Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Expressive and polished, with a lively and complex core of black raspberry, orange zest and spiced tea flavors that build richness toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2024.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium to deep ruby-purple in color, the 2016 The Fire is fairly reduced on the nose to begin, giving way with aeration to black fruits with earthy aromas of forest floor, mushroom, charcuterie and tree bark plus underlying hints of spice and dried flowers. The palate is medium to full-bodied, more giving than the nose, with layers of beautifully ripe black fruits and earthy notions of turned soil. This has great firm, structuring tannins and freshness, finishing long, juicy and delicious. Give this a couple of years in bottle before you open it. 750 cases produced. (93+?)
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.