Dobbes Family Estate Meyer Vineyard Pinot Noir 2008
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Dobbes Family Estate is the pinnacle of Joe Dobbes' winemaking efforts, hinting at the decades of experience behind it. The opulent and age-worthy wines are produced from premier vineyards in Oregon's Willamette and Rogue Valleys. Though a small-town boy raised in Willamette Valley, Joe Dobbes' wine calling originated far from his home country. Stints in the Nahe and Burgundy regions provided Joe with a solid foundation in the Old World of winemaking before returning to the U.S. and eventually beginning Joe Dobbes Wines in 2002. The estate vineyards cover some 214 acres in Willamette Valley and, in addition, Joe works closely with a number of elite Oregon vineyards to release single-vineyard wines and masterful cuvées under three labels - Dobbes Family Estate, Jovino and Wine By Joe.
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.”
Home of the first Pinot noir vineyard of the Willamette Valley, planted by David Lett of Eyrie Vineyard in 1966, today the Dundee Hills AVA remains the most densely planted AVA in the valley (and state). To its north sits the Chehalem Valley and to its south, runs the Willamette River. Within the region’s 12,500 acres, about 1,700 are planted to vine on predominantly basalt-based, volcanic, Jory soil.