Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
At first the scents and flavors of cola, root beer and Dr Pepper seem to dominate, though not unpleasantly. The impact continues with brown sugar, molasses and black cherry fruit—a soda-lover’s wine. But there is more here as it breathes, adding texture and weight, with streaks of licorice, smoke and tar.
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Wine Spectator
Lithe and expressive, taut and focused, with cherry, mint and sassafras flavors playing against velvety tannins, finishing long. Drink now through 2020.
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.