Winemaker Notes
Deep garnet in color with a brilliant edge, the nose is voluptuous and broad with smoky notes at first glance that dissipate quickly into black cherry and raspberries, with lavender and rosemary herbal notes and a hint of licorice. The palate is surprisingly leaner on the attack, but broadens quickly with fine and round tannins, as the flamboyant fruit flavors explode on the palate. The finish is precise and direct, sustained by mineral notes and lingering fruit flavors in the style that is so classic of the Seven Springs Vineyard.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
A richly detailed riot of flavors, this outstanding Pinot Noir offers notes of lavender and rosemary on the nose and flavors of strawberry and raspberry on the palate, with hints of beetroot, clean earth and anise. The finish adds a lingering, resonant flavor of pastis.
Editors' Choice -
Wine Spectator
Light and silky, this is beguiling for the way it deftly plays its polished red berry and black cherry fruit against glints of mineral and white pepper. The finish brings it all together seamlessly.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Tart cranberry, cherry, and red currant dominate the youthfully bright, brash Evening Land 2010 Pinot Noir Seven Springs Vineyard, whose further evocations of sassafras, black pepper, berry seeds and fruit pits emphasize the invigorating side of a wine that nevertheless shows ample sense of body (like its immediate stable mates, at just 13% alcohol) and largely makes up for any current lack of nuance simply through its sheer vivacity and persistent primary juiciness. This generic Seven Springs bottling – rendered in slightly higher volume than the corresponding La Source – ought to be not only well worth following but likely to take on some richness as well as further complexity over the next half dozen or more years.
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.