Winemaker Notes
This acclaimed wine is just one of many exquisite offerings from Domaine Serene, Maison Evenstad, Château de la Crée, and Les Tourelles de la Crée.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Blackberries and oak can be found in the aromatics of the medium to dark ruby-colored 1999 Pinot noir Mark Bradford Vineyard. A highly structured medium-bodied wine, it displays outstanding power, depth, balance, and length. Black cherries, blackberries, and hints of plums can be discerned in its expressive character.
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Wine Enthusiast
Quite dark and opaque, this full-bodied Pinot is handsomely toasty and smoky, with a layered black cherry and blackberry fruit foundation. Though youthful and closed, it still feels velvety and deep, showing lots of finesse, and stylish vanilla and herb accents. Finishes long and rich; needs two to three years to unfold.
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.”
Running north to south, adjacent to the Willamette River, the Eola-Amity Hills AVA has shallow and well-drained soils created from ancient lava flows (called Jory), marine sediments, rocks and alluvial deposits. These soils force vine roots to dig deep, producing small grapes with great concentration.
Like in the McMinnville sub-AVA, cold Pacific air streams in via the Van Duzer Corridor and assists the maintenance of higher acidity in its grapes. This great concentration, combined with marked acidity, give the Eola-Amity Hills wines—namely Pinot noir—their distinct character. While the region covers 40,000 acres, no more than 1,400 acres are covered in vine.