Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
By contrast, the 2023 Pinot Noir Louise Vineyard is from the lowest elevation site, where the vines are sheltered from the wind and can be ten degrees warmer than the Eileen Vineyard. This wine is brighter by comparison in the glass and lifted with notes of cinnamon, pomegranate, pine needles, dried earth, and potpourri. Medium-bodied, it has a chalky texture, a refined feel, fine-grained tannins, and savory elements that shine through, with mushroomy earth on the finish. Drink 2025-2040.
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James Suckling
An intriguing and mineral-driven wine with aromas of salt, fresh strawberries and graphite. The palate has bold, fresh red fruit flavors with mineral tension. Medium-bodied with a long finish of rose petals and orange pith. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Pinot Noir Louise Vineyard was fermented with 49% whole clusters and matured for 18 months in 41% new French oak. It has pure, dynamic scents of red cherry, cranberry, floral potpourri, mossy bark and bresaola. The medium-bodied palate is powerfully styled with highly concentrated, floral flavors. It’s framed by supple tannins and vibrant acidity and has a long, layered finish.
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Wine Spectator
Shows tension and detail, with floral cherry and red currant flavors that take on green tea and forest floor accents as this builds toward broad but refined tannins. Drink now through 2034.
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.