Winemaker Notes
Deep and brooding with aromas of dark chocolate and ripe Italian plum, its dusty tannins lend structure to lush black currant and blackberry compote flavors. Finishes earthy with dried fig, black tea and pinesap.
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
Rich ruby color; lush black-cherry nose. Silky and juicy with bright cherry; deep and tangy, elegant and long.
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James Suckling
A suave, concentrated pinot that has a wealth of rich, ripe red and dark cherries on the nose and palate. Oak is beautifully stitched into the fruit here, adding subtle spice and supportive structure to the finish.
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Wine Spectator
Harmonious and elegantly complex, with pretty rose petal, raspberry and black tea flavors that build richness and tension toward fine-grained tannins. Drink now through 2028.
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine bursts in a raspberry jam tone along with a hint of brown sugar. There's an underlying minerality and drying tannins. Give this plenty of air or another couple of years in the cellar.
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.