Winemaker Notes
Yamhill Cuvée is named for the county where all of the Domaine Serene Estates are located. This signature blend includes grapes from the Dundee Hills, Eola-Amity Hills, and Yamhill-Carlton AVA's. It is consistent and approachable, with a textural profile that is vibrant, silky, and persistent.
Dark ruby in color, the Yamhill Cuvée is extremely expressive showcasing heavenly aromas of cocoa, pomegranate, clove, and star anise. A patchwork of cherry, cranberry cocktail, and blueberry flavors explode on the palate. Polished and plush, its seamlessly integrated and inviting tannins lead to a long, lingering finish. An extremely appealing wine, its complexity leaves you thirsty for more.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Pinot Noir Yamhill Cuvée aged 14 months in 44% new French oak. It has a medium ruby-purple color and explosive aromas of warm cranberry sauce, cinnamon stick, clove, forest floor and tar notes with red currants, black cherries, crushed blackberries, tree bark and dried flowers plus an orange peel hint. Medium-bodied and silky, it explodes with ripe fruits, earthy nuances and spices, softly framed and fresh with a long, layered finish.
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James Suckling
This is an earthy and attractive wine that has a deeply spicy red-cherry thread that offers a bright and more centrally focused palate than many other pinots from Serene, making for immediate appeal. Drink now.
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Wine Spectator
Offers a brooding undercurrent of firm structure, wrapped in alluring cherry and blueberry flavors, accented by clove and black tea notes. Finishes with refined tannins. Drink now through 2026.
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Decanter
Bright and exuberant with fine depth of sweet raspberry, cherry and plum fruit. Earthy notes and pretty white flower aromatics.
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Wine Enthusiast
This blended cuvée offers a fine introduction to the winery’s extensive portfolio of single-vineyard Pinots. Lovely fruit flavors combine red berries, cherries and subtle notes of orange peel. The tannins are firm and polished, and for such a large production wine it maintains good focus throughout the finish.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2016 Domaine Serene Yamhill Cuvée is on point as an excellent example of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. TASTING NOTES: This wine is bright and angular. Enjoy its bright and energizing aromas and flavors of ripe berries and earthy notes with mint-accented, grilled lamb chops. (Tasted: April 28, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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.
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.”
Yamhill-Carlton, characterized by pastoral, rolling hills composed of shallow, quick-draining, ancient marine soil, is ideal for Pinot noir and other cool-climate-loving varieties. It is in the rain shadow of the Coast Range to its west, whose highest point climbs to an altitude of 3,500 feet. Yamhill-Carlton is actually surrounded by mountains on three sides: Chehalem Mountains to the north, the Dundee Hills to the east and the western Coast Range to its west, which, when it lets Pacific air through, serves to cool the region.
Vineyards grow on the ridges surrounding the two small communities of Yamhill and Carlton and cover about 1,200 acres of this 60,000 acre region, which roughly makes a horse-shoe shape on a map.