Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Connoisseurs' Guide
This latest Domaine Drouhin Pinot fits the classic Oregon model to a "tee" in that is offers up plenty of lithe fruit and quiet spice while keeping overt ripeness in check. It is not a wine that will please fans of high extract, but it is anything but anemic or thin, and its precise, incisively fruity flavors show remarkable length on the palate. It reminds that a wine can be serious and speak in soft tones at one and the same time, and it will find an easy place with wide range of foods.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2007 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley is the bottling most people are likely to encounter. Medium ruby-colored, it has a fragrant perfume of cedar, spice box, eucalyptus/menthol, cherry, and raspberry. Made in an elegant, racy style, this medium-bodied effort has a vibrant core of spicy red fruits, moderate ripe tannin, excellent intensity, and savory flavors. It will benefit from another 1-2 years of cellaring and offer prime drinking from 2011 to 2019.
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.