Winemaker Notes
As the aroma implies and promises, the flavor is concentrated blueberry and blackberry juice, which aids integration of nice spice flavored French oak. The palate is rich, creamy, and super juicy.
This whopper of a wine seems to have everything. Rocky earthiness, black forest cake, and a surprise raspberry to red cherry flavor in the long finish.
"The Nuthouse cuvee is released a year behind the other Pinots. The 2005 Pinot Noir Nuthouse is one of the major successes of a challenging vintage. It has a slightly aged appearance and is exhibiting an alluring perfume of spice, red fruits, and blueberry. On the mid-palate it has a wide band of fruit atypical for 2005. It has the structure of the vintage so it may well evolve for 4-5 years and drink well through 2020. It is a home run for the vintage.
While the focus of this report is on 2006 Pinot Noir, it is undeniable that Argyle Winery is producing among the best sparkling wines made in the USA and they cannot be ignored. Argyle is also the hangout of veteran vigneron Rollin Soles who knows as well as anyone what's happening in the Oregon wine scene. Argyle's Pinot Noirs have a bit more competition than the Sparkling Wines but they have been up to the challenge for quite some time."
Wine Advocate
Critical Acclaim
All Vintages
Twenty-five years ago, Argyle began making wine in Oregon's Willamette Valley. Since 1987, winemaker Rollin Soles and viticulturist Allen Holstein have teamed up to produce world-class method champenoise sparkling wines, barrel-fermented Chardonnay, and silky-textured Pinor Noir from low-yielding vines that are winery farmed on some of the best hillside slopes and elevations. Argyle wines have received a total of 11 Wine Spectator Top 100 designations - more than any other winery in Oregon. The Argyle wines represented on this list include sparkling wine, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, truly making Argyle one of the finest practitioners of the craft of elegant, long-lived winegrowing.
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.