Winemaker Notes
Located in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, Savoya vineyard is on ancient marine sedimentary parent material at 350-450 ft elevation on a Southeast inclination. The wine is floral and spice focused. Dried leaves and saddle leather deepen the aroma of black currant, cranberry and dried cherry. Rich on the palate with hints of cola.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
In a most successful vintage for all the KW vineyard selects, the Savoya is especially impressive. Bright and spicy raspberry fruit has a lightly high-toned lift to it, and a burst of citrus adds juicy nectarines to the mix. The wine breathes open quickly and smooths out into a long finish, with a gently resonant wash of almond paste and chocolate.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: We all know the saying, "If the wine is not overripe and garish, it has a chance to show off its complexities." The 2017 Ken Wright Savoya Pinot Noir shows the intricacies of this grape variety when planted under excellent conditions. TASTING NOTES: This multi-dimensional wine is expressive. Its aromas and flavors of tart boysenberries, dried leather, and savory accents should pair it well with braised chicken and morels. (Tasted: February 12, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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.”
Yamhill-Carlton, characterized by pastoral, rolling hills composed of shallow, quick-draining, ancient marine soil, is ideal for Pinot noir and other cool-climate-loving varieties. It is in the rain shadow of the Coast Range to its west, whose highest point climbs to an altitude of 3,500 feet. Yamhill-Carlton is actually surrounded by mountains on three sides: Chehalem Mountains to the north, the Dundee Hills to the east and the western Coast Range to its west, which, when it lets Pacific air through, serves to cool the region.
Vineyards grow on the ridges surrounding the two small communities of Yamhill and Carlton and cover about 1,200 acres of this 60,000 acre region, which roughly makes a horse-shoe shape on a map.