Winemaker Notes
The 2016 wines show an incredible density and concentration, with brilliant red and black fruit and impressive tannins. The 2016 Willamette Valley is a focused wine, revealing a darker nose than the previous vintage, with black cherry and plum accented by hints of violet, dried herbs, and bay laurel. The palate is supported by a backbone of racy acidity which lingers long into the finish and offers bright red fruit along with savory herbs, olive, and a saline edge.
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: Some wines steal your heart, and the first vintage of Nicolas Jay—the stunning 2014 vintage brought me to my knees, begging for more. The 2016 vintage (just like the outstanding 2015 vintage) makes a powerful statement on how extraordinary the Willamette Valley can be. TASTING NOTES: This wine stands on its a pedestal as one of the most impressive Pinot Noirs in the world. Enjoy its outstanding aromas and flavors of red and black fruits, savory spices and chalk, and enticing earth and stones. Pair it with wild game birds and perhaps a holiday turkey with all the trimmings. (Tasted: July 24, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Spectator
Precise, deeply structured yet graceful, with expressive black cherry, river stone and black tea accents that build richness toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2024.
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James Suckling
Really lovely cherries and brambly raspberries, graphite and red flowers on the nose, leading to a rich and dark, deep, plush and spicy palate that has a very pure core of satiny, silky fruit flavor.
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Wine Enthusiast
Young and a bit chewy, this brings a nicely-layered mix of orange peel, almond paste, black cherry, sassafras and cola, all in good proportion. Those well-integrated components are further highlighted with a streak of iron ore and graphite. The complexity is already impressive, and seems sure to improve with age.
Cellar Selection
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.