Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A great pinot noir that shows dried flowers, violets and orchids. Cherry and raspberry undertones, too. Medium to full body with an incredible polished texture. Ripe and round tannins and a fresh and vibrant finish. Delicious now but better in 2020.
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Tasting Panel
The presence of star fruit on the nose and elegant, sleek cherry on the palate is well-integrated throughout. It’s smooth, balanced, and also very Burgundian in style
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Wine Enthusiast
This delicious wine shows focused black cherry, cola, cream soda and baking spice flavors. It's perfectly balanced, with all components in proportion and settled nicely together. Drink now through 2022.
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Wine Spectator
Vibrant and harmonious, with floral raspberry and savory sassafras flavors that glide along a gentle but structured finish. Drink now through 2024.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple in color, the 2015 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir is still a little youthfully shy, revealing notes of black cherries and black raspberries with suggestions of violets and sautéed herbs. Medium-bodied, with lovely elegance and expression in the mouth, it has a fine backbone of silky tannins and plenty of latent layers just poking through on the persistent finish.
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.