Winemaker Notes
A love letter to the deep red Jory soil that defines the Dundee Hills growing region of Oregon’s Willamette Valley. A lighter body with flavors of forest floor, bright red fruit and a mysterious minerality make this a classically Oregon Pinot with a big nod to the Old World.
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 El Pino Funky Jory Pinot Noir tames the power of the Dundee Hills and brings a scintillating and zippy experience onto the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine offers unstoppable black fruit aromas and flavors to the fore and into the finish. Enjoy it with garlic and rosemary-infused rotisserie leg of lamb. (Tasted: August 5, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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Tasting Panel
The club consists of Pinot Noirs that are curated from “coastal corners of the world.” The red hue on the label represents the color of the famed Jory soils of the Willamette Valley’s Dundee Hills. Spending 15 months in (25% new) French oak, adds depth and texture to this red. Black cherry tannins create a dry, dusty entry. Asian spice, dried heather, and red tea come in mid-palate. Damp earth and ripe strawberry lend character into a juicy finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
El Pino Club adds an Oregon Pinot to its growing portfolio with this full-bodied and fleshy wine. A burst of ripe, fresh strawberry fruit fills the palate. It was aged in one-quarter new French oak, which balances out well and adds a streak of caramel as it rounds off the finish.
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.”
Home of the first Pinot noir vineyard of the Willamette Valley, planted by David Lett of Eyrie Vineyard in 1966, today the Dundee Hills AVA remains the most densely planted AVA in the valley (and state). To its north sits the Chehalem Valley and to its south, runs the Willamette River. Within the region’s 12,500 acres, about 1,700 are planted to vine on predominantly basalt-based, volcanic, Jory soil.