Winemaker Notes
The 2018 Gran Moraine Yamhill-Carlton Pinot Noir exudes aromas of Choke cherry, sassafras, lavender, milk chocolate, and peppermint. The palate is wound like a spring with red to blue fruit notes on the mid palate, bursting with flavors of pomegranate, shitake mushrooms, black pepper, molasses, and leather. Cleansing acidity and vibrant tannins on the finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A soft yet fresh pinot that has ripe-strawberry aromas and flavors with medium body and a juicy finish. Yummy, round and delicious.
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Wine Spectator
Dynamic yet elegant and sleek, with refined cherry, dusky spice and crushed stone accents that take on richness and structure toward medium-grained tannins. Drink now through 2028.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple, the 2018 Pinot Noir Yamhill-Carlton has broody aromas of crushed cherries and blood orange with accents of forest floor and exotic spices. The medium-bodied palate is silky with uplifted, floral-laced fruits and a long, vivacious finish.
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.”
Yamhill-Carlton, characterized by pastoral, rolling hills composed of shallow, quick-draining, ancient marine soil, is ideal for Pinot noir and other cool-climate-loving varieties. It is in the rain shadow of the Coast Range to its west, whose highest point climbs to an altitude of 3,500 feet. Yamhill-Carlton is actually surrounded by mountains on three sides: Chehalem Mountains to the north, the Dundee Hills to the east and the western Coast Range to its west, which, when it lets Pacific air through, serves to cool the region.
Vineyards grow on the ridges surrounding the two small communities of Yamhill and Carlton and cover about 1,200 acres of this 60,000 acre region, which roughly makes a horse-shoe shape on a map.