Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Named after Mimi Casteel of Hope Well, the 2023 Pinot Noir Mimi's Mind has a deeper profile and pours a ruby red color. Boasting lush notes of sage, forest earth, black cherries, and wildflowers, it’s a structured red with a medium to full-bodied frame and offers more power in the range while remaining elegant. It has some grip through the finish, but I see this one improving over time and drinking its best over the next 15-20 years.
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Vinous
The 2022 Pinot Noir Mimi's Mind opens with mentholated freshness as rosemary, sage and peppery rose complement dried strawberries. Silky in feel, it sweeps across the palate with ripe red and black fruits driven by zesty acidity as fine-grained tannins saturate toward the close. A sour citrus twang and savory herbal tones resonate, framed by polished tannins.
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Wine Spectator
A fragrant red, with tiers of cherry and tart raspberry that take on rose petal, orange peel and crushed stone accents as this builds tension toward sinewy tannins.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Pinot Noir Mimi's Mind has explosive scents of blueberry, pomegranate, forest floor and earthy undertones. The medium-bodied palate is concentrated and perfumed. It’s framed by soft, supple tannins and refreshing acidity and has a long, fragrant 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.