Winemaker Notes
One of five cuvées that are produced identically, with the same fermentation regimes of wild yeast and small fermentation vessels, followed by aging in blends of cooperage with 12% new oak in each. The result is a fascinating journey up the Dundee Hills, from Eyrie's lowest elevation Sisters vineyard at 220' up to our highest elevation Daphne vineyard at 860'. Each wine reflects facets of soil, site, exposure, and vine age that together capture a precise portrait of how variations in place can influence Pinot Noir.
Named for David Lett’s father Roland Green Lett, the five acres of Pinot here were planted in 1988 to Pommard and Wadenswil clones. This direct south-facing vineyard provides wines of great texture, depth and finesse from a nearly perfect site.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Pinot Noir Roland Green possesses the expressiveness, detail and weightlessness of the best wines from the 2021 vintage in the Willamette Valley. The nose is a deep well of red cherry jam, cranberry, tea leaves, lavender and alpine spices, revealing additional nuances with each return to the glass. The palate features complex, spicy, conifer-laced flavors structured by finely astringent tannins and vibrant acidity, and it has a very long, layered finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Coming from 550 to 720 feet of elevation, the 2021 Pinot Noir Roland Green is deeper ruby-colored and takes on a deeper aromatic profile with ripe red and some black fruit, black raspberry liqueur, moss-covered stones, and fresh violets. Medium-bodied, with a rounded mouthfeel, it fills the palate with ripe fruit up front then turns savory with notes of tea leaf, and its riper structure comes through as well. It’s long on the palate, with notes of scorched earth on the finish. Drink 2024-2034.
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Wine Spectator
A handsome red, finely structured and detailed, with expressive raspberry and cranberry flavors that are accented with green tea and dusky spices, building tension toward medium-grained tannins. Drink now through 2032. 196 cases made.
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.”
Home of the first Pinot noir vineyard of the Willamette Valley, planted by David Lett of Eyrie Vineyard in 1966, today the Dundee Hills AVA remains the most densely planted AVA in the valley (and state). To its north sits the Chehalem Valley and to its south, runs the Willamette River. Within the region’s 12,500 acres, about 1,700 are planted to vine on predominantly basalt-based, volcanic, Jory soil.