Winemaker Notes
Vines make sugar from air, sunlight, and water. 2019’s well-timed rains increased sweetness while still retaining acidity - which leads to some of the best qualities a wine can have: refreshing and food friendly when young, but with superb cellar potential.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Pinot Meunier is expressive and detailed. It has a medium ruby color and aromas of wild red and black berries, orange peel, pipe tobacco, iodine and leather. The medium-bodied palate features restrained, mineral-driven fruit, chalky tannins, mouthwatering acidity and a long, spicy finish that calls you in for another sip.
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James Suckling
Mushrooms, earth, raspberries, mulberries and crushed cherry stones here. Orange pith, too. Relatively firm but fine carpet of tannins, giving structure. Medium-bodied, creamy and complex.
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Wine & Spirits
Primarily from two estate vineyards, Daphne and Sisters, this is foresty and lean. It leads with the scent of plum tea and turned humus, the flavors grippy and austere, with a hunger-inducing tartness.
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Wine Enthusiast
The aromas start out reduced, with notes of gun smoke so prominent that they cause some distraction. Beyond that are aromas of grapefruit, fresh herb, potpourri and red fruit. The flavors are light-bodied, fresh and lively. Cinnamony tannins back it all up. More, please! Decant to clear the reduction if it needs it.
Editors' Choice -
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Pinot Meunier pours a medium ruby hue and is lifted with ripe mixed berry fruit, red flowers, and white pepper. Medium-bodied, with fresh, mouthwatering acidity, its fine tannins expand on the palate with a balanced, gripping feel, and it has a note of a toasty incense on the finish.
Almost exclusively used in the production of Champagne, Pinot Meunier is a late budding and early ripening red variety that was once planted extensively throughout northern France. When blended into Champagne’s eponymous sparkling wine, Pinot Meunier adds lively fruit. Chardonnay adds brightness and Pinot Noir is appreciated for structure and weight. Pinot Meunier has acidity levels higher than in Pinot Noir, making it a prized choice for Champagne growers. It thrives in cool north-facing vineyards and is able to withstand damp or frost-prone valleys. Somm Secret—Not surprisingly, it does well in Germany where it goes by Müllerrebe or confusingly, Schwarzriesling.
One of Pinot Noir's most successful New World outposts, the Willamette Valley is the largest and most important AVA in Oregon. With a continental climate moderated by the influence of the Pacific Ocean, it is perfect for cool-climate viticulture and the production of elegant wines.
Mountain ranges bordering three sides of the valley, particularly the Chehalem Mountains, provide the option for higher-elevation vineyard sites.
The valley's three prominent soil types (volcanic, sedimentary and silty, loess) make it unique and create significant differences in wine styles among its vineyards and sub-AVAs. The iron-rich, basalt-based, Jory volcanic soils found commonly in the Dundee Hills are rich in clay and hold water well; the chalky, sedimentary soils of Ribbon Ridge, Yamhill-Carlton and McMinnville encourage complex root systems as vines struggle to search for water and minerals. In the most southern stretch of the Willamette, the Eola-Amity Hills sub-AVA soils are mixed, shallow and well-drained. The Hills' close proximity to the Van Duzer Corridor (which became its own appellation as of 2019) also creates grapes with great concentration and firm acidity, leading to wines that perfectly express both power and grace.
Though Pinot noir enjoys the limelight here, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay also thrive in the Willamette. Increasing curiosity has risen recently in the potential of others like Grüner Veltliner, Chenin Blanc and Gamay.