Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
A powerfully built pinot with firm underpinnings of dark, mocha-like oak flavors, this takes a day to uncoil. With air an ethereal red cherry fruit is revealed, adorning a fine burnished texture and polished tannins. This is a subtle wine that is certain to grow more expressive with age.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2007 Pinot Noir Laurene is produced entirely from estate fruit. Medium ruby-colored, it displays a superb bouquet of smoke, earth notes, cinnamon, allspice, wild cherry, and raspberry. Smooth textured and graceful on the palate, this medium-bodied wine has layers of succulent fruit, lively acidity, plenty of earthy spice notes, moderate tannin, and a lengthy, fruit-filled finish. It will evolve for another 2-3 years and drink well through 2022. Domaine Drouhin has been producing wine in the Willamette Valley since 1988 making them one of the veterans of the Oregon wine scene. The 2007s are particularly good because of the vibrant natural acidity of the vintage. It is increasingly apparent that Oregon Pinot Noir from top producers in strong vintages can easily provide pleasure for 20+ years.
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Wine Spectator
Firm in texture, displaying fine tannins around pretty rose petal-accented guava and rhubarb fruit, hinting at cinnamon as the finish extends.
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.