Winemaker Notes
Planted across from the winery in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, Stermer Vineyard has been farmed organically since being planted in 1997. With Willakenzie marine sedimentary soils composed of a thin layer of silty-clay loam atop sandstone, the wines from this site are often fuller-bodied with prominent cherry, spice and earth notes. The nose of the 2021 Stermer displays fresh raspberry and red cherry fruit accented by notes of lavender, anise and peppercorn spice. The palate is medium-bodied, textured and round. The finish is long and marked by sweet fruit and milk chocolate flavors.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
A wonderful coming together of tart red fruits and sweet spices. The Stermer Vineyard was planted in 1997 and has always been organic—classic aromas of black tea, sweet tobacco, clove and ripe blackberries. The palate is lushly fruited, layered with dark fruit flavours, bracing wintergreen, and a tart red berry finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Pinot Noir Stermer Vineyard is also a youthful medium ruby hue and lifts with notes of preserved strawberries, rosemary, orange peel, and nutmeg. Ripe and juicy on the palate, it tuns savory and lightly gamey on the mid-palate and falls off a bit short, with ripe tannins and a modest level of acidity. I would prefer to drink this over the near term, although it’s charming now.
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.”
Yamhill-Carlton, characterized by pastoral, rolling hills composed of shallow, quick-draining, ancient marine soil, is ideal for Pinot noir and other cool-climate-loving varieties. It is in the rain shadow of the Coast Range to its west, whose highest point climbs to an altitude of 3,500 feet. Yamhill-Carlton is actually surrounded by mountains on three sides: Chehalem Mountains to the north, the Dundee Hills to the east and the western Coast Range to its west, which, when it lets Pacific air through, serves to cool the region.
Vineyards grow on the ridges surrounding the two small communities of Yamhill and Carlton and cover about 1,200 acres of this 60,000 acre region, which roughly makes a horse-shoe shape on a map.