Winemaker Notes
The grapes come from the Dijon clone block within the estate vineyard, just at the northern boundary of the Douglas firs on a southern slope. Once harvested the grapes were sorted, and approximately 30% of the fruit was left on its stems. Like all Brick House wines, only native yeasts were utilized for the fermentation following a five-day cold soak. While active fermentation proceeded for approximately 12 days, the new wine was left to macerate with skins and stems for a total of one month in tank. It was then racked to barrel, approximately 35% new French wood where it remained for over 16 months.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Pinot Noir Les Dijonnais is scented of cranberry sauce, raspberry preserves, mushrooms and earth. The light-bodied palate has an understated core of spicy fruit structured by finely chalky tannins and vibrant acidity, and it has an easygoing finish that calls you back for another juicy sip.
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!