Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Roughly half and half Stermer Vineyard and Meyer Vineyard fruit is selected for this reserve blend. It’s a deep-diving wine that pushes precise flavors of black cherry, licorice, vanilla and espresso front and center. A hint of truffle comes up in the finish, and the overall structure and balance are spot-on. You could cellar this for a few more years, but it’s already drinking very nicely, so why wait?
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Pinot Noir Jerome Reserve comes from Wadenswil, 114 and 777 clones, cropped on October 5 and 19 at 1.9 tons per acre. Most of the fruit was destemmed with a high proportion of whole berries, aged for 14 months in 47% new and the remainder used oak barrels. It has one of the most complex aromatic profiles of Lemelson's range, with impressive delineation and focus. Here the fruit is more red than black with subtle forest-floor scents emerging with time. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, quite elegant in the mouth with fine tension, although I would have liked a little more flesh and body toward the linear finish. Still, this is nicely focused, almost understated, and should age with style.
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Wine Spectator
Fresh and vibrant, firmly packed into a frame of fine tannins, with cherry, clove and white tea flavors on a lithe texture. Long finish. Best from 2016 through 2020.
Lemelson Vineyards began as a dream to create a winery grounded in nature, inspired by tradition in winemaking, and driven by innovation in technology. From the beginning, organic farming was at the core of that vision. Through organic viticulture and gravity-flow production, Lemelson crafts estate-grown Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, and Riesling that honor Oregon’s Willamette Valley.
Founder Eric Lemelson planted his first organically farmed vineyard in Yamhill County in 1995. Realizing that he loved the work involved in growing wine grapes, two years later he planted an additional 30 acres of Pinot noir and began planning the construction of a gravity-flow winery. Sustainability and organic practices were guiding principles from the start, both in the vineyards and in the winery, which was ultimately constructed using recycled and renewable materials. The intention was building something that would not only serve consumers but also the longevity of their pristine home state of Oregon.
Their commitment to organic farming and sustainability extends to all facets of winery life and ensures that all living components, be they land, vine, or human, are well cared for. It’s their belief that the glass you’re enjoying at home starts before vines were ever planted. The process from planting to drinking must be nurtured at all steps.
When you drink Lemelson wine, you are not only drinking an elegant, expressive Willamette Valley wine, you’re taking part in their journey to protect the earth for generations to come, and they thank you for that.
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.