Winemaker Notes
Deep and inviting ruby-red. A bouquet of red cherry, black tea and warm, fully realized floral notes. Cool, tart red fruits give way to complex and deeply layered notes of cola, blackberry and earthy tones. Sleek and well delineated this is energetic and mouthwatering with fine tannins.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
A vibrant red hue, the 2022 Pinot Noir Tualatin Estate is also vibrant in the glass, offering beautiful potpourri spices as well as notes of red berries, cranberry, and orange peel. From 50-year-old vines, the wine offers a refined, fine-grained texture, with great finesse and clarity throughout. Give it another couple of years to put on some weight. At this stage, it’s beautiful and feels approachable, but don't let it fool you. Drink 2026-2040.
Rating: 95+ -
Vinous
A vibrant blend of bright cherry-berry fruits comes together with rose petals and hints of balsamic spice as the 2022 Pinot Noir Tualatin Estate opens. Lifted and refined, it flows across the palate with ease as a cascade of ripe wild berries and tactile mineral tones give way to inner violet florals. A bump of brisk acidity maintains fantastic freshness despite a saturation of primary concentration and grippy tannins, all offset by a tinge of sour citrus. This is remarkably pretty yet in need of further cellaring to show its best.
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Wine Spectator
Detailed and savory, with handsome raspberry and pomegranate flavors showing summer savory and black tea accents that built tension toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2032.
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James Suckling
Dusty yet aromatic, this red shows aromas of ripe cherries, dried cranberries, hibiscus and red spices. The medium-bodied palate is juicy and lithe, with soft tannins and a textural, lingering finish.
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.