Winemaker Notes
Aromatically complex, this wine balances dark fruit aspects of black cherries and blackberries with subtle notes of mushrooms and tobacco. The palate is bold and long-lasting, with a medium body and dusty tannin structure. There is a hint of cherry fruit beneath the tannins that evolves into a lingering, elegant finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
An attractive red, with style and personality, offering expressive cherry and huckleberry flavors accented with black tea, sweet anise and forest floor tones that finish with refined tannins. Drink now through 2033. 995 cases made.
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James Suckling
A full-bodied, smooth and rich wine with ample plummy flavors and velvety tannins. Dark cherries, dried blueberries and mild oak spices. Rather soft and mellow on the palate.
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Jeb Dunnuck
From the Laurelwood District, the 2022 Pinot Noir Chehalem Estate Vineyard is a bright red color and offers fresh aromas of pomegranate, cinnamon, and brambly herbs and flowers. Medium-bodied, it takes on a slightly more savory character, with orange citrus notes shining through for a refreshing and attractive finish.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
The Chehalem Mountains is a northwest-southeast span of several distinct mountains, ridges and peaks in the northern part of the Willamette Valley. Of all of Willamette Valley's smaller AVAs, it is closest to the city of Portland. Its highest summit, Bald Peak at an elevation of 1,633 feet, serves to generate cooler air for the rest of the AVA and its hillside vineyards. The region covers 70,000 acres but only 1,600 acres are planted to vines; soils of the Chehalem Mountains are a mix of basalt, ocean sediment and loess.