Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Coming from the Eola-Amity Hills region of Oregon, the 2016 Pinot Noir Warrior Princess is world class all the way, and I’d put this up against any Pinot Noir out there. Medium ruby-colored with a beautiful perfume of black cherries, blackberries, violets, wood smoke, and earth, it hits the palate with medium-bodied richness, incredible balance, subtle background oak, and a great, great finish. This is a complete, beautiful Pinot Noir that will benefit from 2-3 years of bottle age and cruise for a decade.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Pinot Noir Warrior Princess comes from several blocks in the Zena Crown vineyard, aged for 16 months in 29% new French oak and bottled unfined and unfiltered. Medium to deep ruby-purple colored, it bursts from the glass with bold black cherries, black raspberries and blueberry scents with hints of spice cake, red roses and red licorice plus a touch of underbrush. Full, rich and packed with perfumed black fruits, it has a plush texture and refreshing lift on the finish.
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Wine Spectator
Voluptuous and gracefully complex, with expressive raspberry and violet accents that build structure and notes of stony mineral toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2025.
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.