Winemaker Notes
The 2017 Duck Pond Willamette Valley Reserve Pinot Noir offers a soft fruit character on the nose with accents of earth and oak. The fruit is slightly reserved, yet generous in the glass with complexity and layers of compact red fruit that finds harmony with the oak influence of vanilla, cedar, and coriander. On the palate this Pinot Noir shows tension and power. There is a structured acidity and tannin that comes from the Willamette Valley sites. The fruit flavors consist of fresh red cherry, red raspberry, and tart cranberry with wood spice providing balance and accenting the fruit profile with power and intensity.
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.