Winemaker Notes
Like all Brick House wines, the cuvées that comprise the “Evelyn’s” bottlings ferment with native yeasts. The wine is raised on its gross lees in barrel for a minimum of 16 months before being bottled by hand on the farm. Typically, “Evelyn’s” Pinot Noir is designed with long term cellaring in mind, often with somewhat elevated tannin structures from both whole cluster fermentation and a larger percentage of new French oak than our other wines.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
A “best-barrel blend” that's a 50-50 Pommard and Dijon clone mix. The black-cherry fruit is framed with a bit more barrel toast than the other Brick House Pinots, having been aged for 18 months in 40% new wood. As with all BH wines, it's impeccably clean, minimally handled and elegantly balanced. Biodynamic farming brings added textural details, lengthens the finish and surprises with its complexity.
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Wine Spectator
Firm and focused, with subtle tiers of cherry, orange peel, floral and dusky spice flavors, coming together harmoniously on the lithe finish. Has presence and depth. Drink now through 2024.
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James Suckling
Floral with violets, cola, red cherries and earthy hints. The palate shows pretty berry flavors and a good backbone of tannins and lively acidity. Drink now.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Pinot Noir Evenlyn's is a best barrel selection that is made in honor of Doug Tunnel's mother. Matured in 40% new wood, it has quite a dense bouquet, almost sultry with cranberry, raspberry and noticeable estuarine scents - a little seaweed and mudflats. The palate is medium-bodied with supple ripe redcurrant and cranberry fruit, quite structured with very good salinity, leading to an oyster shell tinged finish. This is a delightful, beautifully crafted Pinot Noir surfeit with joie-de-vivre.
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!