Winemaker Notes
The 2017 Old Vines is a blend of Maresh and Weber fruit. Maresh vineyard was the first to be planted on Worden Hill Road followed by Weber in 1974. The 2017 vintage is a change of pace from the last three years of early picks in the heat. A cold spring pushed picking dates into a classic Oregon October allowing flavors to run far ahead of sugars. The 17 Old Vines is ultra complex balancing waves of electric red fruit with a savory polish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Harmonious and delicately complex, with raspberry, savory herb and orange peel flavors that build tannins and structure on the finish.
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.