Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
The Eola–Amity Hills excels in this sort of smoky, mineral-driven red, a pinot with brooding density. While marked by lavish oak, that doesn’t take away from the vibrancy of its fruit. For the moment it’s exhibiting mostly structure, with a sweetness that will gain complexity in the cellar.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Now that the acreage at Seven Springs is being increased, it was decided that fruit from its younger vines would be combined with that from older vines at Eola Springs to render 1,500 cases of an Evening Land 2011 Pinot Noir Eola-Amity Hills cuvee that will have annual successors – at least until such time as fruit from the currently young vines on Seven Springs is judged worthy to bear that name. Blueberry and huckleberry inform an ingratiatingly polished palate, their tart edges and berry seed crunchiness vintage-typical, but the overall impression unusually soft and sweetly ripe for a 2011. A savory undertone of meat stock serves for saliva inducement in a lingering finish. Whereas the “blue label” Willamette cuvee received around 20% new oak, this bottling saw only second-year and older barrels.
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Wine Enthusiast
Spicy and peppery from the start, this cool vintage Pinot is decidedly herbal with a pine needle sharpness. The tart, brambly red fruit flavors show medium concentration and fine balance overall.
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.”
Running north to south, adjacent to the Willamette River, the Eola-Amity Hills AVA has shallow and well-drained soils created from ancient lava flows (called Jory), marine sediments, rocks and alluvial deposits. These soils force vine roots to dig deep, producing small grapes with great concentration.
Like in the McMinnville sub-AVA, cold Pacific air streams in via the Van Duzer Corridor and assists the maintenance of higher acidity in its grapes. This great concentration, combined with marked acidity, give the Eola-Amity Hills wines—namely Pinot noir—their distinct character. While the region covers 40,000 acres, no more than 1,400 acres are covered in vine.