Winemaker Notes
Purple Hands Dundee Reserve Pinot Noir shows notes of crunchy cherry pie, cinnamon, starfruit, red currant, raspberry sorbet, wild flower, and raspberry glaze.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Coming from a 30-year-old Pommard block in a rockier section, the 2023 Pinot Noir Dundee Reserve is a deep ruby/magenta color and was raised in an all-steel tank, with 35% whole clusters. It has fantastic peppery spice and wild lavender, grenadine, piney spices, and fresh herbs. The palate is structured and relatively full without being heavy and features ripe, well-defined tannins along with a stony, gravelly texture that persists through the long finish. It’s shocking what they are able to achieve here without oak, and this has the potential to age over the coming 15 years.
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James Suckling
This savory and earthy red shows brambleberries, balsamic and licorice on the nose, as well as tea leaves and gamey undertones. It’s medium-bodied with fine-grained yet relatively firm tannins supporting the dark-berry fruit. Drink from 2026.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The 2023 Purple Hands PINOT NOIR DUNDEE RESERVE DUNDEE HILLS, OREGON unfolds a medium ruby red color; delicate aromas of cedar and red currant drift upward with quiet refinement; medium bodied, with a fine, graceful grip on the palate; tart red fruit notes remain steady and focused; lively, zingy finish that adds lift and energy. Pair with roasted salmon with a mustard glaze or duck breast with a light berry sauce. (Tasted: 3/31/26, San Francisco, CA)
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Vinous
The 2023 Pinot Noir Dundee Reserve requires coaxing to blow off a bit of smoky reduction, as notes of crushed black cherry, sage and mocha form its bouquet. The texture is soft and round, with ripe red berry fruits and sweet herbal tones contrasted by a tinge of sour citrus toward the close. Nuances of licorice and blackberry linger through the finish as edgy tannins resonate without getting in the way of the 2023 Pinot Noir Dundee Reserve's giving nature.
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Wine Enthusiast
This savory treat opens with aromas of dark plums, pine needles, saddle leather and a bit of meat grilling over a campfire, with the fat hitting the coals. The fruit on the palate is tart and crisp, much like a boysenberry tart accented with bits of mint and orange zest. This is an almost medium-bodied wine with plush tannins and gentle acidity.
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Wine Spectator
A simmering core of tannins and earthy underbrush is framed by dark blueberry and blackberry flavors that are highlighted by tea and tomato leaf tones. Drink now through 2033.
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.