Winemaker Notes
The aromas are earthy – with underbrush and herbs playing on the dark fruit. Medium to full bodied, highlighting this vintages hallmarks – low acidity and sweet tannin; it is silky and spicy with an earthiness comparable to a premier cru from the Nuits-St.-Georges. Normally our wines are Oregon versions of burgundies from the northern Côtes de Nuits, but this offering has a distinct terroir earthiness that sets it apart from the other wines. This wine should age well for a decade.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Spectator
Light and spicy, with pretty red berry and cinnamon flavors that linger against refined tannins. The flavors expand with each sip, picking up extra mineral and earth nuances, as the finish sails on unabated. It's the length that makes this special. Drink now through 2019.
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.”
Ribbon Ridge is a regular span of uplifted, marine, sedimentary soils (called Willakenzie), whose highest ridge elevations twist like a ribbon. An early settler from Missouri named Colby Carter noticed this unique topography and gave the region its name in 1865—though it wasn’t declared its own AVA until 140 years later, in 2005. The AVA is enclosed by mountains on all sides between Yamhill-Carlton and the Chehalem Mountains, and is actually part of the larger Chehalem Mountains AVA. Its soils have a finer texture than its neighbors with parent materials composed of sandstone, siltstone, and mudstone. Given its presence of natural aquifers in this five square mile area, most vineyards are actually easily dry farmed!