Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Scents of cinnamon and red-pepper candy come up quickly, leading into a wine with terrific purity and focus. The raspberry and cherry fruits are clean and sharp, beautifully defined and balanced. Delicious young, this wine is set to develop further complexity if well cellared. Drink now through 2030.
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Wine Spectator
Open-textured, light on balance and appealing for the dark plum and toasty spice flavors, picking up peppery nuances as the finish lingers with intensity. Best from 2017 through 2021. 812 cases made.
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.”
Running north to south, adjacent to the Willamette River, the Eola-Amity Hills AVA has shallow and well-drained soils created from ancient lava flows (called Jory), marine sediments, rocks and alluvial deposits. These soils force vine roots to dig deep, producing small grapes with great concentration.
Like in the McMinnville sub-AVA, cold Pacific air streams in via the Van Duzer Corridor and assists the maintenance of higher acidity in its grapes. This great concentration, combined with marked acidity, give the Eola-Amity Hills wines—namely Pinot noir—their distinct character. While the region covers 40,000 acres, no more than 1,400 acres are covered in vine.