Winemaker Notes
Named after our founder’s father, Pierre Léon was one of the first vineyard-designate Pinot Noirs produced at WillaKenzie Estate. This wine offers concentrated dark fruit and nuanced savory notes—the more masculine side of our winery.
Vegan
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of violets, blueberries and raspberries follow through to a medium to full body, lightly chewy tannins and a flavorful finish. Needs a year or two to soften.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is juicy, almost jammy, with forward flavors of strawberry candy that fill the mouth and hang tight. There's a light hint of pepper around a lingering, clean finish. It's full, forward and fruit-powered.
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Wine Spectator
Firm, sleek and focused, layering currant, blueberry and cream flavors with hints of pepper and cedar. Finishes with point and length. Best from 2018 through 2022.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: When wineries state that they want to produce their Pinot Noirs is made in a full-flavored way, I pause and hope that the wine is not over-the-top. The 2014 WillaKenzie Estate Pierre Leon stays poised to be generous, yet elegant. TASTING NOTES: This wine is an excellent example of what the Willamette Valley can produce with this finicky grape variety. Its aromas and flavors run from red to black fruit and an added appealing mix of savory spices to the mix. Pair this one with grilled salmon. (Tasted: March 25, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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.”
Yamhill-Carlton, characterized by pastoral, rolling hills composed of shallow, quick-draining, ancient marine soil, is ideal for Pinot noir and other cool-climate-loving varieties. It is in the rain shadow of the Coast Range to its west, whose highest point climbs to an altitude of 3,500 feet. Yamhill-Carlton is actually surrounded by mountains on three sides: Chehalem Mountains to the north, the Dundee Hills to the east and the western Coast Range to its west, which, when it lets Pacific air through, serves to cool the region.
Vineyards grow on the ridges surrounding the two small communities of Yamhill and Carlton and cover about 1,200 acres of this 60,000 acre region, which roughly makes a horse-shoe shape on a map.