Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Classically Oregon, the aromatics leap forward from this Pinot Noir from Prince Hill, their Dundee Hills bottling. Rich forest floor, umami-driven notes of smoky tamari sauce, and smoky violet scents. The palate shows true Willamette Valley character in this cool climate vintage, leading with woodland characters of damp earth, moss and dark bramble berries. There is a lift to the palate from green peppercorn and black tea, and this wine is amply structured and will show more elegance in a few years.
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.”
Home of the first Pinot noir vineyard of the Willamette Valley, planted by David Lett of Eyrie Vineyard in 1966, today the Dundee Hills AVA remains the most densely planted AVA in the valley (and state). To its north sits the Chehalem Valley and to its south, runs the Willamette River. Within the region’s 12,500 acres, about 1,700 are planted to vine on predominantly basalt-based, volcanic, Jory soil.