Winemaker Notes
Initial aromatics of salted caramel and dark chocolate lead to deep and diverse notes of paprika, fig, graphite, oyster shell, cedar, clove and nutmeg laced with beautiful floral wafts of violet and dried rose petal. The palate is seamless with flavors of bittersweet chocolate, ancho and candied citrus. The finish is long with chalky tannins.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Smooth and silky, this lovely reserve is loaded with ripe plum and cherry fruit. Barrel aging (20 months in 30% new French oak) brings cedar, nutmeg and chocolate notes. There's a pinch of pepper also, as it winds gracefully through a long finish.
Editor's Choice
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James Suckling
This has bright, punchy aromas of cassis and ripe dark cherries with anise and forest-wood notes. The palate offers a very vibrant core of fine tannins that is set in stony, fine style and delivers a savory, long and elegant finish. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale to medium ruby-purple, the 2016 Pinot Noir Reserve has slowly blossoming scents of cured meats, pink peppercorn, warm earth and dried herbs and flowers with red currant, cranberry and blackberry fruit and a streak of sweet spices. The medium-bodied palate is uber silky and granular with juicy freshness and a long finish. This is approachable now but will benefit from another couple of years in bottle. This was aged 20 months in 30% new French oak.
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Wine Spectator
Polished and structured, featuring vibrant raspberry and cherry flavors, accented by orange peel and savory spice notes that build richness toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2026.
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.”
The Chehalem Mountains is a northwest-southeast span of several distinct mountains, ridges and peaks in the northern part of the Willamette Valley. Of all of Willamette Valley's smaller AVAs, it is closest to the city of Portland. Its highest summit, Bald Peak at an elevation of 1,633 feet, serves to generate cooler air for the rest of the AVA and its hillside vineyards. The region covers 70,000 acres but only 1,600 acres are planted to vines; soils of the Chehalem Mountains are a mix of basalt, ocean sediment and loess.