Winemaker Notes
Pale to light red in color with an elegant nose of lemongrass, mint, oregano, subtle perfume, rose water, and cranberries. Fresh and delicate with a sophisticated balance of mossy earth and Rainier cherries. The mid-palate is full of bramble and savory chanterelle. The whole-cluster tannins are structured and while approachable now, they will age gracefully in the bottle.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Vibrant fruit here mixed with earthy mushroom notes. Red and purple plums, porcini, star anise, tea leaves and savory spices. It’s tight in tannin texture yet aromatically open, with a medium body and silky, savory layers. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby, the 2021 Pinot Noir Le Pré du Col Vineyard has pretty scents of raspberry, cranberry, bergamot and mushroom, revealing more aromatic detail as it spends time in the glass. The light-bodied palate is chalky and refreshing with concentrated fruit and loads of botanical and floral accents on the long, layered finish. I love this fragrant, detailed expression!
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Wine Enthusiast
In their best expression, Ribbon Ridge pinots seems to teem with fruit, sumptuous, generous and comfortable. This is what Josh Bergström has pulled off here, from a vineyard the family has leased and farmed since 2006. Scents of crushed rose petals and cranberry give lift to otherwise succulent fruit, with a fine, saline minerality that tethers the richness and keeps the wine on a straight course. For duck confit.
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Wine Spectator
Brooding, with an appealing earthy, forest floor accent to the blueberry and dusky spice flavors as this builds tension and density toward medium-grained tannins. Hands off for now. Best from 2024 through 2034.
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!