Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Impeccable fruit purity and freshness here makes for an immediately appealing nose with a central thread of ripe red cherries. The palate has beautiful definition and detail with striking fruit purity. Holds long and supple. Excellent pinot.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Roserock Pinot Noir is pale to medium ruby-purple in color with a lovely open nose of blueberry, boysenberry jam and warm black cherries with violet, potpourri and pink peppercorn nuances. Light to medium-bodied, it has concentrated blue fruits in the mouth with a frame of spice and cinnamon, firm, grainy tannins and wonderful juicy acidity, finishing long with some earthy notes coming through.
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Wine Spectator
Impeccably structured and polished, with expressive black cherry and blueberry flavors, accented by black tea and stony mineral notes that build tension and presence toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2026.
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Wine Enthusiast
A superb value, this is a dark, supple, even sensuous wine with deep fruit flavors of blueberry and cassis. Notes of dried Mediterranean herbs and a dark dive into baker's chocolate contribute to a complex weave of flavors. There's real polish and power here, though this is among the winery's lowest-priced Pinots.
Editors' Choice -
Wine & Spirits
Domaine Drouhin Oregon purchased Roserock, a vineyard of volcanic soils in Eola–Amity Hills, in 2013. This vintage starts off spicy and dark, with a clove-and-cocoa aroma that lifts with air. It’s earthy, lean and elegant, with plum flavors and hints of beet greens, and mildly gripping tannins. For moussaka. Best Buy
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.”
Running north to south, adjacent to the Willamette River, the Eola-Amity Hills AVA has shallow and well-drained soils created from ancient lava flows (called Jory), marine sediments, rocks and alluvial deposits. These soils force vine roots to dig deep, producing small grapes with great concentration.
Like in the McMinnville sub-AVA, cold Pacific air streams in via the Van Duzer Corridor and assists the maintenance of higher acidity in its grapes. This great concentration, combined with marked acidity, give the Eola-Amity Hills wines—namely Pinot noir—their distinct character. While the region covers 40,000 acres, no more than 1,400 acres are covered in vine.