Winemaker Notes
Pair with venison chops with blackberry compote, salmon with bacon and lentils.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The medium ruby red 2008 Pinot Noir Estate offers up a lovely perfume of cherry blossom, cinnamon, incense, cranberry, and raspberry. Elegant on the palate with plenty of spicy red fruit, lively acidity, and enough structure to evolve for several years, it will be at its best from 2013 to 2023.
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Wine & Spirits
Jason Lett carries on his father's legacy in this stylish pinot: Like other vintages from Eyrie, this '08 is so quiet and light bodied it almost disappears in a lineup of its peers. But with air, its cool, savory accents win out, building on floras notes of violet adn tuberose, and on flavors of pomegranate and wild strawberry. for the cellar.
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Wine Spectator
Light on its feet, but with rich, ripe flavors, a green edge intruding on the dark plum and currant fruit. Focuses sharply as the finish lingers impressively. Needs time to settle into itself. Best from 2013 through 2020.
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.