Winemaker Notes
Attractive dark crimson color, almost saturated to the edge. Complex aromas of dark wild berry fruit, lavender, and dusty earth and wild herbs on a warm day. Impactful entry with volume and weight, though not at all heavy. The concentrated and still dense medley of black, red, and dried blue berry flavors are intermingled with notes of earth and stones. Refined tannins are well-integrated, and the acidity provides super length. Chewy and ripe, with a very promising future.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
From a certified organic, high-quality site, the absolutely stunning 2021 Pinot Noir Temperance Hill Vineyard pours a deeper jeweled ruby with purple tinge. It will also certainly do well to decant if opening any time soon, but it quickly blows off to reveal a gorgeous spectrum of aromas including kirsch, lavender, clove, and forest floor. Medium to full-bodied, with a weightless feel and a velvety texture, it offers pillowy tannins and fresh balanced acidity. This exceptional and harmonious red is a fantastic counterpart to the Tualatin Hills Estate Vineyard bottling. Bravo. Drink 2025-2045.
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James Suckling
A fruity, crisp and succulent pinot with aromas of forest berries, grilled meat and porcini mushrooms. Medium-bodied with bright acidity. Silky texture with a rather intense and structured mid-palate. Vibrant and focused, with a clear finish of tension and length.
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Wine Enthusiast
Raspberry and lavender aromas make me happy. When a third aroma reminds me of warm ginger cookies, I’m over the moon. The wine’s texture is rough like a pair of new corduroys, with grippy tannins making their presence felt. Flavors of tangy cranberries and bold black tea dominate the palate.
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Wine Spectator
Savory and dynamic, offering deeply structured raspberry and guava flavors laced with crushed stone, clove and sandalwood tones as this builds tension toward medium-grained tannins.
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.