Winemaker Notes
Mimi’s Mind 2022 is a luscious, round yet structured wine with aromas of wet stone, anise, tar, blackberry and it opens up to reveal fresh savory herbs and rose. These give way to deeper fruit flavors on the palate with red and black cherry, blackberry, black tea, graphite nuances and a spine of salinity. The flavors and aromas continue through the finish which ends with fine tannins.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
The nose is floral and lifted, giving aromas of maraschino cherry, tea leaf and citrus rind. The palate is medium-bodied with seamlessly integrated tannins and acidity, showing notes of redcurrants, dried herbs, cassia bark and tobacco. Very pure and balanced, this will unfold nicely in years to come. Drink or hold.
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Wine Spectator
Fleshy in texture but steely at the core, with vibrant acidity and crushed stone accents framed by raspberry, guava, fresh violet and black tea flavors that gather tension toward fine-grained tannins. Drink now through 2034.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Pinot Noir Mimi's Mind has inviting aromas of blueberry and blackberry and nuances of allspice, forest floor and amaro. The light-bodied palate is plush and spicy, its concentrated fruit balanced by refreshing acidity, and it has a long, layered finish.
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.