Winemaker Notes
Black cherry, warm plum and raspberry chocolate truffle are cocooned within a perfume of sweet oak. Structured tannins mix with savory barrel notes leading to lengthy finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Blends tension with fresh and lovely fruit, such as raspberry and blueberry. Draws in accents of black tea, forest floor and dusky spice as this builds richness toward medium-grained tannins. Drink now
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James Suckling
Aromas of ripe strawberries, ripe cherries and roses. Medium-bodied with dense fruit and floral character. Fine, tight tannins are soaked in fruit, keeping the palate juicy. Lovely length and concentration.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Brooding aromas of licorice, black cherry liqueur, and leather jump from the glass of the 2019 Pinot Noir Estate Vineyard, and the palate is luxurious without feeling heavy, offering notes of black plum, turned soil, and espresso. With a silky texture and a rounded mouthfeel, it should warrant another year or two in bottle.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Pinot Noir Estate Vineyard features lush red and black cherry fruit on the nose with accents of charcuterie, aniseed and orange peel. The medium-bodied palate's concentrated fruit is structured by grainy tannins and refreshing acidity, and it has a long, spicy finish.
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.