Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Bright and vivid pinot with notes of cherries, raspberries, dried hibiscus and potpourri. Medium-bodied, juicy and fresh, with fine tannins and delicious red fruit character. Chalk and minerals in the finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Pinot Noir Lone Oak Ranch is an entry-level wine blended from the different single vineyards Purple Hands works with. Matured in 10% new oak, it has soft aromas of strawberry, licorice, forest floor, spice and floral perfume. The light-bodied palate is understated and fragrant with soft, dusty tannins, juicy acidity and an easygoing, spicy finish.
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Wine Spectator
Broad-shouldered in structure, with lilting raspberry and cherry flavors that take on black tea and dusky spice notes as this builds tension toward medium-grained tannins. Drink now through 2032.
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Wine Enthusiast
A bright red cherry fruit note is nice but mix in the scent of bone marrow spread on toast points and you have yourself an aromatic party. Nice acidity helps to create a lively mouthfeel to accompany perky orange zest and pie cherry flavors. There is even a touch of bacon hovering on the perimeter. Hungry yet?
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2022 Purple Hands Lone Oak Pinot Noir is lovely and bright. TASTING NOTES: This wine shows aromas and flavors of oaky notes, sandalwood, savory spices, and blackberries. Pair it with an old-fashioned, slow-cooked beef stew. (Tasted: November 24, 2023, San Francisco, CA)
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.
Home of some of the planet’s most amazingly elegant and expressive Pinot noir, the Willamette Valley is a pastoral, mixed landscape of green, bucolic rolling hills, dramatic forestlands and small, independent, friendly wine growers. As a leader in environmental stewardship, the valley has some of the nation’s most protective land use policies, with two-thirds of its vineyards farmed sustainably and over half, organically. While the valley claims a cool, continental climate, and is heavily influenced by the cold, moist winds of the Pacific Ocean, its warm and dry summers allow for the steady, even ripening of Pinot noir.
The potential of Willamette Valley Pinot noir continues to attract the investment of serious growers and winemakers both locally and from abroad, as naturally the finished wines bring accolades from professionals and enthusiasts. With a range of styles from delicate dried cherry, raspberry and hibiscus to stronger notes of truffle, mocha, plum and spice, a fine Willamette Valley Pinot noir is a perfect expression of both character and grace.