Winemaker Notes
In the flush of its youth, the 2019 Laurène sparkles like a bright ruby. Cherry, mulberry, blackcurrant, and spices all harmonize into a beautifully aromatic bouquet. An overall graceful character is balanced by a firm structure and velvety tannins. This Laurène is a shining example of everything we’ve come to know and cherish from our vineyards in the Dundee Hills.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Pinot Noir Laurène is youthfully coiled at this stage and will take more time in bottle to unwind. It opens with flinty, rocky notes, fleshing out to blackberry, red cherry and dark, spicy undertones. The palate is silky, intense and long, with a plethora of savory accents hinting at more to come.
Rating: 96+ -
James Suckling
Aromas of cherries, wild strawberries, dried flowers and spice box. Some pine needles, too. It’s medium-bodied with fine, chewy tannins and lively acidity. Layered and velvety with spicy character. Pure and balanced, following through to a long, savory finish. Solid.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Pinot Noir Laurene was aged in 25% new oak and spent 14-15 months in barrel. Its aromas are more layered with cedar, pine spice, and dried cherry. The palate is concentrated and elegant, with fine tannins, notes of grenadine, dried purple flowers, espresso, and fresh acidity. Drink 2024-2034.
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Wine Spectator
Expressive and harmonious, with elegantly layered notes of fresh violet and raspberry, which build texture and richness on the dynamic finish. Drink now through 2030.
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.