Winemaker Notes
Right away, wafting out of this dark, brooding wine comes sweet earth and roasted oak. It's savory, like always, but this vintage is forcing imagery of holiday spices, cinnamon and oatmeal. On the palate there is sweet, dried tea leaves lifted with a brightness of ripe strawberry, candied raspberries and notes of herbs similar to rosemary and thyme. The own rooted vines bring an incredible energy to the wine, allowing for a unique rusticity combined with beautiful elegance. Cherry cordial and pretty fruit on entry, then quickly shifts into roasted nuts and strong savory attributes.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Dark berries and strawberries with some earth and tar. Medium to full body, round and juicy tannins and a flavorful finish. Lots going on here. Opens at the end. Unfined and unfiltered. Layered and citrus rind texture. Serious. Needs three or four years to open. Best after 2024.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Pinot Noir Own-Rooted embodies power and elegance. It has singular scents of rooibos and Earl Grey tea, blood orange and cranberry, dried violet, mushroom and woodsmoke. With a lacy frame of tannins and seamless freshness, it glides through the mouth with concentrated citrus and floral layers, and it finishes with tremendous length.
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Wine & Spirits
This blend showcases older Willamette Valley sites including Nysa and the Bishop Creek estate vineyard. The predominance of the Pommard clone in these plantings shapes the feel of the wine, a quiet and reserved pinot noir with savory scents of cedar and rose petal and a firm, fleshy texture.
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Wine Spectator
Floral and savory, this Pinot offers elegance and dimension, with cherry and pomegranate flavors that mingle with orange peel, fresh violet and dusky spice. Finishes with polished tannins. Drink now.
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.