Winemaker Notes
This perfumed nose holds spice notes of clove, anise and cinnamon underlaid by lilac, lavender and cherry wood aromatics. The mouth is focused and structured with long tannins laced with chocolate nibs, sweet Bing cherries and rich notes of dried fig and black tea.
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
Aromas of flowers, stems and ripe and dried strawberries. Lavender, too. Medium to full body. Firm and tight structure with black fruit and a flavorful finish. So long and seamless. Needs time to open and give you what it has. Old-vine wine from almost 50-year-old heirloom clones.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale ruby, the 2018 Pinot Noir Reserve Estate Grown is scented of cranberry sauce, violet, tea leaves, blood orange and wood smoke. The light-bodied palate is grainy and refreshing with generous floral perfume, concentrated fruit and a long, layered finish. Best After 2023
-
Wine Enthusiast
This reserve pulls from the estate's Aurora, Abetina, Avellana and Madrona vineyards. Tart cranberry, pomegranate and raspberry fruits combine here. It's young and juicy and spicy with blood-orange acidity. Definitely built to age, this may be enjoyed now and over the next decade.
Cellar Selection -
Wine Spectator
A broad-shouldered style but refined and polished, with deep blueberry and raspberry flavors laced with stony minerals, black tea and dusky spice. Builds tension toward medium-grained tannins.
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.