Winemaker Notes
Long a source for benchmark Oregon Pinot Noir, the Seven Springs Vineyard is now a 'monopole' vineyard estate. Seven Springs was first planted in 1981. Occupying the "belly" of an easy-facing ridge in the Eola Hills of Oregon's Willamette Valley, the soils of Seven Springs spring from the mineral rich red volcanic rock and are planted to a mix of Oregon Heritage and Dijon clones. Winemaker: Isabelle Meunier with Dominique Lafon, consulting winemaker.
The Seven Springs Vineyard Estate Pinot Noir comes from a selection of old and new plantings in each corner of the vineyard. The vines that produce this wine sit in classic red Jory soils typical of both the Eola Hills and the Dundee Hills of Oregon. The root system enjoys a roomy 5 feet or more of topsoil before hitting the underlying volcanic rock shelf.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2007 Pinot Noir La Source Seven Springs Vineyard was aged in a larger percentage of new oak. It exhibits a similar bouquet but greater structure and sweeter fruit on the palate. Ripe, concentrated, and with a masculine personality, it will benefit from 2-3 years of additional cellaring and offer prime drinking from 2011 to 2019.
-
Wine Spectator
Bright and juicy, with lively acidity and a streak of distinctive minerality running through the raspberry and floral flavors, lingering on the refined finish. Best from 2010 through 2014. 1,519 cases made.
-
Wine Enthusiast
Powerful vanilla scents rise from the glass, but the fruit, even in this difficult vintage, comes out immediately. It's tart and sharp, with a strong herbal component, and the wine snaps into focus quickly with fruit, acid, tannin, herb and vanilla in equal proportion. Firm and tight, still quite young, this wine needs decanting and/or further bottle age to show its best.
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.