Winemaker Notes
This vintage of the Willamette Valley blend shows a bright nose with cherry, red apple, fresh flowers, and a touch of loam along with a textural creamy/silkiness component that’s balanced by juicy acid. Showing well now, watch this wine evolve over the next three months to 8-10 years.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2023 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley is understated and coy, with an enticing bouquet of dusty rose, crushed cherries and autumnal spice filling the glass. Silken and polished, it offers radiant red berry fruits and a gentle tug of crunchy minerals for balance. This 2023 finishes with excellent length and leaves a cascade of inner florals to fade slowly.
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.