Winemaker Notes
The 2018 Gestalt Block Pinot Noir showcases the essence of the 2018 vintage, with intense concentration, serious structure and chewy, drying tannins. You’ll find notes of graphite, pencil shavings, thyme, sage and a hint of vanilla on the nose, leading to elderberry, black currant, choke cherry and cacao on the palate. Decant if opening now or lay down for long-term development.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Pinot Noir Gestalt Block is powerful and fragrant. Bass tones of roasted coffee and cocoa give way to plums, orange peel, forest floor and violet. The palate is bursting with dark, spicy fruit, firmly structured and vibrant, with a very long, iron-and-violet finish. This will require another 3-5+ years in bottle to really unwind and will be long-lived in the cellar. Rating: 96+
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Wine Enthusiast
The Brittan wines are all estate grown and designated by the particular soils underlying the different blocks of vines. Here the underlying basalt reduces crop load to less than one ton of fruit an acre, a miniscule reward for the work involved. The strong Van Duzer winds thicken the skins, punching up tannins. This is an extreme example of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, yet brilliantly realized. Tight, tough and tannic, it's packed with mountain blackberry fruit, framed with sharp herbs and finished with residual flavors of black tea. Drink 2025–2035.
Cellar Selection -
James Suckling
Aromas of dark cherries, plums, cassis, dried herbs and baking spices. It’s medium-bodied with chalky tannins and crisp acidity. Concentrated blue and dark fruit here, with a chalky texture and a herbal, mineral finish.
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.