Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Darker in profile, yet remarkably pure and succulent, with deep dark cherries and hints of cassis and wild raspberry bush. Subtle aged tangerine peel and moist soil add depth and complexity. The firm, tense tannin structure is beautifully balanced by vibrant, delicious fruit. Medium- to full-bodied, structured and long, with a mineral-driven finish. Tightly wound, this needs some time in the bottle. Pommard Clone, planted in 1983. Try from 2028.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Pinot Noir Weber Vineyard explodes from the glass with pure aromas of blackberry, orange peel, Italian plum, pipe tobacco, flint and floral potpourri. The medium-bodied palate offers layer after layer of ripe, spicy fruit. It’s framed by dusty tannins and fireworks of fresh acidity and has a long, succulent finish.
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Wine Spectator
A wine of grace and detail, with lilting flavors of raspberry and cherry that take on notes of fresh violet, forest floor and dusky spices as this glides on the sleek 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.