Winemaker Notes
Lush fruits of black cherry, blackberry and red plum. Rich notes of freshly turned earth, magnolia flower and sweet touches of white chocolate. Young round silky tannins provide a long finish.
These soil series were born from the volcanic eruptions of the Blue Mountains 15 million years ago, which created basalt islands that still sit on the top of Northern Willamette Valley hills. This representation of those volcanic soil series is specifically from the Eola-Amity Hills AVA. Ken Wright has been working with their Estate vineyards in the Eola-Amity Hills since the late 80s and they are now firmly tapped into the volcanic basalt parent material. This mother rock is what gives wine true character and identifiable regional complexities of this Volcanic AVA.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Structured and full of tension, this Pinot captures what Eola-Amity is all about, featuring handsome notes of blueberry and dark cherry laced with a savory minerality and dusky spices notes, finishing with medium-grained 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.