Winemaker Notes
Hamilton Russell Vineyards in South Africa has developed an international reputation over 40 vintages for unusually restrained, classically styled Pinot Noir, with deep structure and spice balancing fruit opulence.
Hamilton Russell Oregon aims to express this stylistic philosophy with the very best Willamette Valley fruit - showcasing the restrained, structured classicism of great European Pinot Noir and the bright purity of Oregon fruit.
The celebrated Zena Crown vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills, delivers a dark spice and tensile, fine-grained tannin structure to balance the complex lifted fruit the best Oregon Pinot Noir is known for.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Pinot Noir Zena Crown has a pale ruby-purple color and bright scents of raspberries, strawberries, powdered sugar, watermelon and dried herbs. Medium-bodied, the palate offers good concentration with a sturdy frame and long, juicy 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.”
Running north to south, adjacent to the Willamette River, the Eola-Amity Hills AVA has shallow and well-drained soils created from ancient lava flows (called Jory), marine sediments, rocks and alluvial deposits. These soils force vine roots to dig deep, producing small grapes with great concentration.
Like in the McMinnville sub-AVA, cold Pacific air streams in via the Van Duzer Corridor and assists the maintenance of higher acidity in its grapes. This great concentration, combined with marked acidity, give the Eola-Amity Hills wines—namely Pinot noir—their distinct character. While the region covers 40,000 acres, no more than 1,400 acres are covered in vine.