Winemaker Notes
As always the Prelude is very approachable, but it will benefit from a little air to encourage its sweet and supple mid-palate. Aromas and flavors are more savory than purely fruity, with lively hints of blood orange, cranberry, and dried flowers.
This wine pairs well with mushroom risotto and the Vijay Iyer Trio.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
The engaging scents of musky red and purple fruits compel further exploration. It’s laced with subtle flavors of dried herbs, chipotle and matted leaves, with a core of tart cherry fruit. Sealed with a screw cap, this exceptional value should hold up well for the rest of this decade. Editors’ Choice.
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Wine Spectator
Polished and richly detailed, with lively raspberry, bay leaf and orange peel flavors that linger on the long finish. Drink now.
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.