Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2007 Pinot Noir Basalt Block is aging wonderfully. Still a medium ruby color, the nose offers notes of bramble fruits, white pepper, dried herbs and Campari with touches of charcuterie and mushroom over a core of dried red berries. The medium-bodied palate is bright, bitters-accented and juicy with a grainy frame and long, nuanced finish. This is drinking beautifully now and will hold a few more years in bottle.
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Wine Enthusiast
Tasted alongside the winemaker's 2006 from the same fruit, this shows both vintage variation and consistent terroir-the marks of a real professional. The complexity and vitality of the wine remain comparable to the riper 2006. Tart fruits, leaf, herb and streaks of earth make for a lively, interesting palate-pleaser.
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.