Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This 44-year-old vineyard was picked early, keeping finished alcohol well below last year's bottling. Clean Bing cherry fruit with a lovely seam of mocha washing over and through the palate makes this especially inviting for near-term drinking.
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Wine & Spirits
A bit of reduction has left this wine tense, at once savory in its cedary scents, and red-fruited and forward with flavors of crushed cherries. It feels firm and well built, just needing time to settle. (239 cases)
Home of some of the planet’s most amazingly elegant and expressive Pinot noir, the Willamette Valley is a pastoral, mixed landscape of green, bucolic rolling hills, dramatic forestlands and small, independent, friendly wine growers. As a leader in environmental stewardship, the valley has some of the nation’s most protective land use policies, with two-thirds of its vineyards farmed sustainably and over half, organically. While the valley claims a cool, continental climate, and is heavily influenced by the cold, moist winds of the Pacific Ocean, its warm and dry summers allow for the steady, even ripening of Pinot noir.
The potential of Willamette Valley Pinot noir continues to attract the investment of serious growers and winemakers both locally and from abroad, as naturally the finished wines bring accolades from professionals and enthusiasts. With a range of styles from delicate dried cherry, raspberry and hibiscus to stronger notes of truffle, mocha, plum and spice, a fine Willamette Valley Pinot noir is a perfect expression of both character and grace.