Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
This wine took several days to pull away from the dominating grip of whole-cluster spice, which gave it an edge of green olive. When it did, it revealed gently persistent fruit, dark cherries with a whiff of balsamic, fine tannins holding the wine’s clean, remarkably delicate flavors. It needs time in the cellar to knit; then serve with a rosemary-roasted game bird.
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Wine Spectator
Fresh and lively, with a polished texture around a sleek core of raspberry and floral flavors, dancing deftly on the finish. Drink now through 2022.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Pinot Noir Estate Seven Springs Vineyard, matured in around 15% new barrels (Hermitage cooperage), has a very attractive bouquet with blackberry, briary and a touch of undergrowth, perhaps from the judicious 10% whole cluster fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with fine definition, crisp and tensile tannin, quite linear in style and it feels tight on the bitter cherry and blackberry finish, but there is plenty of fruit here and it will expand when it is bottle.
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.