Winemaker Notes
Deliciously layered aromas of black cherry and black raspberry lift out of the glass, followed by exotic spice notes and a dark, rich loamy quality. This wine is like satin in the mouth—so supple. It toes the line between ethereal and ponderous in the most delightful way.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
The third release for this benchmark cuvée is the finest to date, with 60% of the grapes estate grown. A firm mix of plum, blackberry and tart marionberry fruit, it's ripe and stylish, with seams of dark chocolate and espresso. The tannins are ripe and proportionate and leave a pleasantly toasty impression.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2016 Adelsheim Breaking Ground Pinot Noir exhibits excellent firmness and balance on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine delivers superb richness. Enjoy its expressive black fruit aromas and flavors with grilled salmon. (Tasted: March 4, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
Established in 1971, Adelsheim is a family-owned and operated winery with estate vineyards located in Oregon's northern Willamette Valley. Over the past 41 years, the Adelsheim Vineyard estate has grown to include twelve exception vineyard sites throughout the Valley, totaling 237 acres. Company co-founder, David Adelsheim, has done work throughout the years to benefit both the Oregon and American wine industries: grape and wine research, wine labeling, industry education, and promotion. He is recognized for his "outstanding service" to the industry and has played a vital role in building the Oregon wine industry and establishing its reputation worldwide. Today, he leads a current generation of passionate staff devoted to leading the industry in crafting consistently transcendent wines.
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.”
The Chehalem Mountains is a northwest-southeast span of several distinct mountains, ridges and peaks in the northern part of the Willamette Valley. Of all of Willamette Valley's smaller AVAs, it is closest to the city of Portland. Its highest summit, Bald Peak at an elevation of 1,633 feet, serves to generate cooler air for the rest of the AVA and its hillside vineyards. The region covers 70,000 acres but only 1,600 acres are planted to vines; soils of the Chehalem Mountains are a mix of basalt, ocean sediment and loess.