Winemaker Notes
The Flood is sourced from vineyard blocks that exhibit the unique blue-fruited characteristics of sedimentary flood based soils. The flavors are more demonstrative - dark and blue, rippling, pure, saturating.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 "The Flood" Fire+Flood comes from sedimentary soils, vines on low elevation. It sees 40% new French oak for 12 months. It has a rounded, winsome bouquet with dark cherries, boysenberry and blueberry fruit that is neatly subsumed into the oak. The palate is medium-bodied with a more structured and “grippy” opening than I was anticipating, yet there is also lip-smacking salinity and a detailed mineral-driven finish. Drink this over the next decade.
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.