Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2006 Pinot Noir Laurene is just slightly past its peak aromatically, with fully mature scents of mushroom powder, seaweed, graphite and spices. It has a softened, silty texture and maintains a surprisingly concentrated core of sweet berry fruit, finishing with lingering earthy perfume. It's a very pretty, mature Pinot Noir that will drink well over the next 3-5 years.
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Wine Spectator
Smooth and focused, this well-mannered, medium-weight wine has fresh, ripe currant and plum flavors, shaded with hints of white pepper and cream as the finish lingers easily. Drink now through 2014. 2,500 cases made.
Home of some of the planet’s most amazingly elegant and expressive Pinot noir, the Willamette Valley is a pastoral, mixed landscape of green, bucolic rolling hills, dramatic forestlands and small, independent, friendly wine growers. As a leader in environmental stewardship, the valley has some of the nation’s most protective land use policies, with two-thirds of its vineyards farmed sustainably and over half, organically. While the valley claims a cool, continental climate, and is heavily influenced by the cold, moist winds of the Pacific Ocean, its warm and dry summers allow for the steady, even ripening of Pinot noir.
The potential of Willamette Valley Pinot noir continues to attract the investment of serious growers and winemakers both locally and from abroad, as naturally the finished wines bring accolades from professionals and enthusiasts. With a range of styles from delicate dried cherry, raspberry and hibiscus to stronger notes of truffle, mocha, plum and spice, a fine Willamette Valley Pinot noir is a perfect expression of both character and grace.