Winemaker Notes
Roosevelt is our premier Single Vineyard site, is a steep hillside vineyard that undergoes extensive pruning and cluster thinning to limit yields and maximize ripening in order to concentrate the fruit. Furthering our beliefs in ecological farming practices we now completely farm this site organically.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Firm, focused and distinctive for the tangy edge to its mineralaccented cherry, backberry and charred meat flavors, melding easily into a single thrust on the complex and vivid finish. Best from 2011 through 2018.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 Pinot Noir Roosevelt Vineyard is from a 3-acre parcel planted in 1993 with high density spacing. It presents an already complex aromatic array of sandalwood, cinnamon, rose petal, black cherry, and black raspberry. On the palate it exhibits extra layers of savory fruit, impeccable balance, and enough underlying structure to evolve for 3-4 years. Drink it from 2013 to 2023. Elk Cove Vineyards’ 2008 collection is first rate.
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.
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.