Winemaker Notes
Due to its structure, the 2018 Mimi’s Mind starts off more focused than the other 2018 cuvées, with stunning lift. With a little air it reveals a complex of herbs, such as fresh thyme and oregano, and floral notes of rose petal and violet, rich mulberry, red cherry, raspberry, and overtones of aromatic spices such as cinnamon, vanilla and anise. The finish is enveloping and quite long. It becomes creamier and more harmonious with age in the bottle. This has been our most celebrated cuvée since our first release of the 2015 vintage.
The structure of Mimi’s Mind in its youth make it a prime candidate for pan-roasted duck breast, Lamb Provençale, filet mignon and hard cow’s milk cheeses like 18-month aged Gouda, Comté, Cantal, Parmesan, Abondance, Beaufort or other Alpine cheeses other than the Apenzell type. As this wine ages and reveals the deep fruit, spice and mineral qualities underlying its youthful fruit profile, it becomes more suited to roast chicken with morel mushrooms, braised rabbit with thyme or sous vide pork loin with thyme.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
The fruit for this wine comes from Hopewell, Mimi Casteel’s meticulously farmed vineyard. Larry Stone and his wine- maker, Thomas Savre, include about 50 per- cent whole clusters in the fermentation, and that—plus the wild and vibrant fruit charac-ter that Casteel encourages through regen-erative agriculture—results in pinot noir of exotic aromatics, profound depth and exceptional concentration. Scents of thyme and lavender, humus, bergamot and smoke overlay a wine deep in dark-berry flavor with an intensity that assures a long life ahead.
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Wine Enthusiast
Mimi Casteel’s Hopewell Vineyard is the source for this complex and detailed wine. An aromatic weave of bee pollen, wild berry and rose opens into a balanced palate. Those scents turn into flavors, along with cherries and a seam of root beer.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby, the 2018 Pinot Noir Mimi's Mind has broody aromas of blackberries laced with earth, aniseed and classy whole-cluster spice. The palate is medium-bodied, black-fruited, glossy and ultra fresh with a lovely dichotomy of bright freshness lifting the long finish.
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James Suckling
Aromas of wild blackberries, redcurrants and tea leaves with floral undertones. It’s medium-bodied with crunchy tannins. Juicy and textured with bright acidity and spicy character. Vibrant and focused. Drink or hold.
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.