Winemaker Notes
All of the fruit is estate grown. All of it is certified organic.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
What differentiates this offering is the block selection—all Pommard clone—and a higher (30%) proportion of new cooperage. Warm and generous fruit flavors bring strawberry and cherry in a lushly textured wine that refreshes as it delights. The finish adds extended notes of lemon custard, orange flan and a lick of caramel.
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Wine Spectator
Lithe, supple and expressive, layered with cherry, cinnamon and floral flavors that come together seamlessly on the long, elegant, mineral-accented finish. Drink now through 2022.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Cuvee du Tonnelier Pinot Noir is a barrel selection from a Pommard clone block matured in around 30% new oak. It has a very earthy, slightly stemmy bouquet that has a touch of green pepper underlying the well-defined red berry fruit. The palate is fresh and clean, peppery in the mouth with crisp, fine tannin, a keen line of acidity and a foursquare but fresh finish that is very satisfying. Not one for those seeking plenty of juicy fruit, but a classy wine for sure.
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!