Winemaker Notes
Critical Acclaim
All VintagesThis offers a vibrant and attractive array of fresh red cherries with lightly earthy and spicy oak nuances, in a very upbeat mode. The palate has a smoothly delivered array of plush and velvety fruit tannins and poached strawberries in abundance. Modern assembly style. Drink or hold.
I tasted the 2016 Pinot Noir Reserve from a 375-milliliter bottle, although the price given is for a 750-milliliter bottle. Medium ruby, the 2016 Pinot Noir Reserve is scented of blackberries and black and red cherries with accents of oolong tea leaves, tree bark, mushroom and earth. The palate is light to medium-bodied, concentrated and earthy, with a grainy frame and juicy freshness, finishing long.
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.