Winemaker Notes
Medium ruby red is its color. Cinnamon, Bing cherry, and freshly sharpened pencil waft from the surface. On the palate it mounts an attack that can only be described as a longed-for-ambush. What? Yeah, it’s a surprisingly bombastic mouthful of freshly ripened red fruit: raspberry, currant, strawberry, red plum and cherry. Fresh, vibrant, intense and gulpable are words that come close. There’s a whole lot of background sophistication, absolutely no stupidity and forever drinkability here. Go long Jimmy.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Intense, spicy aromas of cinnamon and cardamom dress ripe and fresh blueberries and cherries. The palate is succulent yet mellow and the fresh berries are really approachable now. Drink now. Screw cap.
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Wine Spectator
Refined and tightly focused, with an expressive beam of cherry, savory spice and black tea flavors that finish with fine-grained tannins. Drink now through 2027.
Home of some of the planet’s most amazingly elegant and expressive Pinot noir, the Willamette Valley is a pastoral, mixed landscape of green, bucolic rolling hills, dramatic forestlands and small, independent, friendly wine growers. As a leader in environmental stewardship, the valley has some of the nation’s most protective land use policies, with two-thirds of its vineyards farmed sustainably and over half, organically. While the valley claims a cool, continental climate, and is heavily influenced by the cold, moist winds of the Pacific Ocean, its warm and dry summers allow for the steady, even ripening of Pinot noir.
The potential of Willamette Valley Pinot noir continues to attract the investment of serious growers and winemakers both locally and from abroad, as naturally the finished wines bring accolades from professionals and enthusiasts. With a range of styles from delicate dried cherry, raspberry and hibiscus to stronger notes of truffle, mocha, plum and spice, a fine Willamette Valley Pinot noir is a perfect expression of both character and grace.