Winemaker Notes
The modest temperatures and even growing season post-flowering seems to have resulted in wines that have knit together quickly and show fantastic poise. This balance is likely to result in wines that drink wonderfully young and will mature gracefully.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2023 Pinot Noir Eola-Amity Hills Cuvée mixes savory raspberry tones with spiced orange and rosemary to create an alluring bouquet. Lifted and pure in style, it offers crisp red berry fruits and notes of sweet lavender that swirl throughout. The finish is medium in length, crisp and fresh with a wild berry resonance that lingers.
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.