Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Beautiful 2012 now with blueberry, walnut and hazelnut aromas that follow through to a full body, soft and firm tannins and a flavorful finish. Hints of spices, cedar and milk chocolate on the aftertaste. Thoroughly enchanting now. Drink or hold.
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Wine Spectator
Ripe and supple, with a sense of elegance to the generous blueberry, plum and black tea flavors, coming together harmoniously against polished tannins. Drink now through 2022.
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Wine Enthusiast
Firm and flavorful, this brings well-ripened raspberry and black cherry fruit into focus. The wine spent 17 months in 60% new French oak, wrapping the fruit in layers of coffee, maple syrup and brown sugar. It’s tasty and substantial, best now through 2020.
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.