Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2023 Pinot Noir Silice is layered and seductive, showing black raspberry liqueur, wet stones, toasted spice, cardamom, and black cherries. “Silice” means silica, and this wine comes from forest blocks planted in 2001 on the site with the highest sand content in the soils that they work with. The structure is remarkable, fine, and floating on the palate, with refreshing acidity and an angular, well-defined, gravelly texture to its tannins, which is highly appealing and reminiscent of Nebbiolo in its structure. Drink 2027-2047.
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James Suckling
A powerful and perfumed red that’s wonderfully concentrated and well balanced. It’s packed with raspberries, black cherries, violets and spearmint on the nose, leading to sour cherries, cranberries and dried strawberries on the palate. Moderate tannins, a light body and vivid acidity give it a mouthwatering expression. Drink now or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Pinot Noir Silice Vineyard has dramatically unfurling scents of red cherry, cranberry, bergamot, tea leaves, damp earth and mushrooms. The medium-bodied palate is concentrated and nuanced with citrus-laced flavors. It’s structured by chalky tannins and mouthwatering acidity and has a long, layered finish.
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Wine Spectator
This red is keenly structured and richly detailed, with raspberry and guava flavors taking on dusky spice and forest floor accents.
Bergstrom Wines is a family-owned and operated artisan producer of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay which was started in 1999 by Dr. John and Karen Bergstrom, with the help of their son Josh Bergstrom and his wife Caroline. Josh is general manager, vineyard manager and winemaker and pulls his expertise from his education in Burgundy, France and his 14 years experience making wines in Oregon's Northern Willamette Valley. Bergstrom focuses on hand-crafting small lots of wines from their fice estate vineyards carefully chosen from fice of Oregon's six wine-growing appellations. All estate acreage is farmed biodynamically and all wines express the wonderful diversity of Oregon's many great terroirs.
Bergström Wines consists of five estate vineyards totaling 84 acres that span across four of the Willamette Valley’s best appellations: The Bergström Vineyard, Silice Vineyard, Winery Block, Gregory Ranch and Le Pré du Col. Each estate vineyard is farmed without the use of harsh chemicals, systemic or fertilizers, and the winery produces approximately 10,000 cases of ultra-premium and extremely sought-after wine each year, including two Chardonnays and nine different Pinot Noirs.
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.”
The Chehalem Mountains is a northwest-southeast span of several distinct mountains, ridges and peaks in the northern part of the Willamette Valley. Of all of Willamette Valley's smaller AVAs, it is closest to the city of Portland. Its highest summit, Bald Peak at an elevation of 1,633 feet, serves to generate cooler air for the rest of the AVA and its hillside vineyards. The region covers 70,000 acres but only 1,600 acres are planted to vines; soils of the Chehalem Mountains are a mix of basalt, ocean sediment and loess.