Winemaker Notes
Black cherry, clove, black raspberry, sassafras, wet stone, toasted caramel, red tar, noble cherry, ripe pomegranate and salted dark chocolate.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Vivid raspberry, pomegranate and rose petal aromas lead to supple and well-built flavors that build richness and vibrancy on a lingering finish. Drink now through 2026.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The medium ruby-purple colored 2017 Pinot Noir Holstein Vineyard comes from 25-year-old 777 clone vines and 12-year-old 115 clone vines planted at 700-feet elevation in Jory soils. It has a deep, broody nose of crushed blackberries, blueberries and cranberries with notes of charcuterie, scorched earth, blood orange, pipe tobacco and warm earth with touches of potpourri and dried flowers. Medium-bodied and silky, it offers intense, spice-laced flavor layers with a gentle frame and bright, juicy acidity, finishing long and layered.
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Wine Enthusiast
Firm, tart and downright juicy, this offers a unique fruit mix, with wellblended pomegranate, cherry, sweet pineapple and orange peel. There’s a toasty note that seems a bit like almost-burnt pie crust, adding some crunch to the finish
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James Suckling
A thread of ripe dark cherries and blueberries on offer here, on a very attractive nose with such freshness and richness combined. The palate has finely textured tannins and a wealth of impressively plush blueberry and cassis flavors with a smooth, nutty texture at the finish. Drink in the next five 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.