Winemaker Notes
Pairs well with ham hocks with lentils and grilled chard, or maybe a mushroom crusted pork tenderloin or even better,wild mushroom risotto finished with bone marrow, cream and French butter!
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Inviting layers of blackberry, plum, guava and grapefruit notes come together smoothly and vividly. This has freshness, presence and elegance, with a finish that promises a long life. Drink now through 2022.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Pinot Noir Rastaban comes from fruit sourced from the estate (until 2008 it also came from Montazi) and winemaker Chris Williams believes it is one of Brooks' best Pinot Noir. It has an open bouquet with vibrant red cherry fruit, just a little reduction, hints of leather and undergrowth developing with time. The palate is medium-bodied with rustic red berry fruit, quite ferrous on the mid-palate with a slightly terse but pleasant finish. Fine.
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.