J. Christopher Dundee Hills Cuvee Pinot Noir 2012
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Wine
Enthusiast -
Robert
Parker
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Wine Enthusiast
Sourced from several different Dundee Hills vineyards, this wraps its black cherry fruit in tart acids, chalky minerals, and a hint of iron. Substantial, muscular and stiff out of the bottle, it will blossom with further bottle age. It’s already a sturdy, expressive, impressive wine with deep flavors of fruit, earth and rock.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Pinot Noir Dundee Hills Cuvee comes from five vineyard sources, including Bella Vinda and La Colina. Picked October 11-18, 100% destemmed and matured for 20 months in oak barriques, it has a focused and vibrant bouquet with clean redcurrant and black plum fruit, with just a slight tinny quality coming through. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy red berry fruit, understated on the entry, but very nicely balanced with a focused and elegant, feminine finish. There is a sense of suaveness about this Pinot Noir that ticks all the boxes.
Other Vintages
2009-
Robert
Parker
Located in Oregon’s Northern Willamette Valley, J. Christopher Wines is a boutique winery that specializes in Pinot Noir made in the traditional style of Burgundy, and in Sauvignon Blanc modeled after the superlative wines of Sancerre. The winery is owned by world renowned Ernst Loosen, of Weingut Dr. Loosen in Germany. Erni’s lifetime passion for the wines of Burgundy has led to a philosophy to produce elegant, nuanced wines in a distinctly Old World style with an emphasis on lower alcohol and a modest amount of oak. The wines have garnered an international reputation for their purity, balance and food-friendly drinkability.
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.