Winemaker Notes
Deep and Shiny red. An explosive nose of strawberries and raspberries melted. A touch of pink pepper exalts aromas. The mouth is open on very fresh energy carried on by a discreet acidity. Silkiness is present, but in its youngest stage and few years will help tannins already supple to express more richness.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
This terroir-focused Willamette Valley label is a project of DRC’s Bertrand de Villaine and Katrina Rank, who identified the vineyard sources for Composition. The wines are made by Thomas Savre. Elegance and freshness abound in this Pinot Noir from a dry-farmed vineyard that is treated biodynamically. Completely destemmed fruit is fermented in concrete. Gorgeous red fruits, candied raspberries, sweet cut strawberries, and savoury elements of mint and pine bough add a splendid complexity. The palate shows bright red berries, blood orange and chopped mint. There’s plenty of structure and the tannin here alludes to a serious degree of ageability; this is a beautiful bottle of wine.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Pouring a jeweled red color, the 2023 Pinot Noir offers pure aromas of ripe red cherries, raspberries, wild herbs, and iron-rich earth. Medium-bodied, it boasts a rich, chalky texture, complemented by ripe tannins and a long finish. Elegant and pure, it’s a finessed style that’s ready to drink out of the gate and should also hold up nicely for another decade. Drink 2025-2035.
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Vinous
The 2023 Pinot Noir Chehalem Mountains is impossible to ignore as a blend of dried violets, sage, gravel dust and black cherries forms its compelling bouquet. It is texturally deep and nearly glycerol in feel, offering cooling acidity and supple wild berry fruits while a saturation of tactile minerals adds form toward the close. The finish shows notable length and concentration, leaving a coating of fine-grained tannins and a pleasantly bitter blackberry tinge. Beautifully balanced with a bright future.
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Wine Spectator
Handsomely structured and tightly focused, with appealing cherry and strawberry flavors that are accented by green tea and forest floor tones as this builds tension toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2033.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Pinot Noir has reticent aromas of red and black cherries and berries, earth and floral perfume. The medium-bodied palate is understated and chalky with bright acidity and an earthy 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.