Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Light and succulent, packaging its seductive red cherry, pomegranate, caramel and mineral flavors in a wispy blanket of fine tannins, deftly balanced to let it all sing together harmoniously as the finish lingers. Drink now through 2018. 2,400 cases made
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 Pinot Noir Estate Grown was aged in 43% new oak for 11 months. It gives up an expressive nose of spice box, incense, smoke, black cherry, and black raspberry. Smooth-textured, succulent, and structured, it has plenty of spicy black fruit, lively natural acidity, and the balance to evolve for 2-3 years. This lengthy effort will be at its best from 2012 to 2020.
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Wine Enthusiast
Fragrant with cranberry and strawberry fruit, this forward and appealing wine looks and drinks like a cru Beaujolais. The tasty fruit is delineated with a chocolate lining, and the tannins carry a whiff of fresh earth.
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.