Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Smooth and round, with a lovely polished feel to the dark berry, cherry, licorice and spice flavors, flowing easily over finely tuned tannins, persisting expressively. Drink now through 2016. 9,000 cases made.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2006 Evenstad Reserve is a blend of over 70 lots. Medium ruby-colored, it offers notes of cedar, cinnamon, clove, cassis, and raspberry. This is followed by a medium- to full-bodied wine with layers of complex red fruits, enough structure to evolve for 3-4 years, excellent integration of oak, tannin, and acidity, and a lengthy finish. Drink it from 2010 to 2018.
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Wine & Spirits
Serene's flagship reserve is forward and ripe, the red berry and woodsy scents marked by oak. Yet the wine retains a pleasing lift, the black cherry flavors brightening with air and the acidity fresh and clean. A fine pairing with risotto con funghi.
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Wine Enthusiast
As with most of Oregon's 2006 Pinots, this shows more grip and fullness than the winery's '07. There's a strong smoky character, presumably from barrel toast, and a thick and chewy midpalate of mixed berries and tart cherry fruit. The acids stick out a bit, but the dominant flavor is cherry, with a spicy herbal edge.
Ken and Grace Evenstad founded Domaine Serene Vineyards and Winery in 1989 when they purchased 42 acres of just-logged land in the Dundee Hills of Oregon and built a five-level, gravity flow winery to produce ultra-premium Pinot Noir. Today, Domaine Serene produces wines from six individual vineyard estates in the Willamette Valley planted exclusively to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Each estate offers a diversity of soils, clones, rootstocks, microclimates, slopes, and elevations that add distinguishing complexity and elegance to the wines.
The Evenstads now own over 1,000 acres, more than 360 of which are planted to vine in three AVAs of the Willamette Valley and are actively preserving Oregon White Oak trees and the biodiversity of the region. They have achieved LIVE certification, the highest certification in the world for sustainable viticulture. Domaine Serene’s wines have won many accolades and awards, including 200 wines scoring 90 points or higher by Wine Spectator. Their 2013 Evenstad Reserve Pinot Noir was recognized as #3 Wine in the World, while the 2014 Evenstad Reserve Chardonnay received 95 points and was ranked the #2 Wine in the World according to Wine Spectator. Over the years, Domaine Serene has opened three Oregon Wine Lounges in Portland, Bend, and Lake Oswego that offer wine club members, locals, and visitors an elevated wine experience.
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.