Winemaker Notes
The fruit for The Plow 2021 comes from the three upper blocks with a special massale selection of PN777 on Gelderman-Jory soils, with a layer of large gravels that impart extra energy to the vines and create more complex flavors. Wines grown here are the most balanced and intriguing of our estate, with floral notes, minerality, freshness, round tannins, and length. In 2021 this translated into a terroir-driven layered wine, with aromatic complexity. Because the wines were more structured this year, around 7% of the cuvée came from PN115 which smoothed out the tannins. The color is medium intense, ruby with an aroma of cedar, rose, morel and porcini mushroom, black currant, vanilla, and graphite. The palate reveals both black and red cherry, cinnamon, vanilla, black tea and plums.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Refreshing and long on the palate, the 2021 Pinot Noir The Plow pours a medium ruby hue and is expressive but needs time. It has a touch of reduction and would benefit from a decant if opening young. It opens to reveal a beautiful, elegant perfume of rosewater, tangerine, grenadine, and graphite, followed by a pure, medium-bodied red with outstanding energy and a weightless feel while retaining a wonderful tannin structure that will feel angular at first to some. It’s long on the palate and is deceiving, as it’s such a pleasure to taste now.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Pinot Noir The Plow has detailed, layered aromas of cranberry, raspberry, tea leaves, aniseed and woodsy undertones. The light-bodied palate features concentrated, nuanced flavors. It has softly astringent tannins, seamless acidity and a very long finish with a flourish of spicy accents.
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Wine Spectator
Elegant yet brooding at the core, with bright cherry, crushed stone, mushroom and black tea flavors that gather intensity and tension toward medium-grained tannins.
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James Suckling
A juicy, well-rounded and fruity red with cherry, dried leaf and baking spice aromas. It’s medium-bodied with sleek tannins and fresh acidity. Vivid and playful with a supple character throughout.
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.