Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Bright and jazzy, this is refreshingly balanced toward its light texture, but glows with pretty currant and red plum fruit. Picks up mineral and spice notes as it lingers easily and compellingly on the refined finish. Drink now through 2016.
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Wine Enthusiast
2008 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir Big, bold and ripe, this Oregon pinot has California richness. Scents of plum compote and generous oak extract lead into black cherry jam flavors. With such richness, it's a wonder the wine keeps on the rails, but it does. For grilled lamb chops.
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.