Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
A youthful ruby red hue, the 2022 Pinot Noir Haakon/Lenai Vineyard comes from 27-year-old vines in the main estate vineyard. A youthful bright magenta/ruby color, it offers darker berried fruit notes of wild black raspberries, layered spice, toasted cedar, umami, and licorice, with some red-fruited, high-toned lift shining through. There is real crystalline depth to this wine as well as more purity and clarity, and it has bright, ripe acidity, mouthwatering freshness, and a great finish. Its ripe tannins are very well-framed, and it has a long finish. Much more purity and clarity here. Drink 2024-2044. This is by far the best wine in the Purple Hands lineup.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Pinot Noir Haakon Lenai Vineyard is detailed and pure on the nose. Raspberry and strawberry give way to nuances of nori, saline, licorice, tea leaves and mossy bark. The medium-bodied palate offers concentrated, layered flavors and compelling spicy accents. It’s structured by finely astringent tannins and mouthwatering acidity and has a long, dynamic finish.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The 2022 Purple Hands CHARDONNAY HAAKON/LENAI VINEYARD DUNDEE HILLS, WILLAMETTE VALLEY reveals a light straw color; vivid minerality lifts into subtle notes of earth, wild mushrooms, and peach fuzz; medium to full bodied, with a luxurious, lingering texture on the palate; stone fruit flavors build with quiet depth; long, composed finish. Pair with roast chicken with morels or a creamy mushroom risotto. (Tasted: 3/31/26, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Spectator
Rich and handsomely structured, with multilayered black cherry and blueberry flavors accented by dusky spice, rose petal and savory forest floor tones that build tension toward medium-grained tannins.
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James Suckling
A zesty, fruity pinot that has strawberry, lemon rind, sweet basil and red tea on the nose, followed by a medium-bodied palate with fine tannins. Fragrant and enjoyable.
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Wine Enthusiast
A rich fruit aroma that comes close to cassis is punctuated by interesting notes of bitter artichoke and wet slate. This is a balanced, medium-bodied wine with a soft mouthfeel and flavors of blueberry gelato and mint tea. Serve with brunch to your favorite relatives.
Purple Hands Vineyards celebrates site-specific pinot noir and chardonnay that unearth the Willamette Valley’s long evolutionary history. Using traditional winemaking techniques, they strive to produce wines that convey an honest expression of each of their vineyards—its grapevines and cultivation, soil and stone, sunshine and rain. All of their wines undergo native fermentation and remain unfined and unfiltered at bottling to preserve their natural, wild character. Achieving elegance in this pursuit is the passion and art of their craft.
Over the past 40 years, Cody’s family has created a legacy of quality in the Oregon wine industry. Their winemaking styles and techniques helped Oregon’s Willamette Valley become the premium Pinot noir producing region in the world. At Purple Hands, Cody continues to build on the standard of excellence initiated by the previous generation.
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.