Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Pinot Noir Zena Crown Vineyard is pale to medium ruby-purple in color with an elegant, perfumed nose of wild blackberries, new leather, pipe tobacco and undergrowth plus notes of cardamom and garrigue. Light to medium-bodied and silky in the mouth, it offers great black and blue fruits framed with spice and earthy accents, held together with firm, plush tannins and juicy acidity and finishing long and packed with wonderful layers.
Rating: 93+ -
Wine Spectator
Supple and well-structured, with savory black cherry aromas that open to polished raspberry, orange zest and spiced cinnamon flavors, finishing with refined tannins.
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James Suckling
Fresh and perfumed notes of blackcurrants, ivy, bark, dark chocolate shavings, orange zest and a hint of citrus rind and spices. This has a sturdy and firm tannins backbone on the palate with fresh acidity, crunchy fruit and a walnut finish.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2015 Penner-Ash Zena Crown Pinot Noir is generous and authentic. TASTING NOTES: This wine offers aromas and flavors of red and black fruits with savory spices. Enjoy it with grilled lamb. (Tasted: April 10, 2022, San Francisco, CA)
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.”
Running north to south, adjacent to the Willamette River, the Eola-Amity Hills AVA has shallow and well-drained soils created from ancient lava flows (called Jory), marine sediments, rocks and alluvial deposits. These soils force vine roots to dig deep, producing small grapes with great concentration.
Like in the McMinnville sub-AVA, cold Pacific air streams in via the Van Duzer Corridor and assists the maintenance of higher acidity in its grapes. This great concentration, combined with marked acidity, give the Eola-Amity Hills wines—namely Pinot noir—their distinct character. While the region covers 40,000 acres, no more than 1,400 acres are covered in vine.