Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Pinot Noir Warrior Princess was aged for 16 months in French oak barrels, 30% new. Medium ruby-purple colored, it springs from the glass with bold expressions of red currant jelly, pomegranate, rhubarb and wild thyme followed by hints of lavender, underbrush and tobacco leaf. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is tight-knit and intense, featuring loads of mineral and earth layers with a firm, grainy frame and long, energetic finish. 375 cases were made.
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Wine Spectator
Features vivid aromas of black raspberry, fresh violet and black tea, which open to structured and polished flavors that take on tension and complexity toward refined tannins. Drink now.
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.