Winemaker Notes
Although just the second interpretation of this cuvee, Nicolas-Jay has been envisioning this wines construction since their very first vintage. This really is the collection of the best blocks and barrels of everything they farm. The 2019 L’Ensemble showcases Christmas spice, currants, blueberries and sweet forest floor notes. The front end brings strawberries, then chalky granite complexities, and subsequently shifts back to a fresh cranberry and hood river cherry. A framing of gentle vanilla weight from extra
aging in French oak completes the palate. The fruit is cascading in effect, it forms in waves, with precise integration and symmetry that supports the wine’s finesse and power.
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: Nicolas-Jay L'Ensemble Pinot Noir is "the collection of the best blocks and barrels of everything they farm." The 2019 vintage is a synergy of excellence. Enjoy its aromas and flavors of dried leaves, wild strawberries, and other alluring berries, and shading of oak with roast turkey, giblet gravy, and white wine reduction sauce. (Tasted: September 26, 2022, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Spectator
A wine with grace and tension, this opens with pretty violet aromas that lead to vibrant, steely raspberry and guava flavors accented by forest floor and spices. Ends with refined, mineral-tinged tannins.
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James Suckling
Aromas of strawberries, spices and flowers follow through to a medium body with a firm and slightly chewy mouth-feel and a delicious finish. Give it time to come together and open. Unfined and unfiltered. Drink after 2025.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Pinot Noir L'Ensemble has savory aromas of cranberry sauce, crushed blueberries, pennyroyal, woodsmoke and black tea leaves. The light-bodied palate is grainy and refreshing with delicate, detailed floral flavors and an elegant finish.
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.