peach and spice. Comes together harmoniously on the long finish. Drink now through 2022.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Pinot Noir Private Stash is made by Rollin Soles and his better half (according to Rollin, she has a much better palate). This comes from a field selection of 777 propagated by Rollin with 667. It has a "rockier" bouquet, more stones littered about the aromatics - granite and flint infusing the fruit that is a tad darker and broodier than the Wits' End. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy red berry fruit, a lovely saline character coming through, fine tension here with raspberry and cranberry fruit interlaced with minerals defining the finish. You could broach this now, or I would prefer to leave it in bottle for 2 or 3 years because it will repay cellaring.
Rating: 90+ -
Wine Enthusiast
From the Wits' End estate vineyard's best lots, this offers a complex fruit mix running from orange and pineapple into raspberry and cherry. A suggestion of Dr Pepper soda is in play also, and the wine shines with excellent texture and freshness.
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ROCO represents the finest in Oregon winemaking with storied bottles and humbling accolades. It’s a 30-year history of devotion to craft. In 1987, Rollin Soles purchased a breathtaking hillside property down a gravel road in the Chehalem Mountain Range. The property’s perfect combination of elevation, soil type, natural springs, and geological aspect were the seed of a dream that would eventually become ROCO Winery.
ROCO (Named for ROllin and COrby Soles) For nearly fifteen years, the Soles’ property remained a mostly wild landscape used for a variety of farming endeavors. Rollin was making wine at Argyle, his previous venture, and Corby was busy serving in a number of executive positions in the Oregon wine industry. But as the years wore on, the property’s southwestern exposure and diverse soils begged for the Soles to realize their dream: a vineyard of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay sloping toward the creek below, the Chehalem Valley beyond, and Oregon’s Coast Range in the distance.
In 2001, Rollin and Corby planted Wits’ End Vineyard and began bringing the idea of ROCO to fruition. Two years later, they produced their first vintage of Private Stash Pinot Noir—showcasing the very best of Rollin’s small-lot winemaking skills in a bottle that was eventually served in the White House. Building on their success, in 2009, the Soles built ROCO its own winery and added a tasting room in 2012. In 2013, Rollin expanded Wits’ End Vineyard and transitioned to full-time focus on ROCO to keep pace with its growing prestige and demand. Today, Wits’ End Vineyard remains the heart and soul of ROCO wines. ROCO Private Stash and Wits’ End Vineyard Pinot Noirs derive exclusively from these vines—and serve as Rollin and Corby’s testament to the beauty of place, their devotion to family and friends, and their commitment to Oregon winemaking at its finest.
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.