Winemaker Notes
Floral and spice focused. Juicy red and black fruits linger on the palate with notes of orange zest, potting soil and black tea.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Vibrant and high-toned for the range, the pure ruby-colored 2021 Pinot Noir Shea Vineyard comes from the clay soils on the much cooler east hill of the vineyard and is very pretty, with spicy aromas of spiced cranberry cocktail, anise, and fresh pine. Medium-bodied, with fine tannins and fresh, even acidity, it’s long on the palate, with a flourish of delicate blue floral and fruit tones coming through on this very elegant and seamless wine. It is approachable now but will certainly be a long-lived wine.
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Wine Enthusiast
This lithe gem shows restraint in every area except flavor. It features bright acidity, restrained alcohol, silky tannins and a mouthfeel as crisp as an icy winter morning. Dark raspberries, earth and violets fill the air while tart cherry, espresso and orange pekoe tea flavors conquer all else.
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James Suckling
Raspberries, fresh red plums, sandalwood, bark and orange zest on the nose. It’s medium-bodied with fine, velvety tannins and vivid acidity. Creamy, layered and toned.
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.