Winemaker Notes
The 2021 Purple Hands West Wind Vineyard Pinot Noir offers notes of savory spice, red and black licorice, cotton candy, candied walnut, blackberry, blueberry, blue spruce, sage, and saffron.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Pinot Noir West Wind Vineyard takes on a darker profile, with musky cologne of sandalwood, brambly wild blackberries, and cracked pepper. Full-bodied, with a clean lift and characteristic weightless feel, it has a delicate saline finish
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Pinot Noir West Wind Vineyard comes from Pommard and Dijon clone vines planted six years ago in sedimentary soils at 400-600 feet of elevation. Medium ruby, it has alluringly broody scents of cranberry, rhubarb, tar and burnt orange, opening to nuances of licorice, tea leaves and forest floor as it airs in the glass. The medium-bodied palate is powerful yet supple with loads of finely grained tannins, mouthwatering acidity and concentrated, dark red fruit that opens to a flourish of spicy accents on the long finish.
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James Suckling
A bright, medium-bodied pinot with aromas of dried roses, oyster shells, kelp, mulberries and cranberries. I like the savory moss and shell elements. Tight, powdery tannins. Drink from 2023.
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Wine Spectator
Youthful and feisty, with a keen beam of bright acidity driving tart cherry, green tea and spices that zip toward snappy tannins.
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.”
Ribbon Ridge is a regular span of uplifted, marine, sedimentary soils (called Willakenzie), whose highest ridge elevations twist like a ribbon. An early settler from Missouri named Colby Carter noticed this unique topography and gave the region its name in 1865—though it wasn’t declared its own AVA until 140 years later, in 2005. The AVA is enclosed by mountains on all sides between Yamhill-Carlton and the Chehalem Mountains, and is actually part of the larger Chehalem Mountains AVA. Its soils have a finer texture than its neighbors with parent materials composed of sandstone, siltstone, and mudstone. Given its presence of natural aquifers in this five square mile area, most vineyards are actually easily dry farmed!