Winemaker Notes
This is a detailed and subtle Pinot Noir: savory and layered, with excellent structure and brooding complexity. It is the embodiment of age-worthy Pinot Noir and will reward patience.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Elegant and refined in structure, this opens with vibrant rose petal and raspberry scents and leads to intriguing layers of black cherry, crushed stone and savory spice. Finishes with fine-grained tannins. Drink now through 2029.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale to medium ruby-purple, the 2017 Pinot Noir Anden, made with 100% whole clusters, features aromas of wild blackberries, Campari and fresh cranberries with nuances of bay leaf, white pepper, crushed granite, dried flowers and savory herbs. The medium-bodied palate bursts with fresh, savory-laced fruits, lightly chalky and ultra fresh, with a long, perfumed finish. This has the stuffing and structure to age well in bottle. This comes from old vines in the Seven Springs vineyard, which were recently pulled out due to phylloxera.
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.