Winemaker Notes
Earthy on the nose with forest notes of pine and leather, this silky-smooth wine is subtly floral and many-fruited with raspberry, strawberry, and cassis flavors that lead into a classic, rich Pinot Noir finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The impressive 2017 Elk Cove Vineyards Mount Richmond Pinot Noir compares favorably to many of Burgundy's top premier crus. TASTING NOTES: This wine is sturdy and well-built. Its ripe tannins provide a beautiful wraparound to the wine. Enjoy it with a juicy, double-thick grilled lamb chop. (Tasted: March 4, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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James Suckling
There’s a deep-set, dark-cherry core that delivers on the nose and palate here with a sleek, fine-boned feel to the tannins that carry very even and long. Neatly detailed. Plenty of fresh and vibrant red cherries. Drink or hold.
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Wine Spectator
Offers grace and presence, with layered cherry and pomegranate flavors, accented by sassafras tea and spice notes, building tension toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2028.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Pinot Noir Mount Richmond has a medium ruby-purple color with aromas of cranberry sauce, Italian plum, crushed black cherries, vanilla and touches of charcuterie, dried earth and potpourri. It’s light to medium-bodied and silky with a good core of spicy fruits, a firm, grainy frame and good freshness, finishing long and spicy. Rating: 91+
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Wine Enthusiast
All of Adam Campbell’s 2017 Pinots are fine-tuned and elegant. Not as ripe as the 2015s, nor as sturdy as the 2016s, they perfectly express the character of this vintage. This vineyard selection offers tight raspberry limned with citrus. Flavors are sharp, and the tannins polished. Another year or two in the bottle should further improve this wine.
One of the founding wineries of the Willamette Valley, family-owned and operated Elk Cove Vineyards was the first vineyard in what is now the Yamhill-Carlton AVA. Second-generation Owner/Winemaker and fifth-generation Oregon farmer Adam Campbell sources fruit from Elk Cove's six 100% estate-grown, sustainably farmed vineyard sites located across the northern Willamette Valley, specializing in Pinot Noir and cool-climate white wines. Elk Cove is named for the local herd of Roosevelt elk and the protective bowl shape of the property. Its tasting room is tucked into the foothills of the Coast Range, with spectacular views of the surrounding vineyards and mountains.
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.