Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Focused and generous, with ripe flavors on a taut frame, offering black cherry and smoky notes and mineral accents that linger harmoniously. Has a certain majesty as the finish persists. Best from 2018 through 2024.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: Let's just talk about being serious, the 2014 Archery Summit Arcus Estate takes over and dominates the palate like few other Pinot Noirs would dare to do. TASTING NOTES: This wine shows up with an explosion of ripe blueberries and dried herbs. Its flavors round out with a suggestion of leather as the wine stays long and opulent in the finish. Pair its richness with a perfectly grilled Porterhouse steak. (Tasted: March 1, 2018, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a real cherry bomb, showing terrific concentration and purity of fruit. Those vibrant flavors come in a swath of cola, then dive into a compact finish that leaves a residual hint of chocolate seltzer. This wine seems to be slightly bottle shocked (though it was rested for some weeks after being shipped) and may well deserve a higher score with more bottle age.
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James Suckling
Lots of blackberry, spice and chocolate aromas follow through to a full body, ripe tannins and a slightly raisiny finish. Lots of fruit. Very intense.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Arcus Estate Pinot Noir was picked between 14-21 September with 5% whole cluster fruit. Matured in 49% new French oak, it has a well-defined bouquet with raspberry coulis, wild strawberry and a touch of undergrowth originating from that judicious addition of new oak. The palate is medium-bodied with pure raspberry and wild strawberry fruit, fine acidity that is necessary to counterbalance the almost viscous texture. It is seductively smooth in the mouth with a slight chewiness towards the finish. This should present several years of drinking pleasure.
In 1993, Archery Summit set its sights on creating wines of real purpose in the Willamette Valley. Since then, the Dundee Hills winery has helped establish the region as the cradle of cooler-climate American wine. Winemaker Kim Abrahams and her team achieve bar-raising wines through hard-won instincts—the familiarity gained from many shared vintages and from tending vineyard sites they know intimately.
As responsible stewards of the land, Archery Summit engages in minimal-impact agriculture. Sustainability is a dynamic and vital part of growing wine—a practice that ensures both the industry’s future and the overall health of the trade. They practice sustainability wherever possible, from responsible farming in the vineyard to energy-sensitive approaches in the cellar.
Many of the vineyard sites are LIVE (Low Input Viticulture & Enology) certified, meaning they adhere to an internationally-acclaimed set of sustainability standards. These guidelines are site-specific and focus on strengthening the well-being of the vineyard through minimal spraying, careful clone selection, heightened biodiversity, and more. Archery Summit is committed to ensuring that the soils and biodiversity of each site remain as healthy and vibrant as when they first began cultivating them.
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.”
Home of the first Pinot noir vineyard of the Willamette Valley, planted by David Lett of Eyrie Vineyard in 1966, today the Dundee Hills AVA remains the most densely planted AVA in the valley (and state). To its north sits the Chehalem Valley and to its south, runs the Willamette River. Within the region’s 12,500 acres, about 1,700 are planted to vine on predominantly basalt-based, volcanic, Jory soil.