Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
It takes a day for this pinot to shed its oak robe and tarry spice, revealing a bright red core of fruit, like sun-warmed cherries. The texture feels light, lifted, the acids and tannins working together with an effortless harmony. A Wednesday-night pinot.
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Wine Spectator
Light and polished, with white pepper–accented raspberry and floral flavors that persist against fine tannins on the long and precise finish. Drink now through 2020.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Two Messengers was matured in 30% new oak. It has a fresh and vibrant bouquet with wild strawberry and red cherry scents: nicely focused and vivacious for the 2013 vintage. The palate is lively on the entry with supple, quite tensile tannin and plenty of citrus fruit lending tension and poise. For me, this is a step forward over the 2012, and at thirty dollars, represents outstanding value.
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.