Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 Pinot Noir Nut House is scheduled for release in Spring, 2011. It sports an impressive aromatic array of wood smoke, Asian spices, incense, and assorted black fruits. Elegant on the palate, it manages to cram loads of spicy fruit into its medium-bodied frame. With outstanding volume, balance, and length, it merits 3-4 years of cellaring and will be in its prime from 2013 to 2023.
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Wine Spectator
Light and distinctive for its slightly candied currant and guava flavors, picking up an attractive lime blossom note as the finish lingers effortlessly. Drink now through 2018.
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.