Winemaker Notes
Medium ruby to red. The nose is of fresh red Oregon fruits & berries, a cherry aroma is supported by more cola spice and a touch of subtle oak. Medium bodied with light-sweet tannins, very good purity and depth.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Attractive spice, rust and stone aromas here with plenty of ripe fruit, too. Medium to full body, firm yet velvety tannins and a long, flavorful finish. Seriously seductive. Gorgeous. Drink or hold.
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Wine Spectator
Supple, expressive and multilayered, with plum, currant, pomegranate and violet flavors coming together harmoniously, persisting into a long and exceptionally well-balanced finish. Drink now through 2024.
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!