Zena Crown Vineyard The Sum Pinot Noir 2017
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Robert
Parker -
James
Suckling
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Amassed from multiple vineyard blocks and clones, this wine has a timeless beauty that can be inherently understood by innate human nature. Wines of this stature, much like great art, reflect the complex and compelling relationship between humanity and Earth. Expressing Autumn, S (The Sum) leads with Gala
apple, Japanese plum, gun powder, dirt, and garlic power on the nose, with barely ripe cherry on the finish. 60% whole-cluster fermentation bolsters the wine, sustaining the tannic imprint and tension that uncoils like a rattlesnake strike on the finish.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Pinot Noir The Sum has pretty scents of saline, prosciutto, potpourri and earth with a core of bright red berry fruit. The palate is delicate, super silky and fresh with floral-laced fruits and a long, elegant finish with loads of lift.
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James Suckling
The use of 50% whole clusters here makes for a bright rendition of red cherry and plum with sappy, light herbal accents and deeper, spiced darker-berry tones. The palate is rich and sweeps broad strikes of plush, ripe and fine, soft tannins. Darker berries pervade the finish with blueberries, too.
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Since its third leaf, Zena Crown Vineyard Pinot Noir has been subject to multiple interpretations; it became a sought-after single-vineyard designate for top producers like Beaux Freres, Soter, and Penner-Ash. With the 2013 harvest, however, Zena Crown emerged as a true Oregon domaine. As they adapt to its rhythms and natural oscillations, they seek to explore and manifest the singular voice of this special plot of land, in accordance with the remote and rugged beauty of the Eola-Amity Hills.
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.