Winemaker Notes
Bright and classic ruby-red in color with a purple hue, the first fragrance conveys hints of rosemary and lavender and boasting mixed red and black fruits. It quickly opens in the glass to reveal bramble-berry and wed bedrock on a light spice frame. A soft palate entry with a juicy & fruity core, very smooth and elegant coating texture travels the length and finishes with a wonderful tightening. The quintessential definition of a beautiful Pinot Noir, very complete and showing promises of getting better through time.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Pinot Noir Elton Vineyard is ripe with red fruits as well as a hint of purple violets. The palate is fresh and energetic despite the warm vintage and feels more structured.
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Wine Enthusiast
Elton's 30-year-old vines weave subtle threads of herb, root and earth around its tight wild strawberry, currant and red licorice flavors. The earthy details run deep, which supports tucking this bottle away for up to a decade.
Cellar Selection -
Tasting Panel
A forest-floor quality to the nose. Floral palate spiced with cinnamon. The texture is very silky and long.
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Wine & Spirits
Oak is in the driver’s seat in this posh, generous red, a caramel core of structure in support of dark spiced cherry flavors. The texture has the feel of burnished wood, smooth and fine grained, with lingering notes of allspice on the finish.
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Wine Spectator
Plump and structured, with distinctly savory cherry aromas and precise raspberry, stony mineral and dried herb flavors. Tannic finish. Best after 2018.
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.