Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2022 Pinot Noir Mahonia Vineyard is a jeweled ruby hue and benefits from a bit of air on opening to blow off a touch of reduction. It offers up the most intensity of these Evesham Wood Pinots, with notes of cherry cordial, sage, purple flowers, and fresh forest earth. It fills the palate with broader-shouldered, ripe tannins, and it has a good deal of intensity through the finish, though it offers good refinement.
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Vinous
The 2022 Pinot Noir Mahonia Vineyard mixes sour cherries with rosemary and shavings of blood orange as it blossoms in the glass. Pure pleasure on the palate, it is soothing, round and supple, with depths of red and blue fruits elevated by juicy acidity. Violet and lavender tones swirl throughout. The finish is long yet only gently tannic, leaving a tart twang of blackberry to linger.
Home of some of the planet’s most amazingly elegant and expressive Pinot noir, the Willamette Valley is a pastoral, mixed landscape of green, bucolic rolling hills, dramatic forestlands and small, independent, friendly wine growers. As a leader in environmental stewardship, the valley has some of the nation’s most protective land use policies, with two-thirds of its vineyards farmed sustainably and over half, organically. While the valley claims a cool, continental climate, and is heavily influenced by the cold, moist winds of the Pacific Ocean, its warm and dry summers allow for the steady, even ripening of Pinot noir.
The potential of Willamette Valley Pinot noir continues to attract the investment of serious growers and winemakers both locally and from abroad, as naturally the finished wines bring accolades from professionals and enthusiasts. With a range of styles from delicate dried cherry, raspberry and hibiscus to stronger notes of truffle, mocha, plum and spice, a fine Willamette Valley Pinot noir is a perfect expression of both character and grace.