Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Brittan's 2011 Pinot Noir Basalt Block delivers an impressively sappy and dense, vibrant and buoyant combination of tart red currant and blackberry with clean red meat juiciness; salt; crushed stone; and somehow, mysteriously crystalline traces. Such a range of complexity across fruit, animal, and mineral dimensions in such a still youthful wine is among the striking aspects of Brittan's and his vineyard’s talents, as is their sense of energy, which unsurprisingly is almost palate-shaking on the present occasion, kinetics being another forte of the 2011 vintage. The tannins here are ultra-fine (even if the corresponding Gestalt Block bottling goes them one better!) and the finish is every bit as mouth-coating as it is vibratory. I suspect this will continue to impress through at least 2022.
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.