Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
A scent of spiced tea and leafy forest notes brighten this expressive pinot. The flavors fall between black cherries and plum, with tannins as fine as Yunnan tea and a silky, finely wrought texture. The finish is firm and lasting.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2007 Pinot Noir Reserve is a selection of the best barrels in the cellar. In this vintage 80% of the wine came from the Ridgecrest Vineyards and was aged in 50% new oak. The nose exhibits pain grille, mineral, earth notes, lots of spice, and assorted red fruits. Silky on the palate, this elegant offering has excellent depth, succulence of fruit, and is surprisingly lush for the vintage.
Chehalem is considered a vineyard winery, aiming to reflect what the vineyard has produced, purely, with minimal processing and without compromising great fruit. Their name, Chehalem, translates to Valley of Flowers in the Native American language, Calapooia. It’s their goal to follow the example set centuries ago: to treat the land with great care and to continue the mission of creating a sustainable future.
Their story starts in 1990 with the inaugural Pinot Noir harvest at Ridgecrest Vineyard. As those wines were releasing in 1993, Bill Stoller joined as co-owner. He subsequently purchased his family farmlands at the southern tip of the Dundee with the vision of planting it as our second estate vineyard.
In 1995, they purchased Corral Creek, the vineyard surrounding the winery. It became the third estate vineyard.
In early 2018, Bill became the sole owner of Chehalem, and by July, they had become the sixth Oregon winery to achieve B Corp status. This rigorous certification assesses companies to ensure they meet the highest standard of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability.
While the Willamette Valley and Pinot Noir are a like a fairy tale match made in heaven, most of Oregon is in fact, a glorious source of Pinot noir. Claiming over half of its total area under vine, Pinot noir also thrives in Southern Oregon’s Umpqua and Rogue Valleys where sedimentary and volcanic soils dominate hillside vineyards and cool temperatures create the perfect environment for Pinot noir. Also, Oregon’s Columbia Gorge is becoming increasingly popular for Pinot noir production. What sets Oregon Pinot noir apart from the Pinot of other regions, both New and Old World, is its innate combination of grace with both power and restraint.