Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A beautiful pinot noir with aromas and flavors of ripe strawberries, cream and lemons. Medium body, fine tannins and a soft-textured finish. Fresh and focused.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Breaking Ground Pinot Noir is pale to medium ruby-purple in color, opening with a lovely nose of warm red cherries, currants, nutmeg and cardamom plus notes of dried leaves, Earl Grey tea and floral perfume. Light to medium-bodied, it offers pure red fruit flavors with plenty of spice, a light framing of tannin and refreshing acidity, finishing long.
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Wine & Spirits
Breaking Ground is Adelsheim’s Chehalem Mountain–focused line of wines. This pinot is lean and light, with scents of anise and a whiff of herbs on the red cherry fruit. It feels mouthwatering and direct, medium bodied and sinewy, with the tension and savor for quail.
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Wine Spectator
Young, deeply structured and still a bit rough around the edges, this offers plenty of tart blueberry, pomegranate and spicy anise flavors to keep things moving and focused. Best from 2019 through 2023.
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.