Nicolas-Jay Carlton Estate Bishop Creek Vineyard Pinot Noir 2018
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James
Suckling - Decanter
Product Details
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Winemaker Notes
This Yamhill-Carlton estate consistently produces fruit of unparalleled power and intensity, and this 2018 vintage does not disappoint. Black cap blackberry, roasted meat, toasted nut and blueberry fruit on the nose. Broad and powerful up front as tannins generate to expose chalky-sweet, dark berry fruits with snaps of refreshing citrus, tobacco leaf and limestone flashes. Impressive balance between strength and
focused intensity is sure to impress Pinot Noir loyalists.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Complex aromas of cherry stones, blueberries, wild plums, lemon zest, wet earth and dried spices. It’s medium-bodied with tight-grained tannins. Tight and refined. Better in a year or two. Unfiltered. Drink from 2022.
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Decanter
The first estate vineyard in the Nicolas-Jay joint venture is Bishop Creek, located in Yamhill-Carlton AVA and planted on its own roots in 1988 and 1990. Jean-Nicolas Meo and his Oregon winemaker Tracy Kendall have produced a winning result in 2018, with ripe red and black cherry aromas, a hint of spice, and a texture that is lovely, rich, and dense but not heavy. This wine shows well now but will certainly age for at least a decade.
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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.”
Yamhill-Carlton, characterized by pastoral, rolling hills composed of shallow, quick-draining, ancient marine soil, is ideal for Pinot noir and other cool-climate-loving varieties. It is in the rain shadow of the Coast Range to its west, whose highest point climbs to an altitude of 3,500 feet. Yamhill-Carlton is actually surrounded by mountains on three sides: Chehalem Mountains to the north, the Dundee Hills to the east and the western Coast Range to its west, which, when it lets Pacific air through, serves to cool the region.
Vineyards grow on the ridges surrounding the two small communities of Yamhill and Carlton and cover about 1,200 acres of this 60,000 acre region, which roughly makes a horse-shoe shape on a map.