Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The second of the two wines tasted for Boedecker’s 20th vintage anniversary, the 2004 Pinot Noir Athena is deep red with a garnet tinge and brings forward notes of dried roses, mint, and rocky earth. The palate is refined and long, with fine tannins and outstanding balance throughout. Elegant and graceful, for my taste, the 2004 Athena takes the slight edge over the Stewart for its pure notes of orange oil and the vibrancy the fruit retains. If not for the light garnet tinge, I don’t know that I would peg this as a 20-year-old wine. It captures a really wonderful expression of the wine this region can produce. As it opens, it reveals a fantastic iron-slanting mineral tinge on the back palate, revealing its sense of place.
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.