Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: Looking for that Côte de Nuits experience, but trying to say in the budget can be a challenge. While I have learned not to favor the Old World versus the New World, I often cross the other side of the Atlantic in search of a great Pinot Noir experience. The 2015 Brooks Janus Pinot Noir keeps me in the USA. TASTING NOTES: This wine comes right at you with excellent richness, but keeps well-behaved on the palate with fine balance. Its aromas and flavors of generous black fruits should pair it famously with a garlic and rosemary-infused roast leg of lamb. (Tasted: September 25, 2018, San Francisco, CA)
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.