Winemaker Notes
This wine blends fruit from all the different sections of the estate vineyard. It truly encompasses the entire breadth of expression at Bethel Heights from the youthful exuberance of the winery's youngest vines planted in 2002 to the brooding, earthy complexity of its old own-rooted vines that have been knitting themselves into the landscape for forty years.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Attractive, sous-bois aromas with plenty of interest already in this complex, fresh pinot. The palate has a very strikingly fresh array of ripe red cherries and blood oranges with an attractive, grainy, long and supple finish.
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Wine & Spirits
The pleasures of Bethel’s entry-level estate pinot are immediate, from the very first whiffs of graham cracker and red cherry. With air, those flavors take on an umami dimension, with mushroom and creosote elements, everything delivered with fine, pristine detail.
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Wine Spectator
Silky and vibrant, with spirited raspberry and violet aromas that open to effortlessly complex flavors of black cherry, black tea, cardamom and other dark spices. Drink now through 2024.
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Wine Enthusiast
Deep, dense and dark aromatics spotlight blackberry and black cherry. It's a smooth well-integrated wine with a thick veneer of fruit, smoke and earth. The tannins are substantial, polished to a fine lustre, and carry a streak of graphite. Editors' Choice
Home of some of the planet’s most amazingly elegant and expressive Pinot noir, the Willamette Valley is a pastoral, mixed landscape of green, bucolic rolling hills, dramatic forestlands and small, independent, friendly wine growers. As a leader in environmental stewardship, the valley has some of the nation’s most protective land use policies, with two-thirds of its vineyards farmed sustainably and over half, organically. While the valley claims a cool, continental climate, and is heavily influenced by the cold, moist winds of the Pacific Ocean, its warm and dry summers allow for the steady, even ripening of Pinot noir.
The potential of Willamette Valley Pinot noir continues to attract the investment of serious growers and winemakers both locally and from abroad, as naturally the finished wines bring accolades from professionals and enthusiasts. With a range of styles from delicate dried cherry, raspberry and hibiscus to stronger notes of truffle, mocha, plum and spice, a fine Willamette Valley Pinot noir is a perfect expression of both character and grace.