Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
This wine is a blend of four vineyards, all from the sedimentary (“Flood”) soils series found in the Willamette Valley. A vibrant purple, there’s a dark cherry thrust to the aroma, adorned by a touch of nori. The flavors are more demonstrative—dark and blue, rippling, pure, saturating, they reach the edge of your mouth the way color reaches the edge of the glass. In its texture the wine is at its most seductive, the purity of fruit held in place by a skidding, gravelly grip. Delicious now, it will deepen further with cellar time.
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Wine Spectator
Crisp and detailed, shining a spotlight on the blackberry, currant, smoke and nutmeg flavors in turn as they spin effortlessly through the long, expressive finish. Drink now through 2020. 1,358 cases made.
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.