Lange Winery Freedom Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir 2017
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Suckling
James
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The Freedom Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir is a single-vineyard bottling crafted since 1996 to showcase the terrior of longtime partner, Freedom Hill Vineyard and the efforts of fellow winegrowers, the Dusschee family. Warm days, cool nights, and a unique coastal influence on this pocket of the Willamette Valley allow for complete ripening while maintaining essential acid balance. The result is a structured and age-worthy wine.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This dark-fruited pinot has aromas of deeply ripe and spicy blueberries and dark plums with wild, foresty freshness that reflects a cooler site. It has an alluringly rugged feel. The palate has a rich and dense feel with deep-set tannins that carry a lot of rich, dark-plum and cherry flavor. Such length and weight. So supple and fluid.
Other Vintages
2019-
Suckling
James -
Enthusiast
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Suckling
James -
Enthusiast
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Suckling
James -
Enthusiast
Wine
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Suckling
James -
Enthusiast
Wine
More than thirty years ago, Don and Wendy Lange founded their winery in the Dundee Hills of Oregon’s northern Willamette Valley. The year 1987 marked the Langes’ first vintage and consisted of the three varietals they embrace today: Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, and Chardonnay.
New-world pioneers in the production of Pinot Gris, Lange Estate was the first to release a barrel-fermented reserve–an effort Matt Kramer of the WINE SPECTATOR calls “a bench-mark bottling.” Don Lange’s work as a winemaker has been termed “brilliant” by Hugh Johnson, and the WINE ENTHUSIAST proclaimed Lange Estate to be “one of the great Pinot Noir producers in the United States.”
Lange Estate is known for crafting beautifully balanced wines from fruit grown on the winery Estate, located in the heart of the prestigious Dundee Hills appellation. To further supplement our case production, the Langes purchase additional fruit from the best vineyards in the surrounding area. Long-standing relationships with these blue-ribbon sites have helped the winery establish a well-deserved reputation for consistency and complexity in the wines.
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.