Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Spectator
Supple, refined and distinctive for the purity and clarity of its dark berry, cherry and guava flavors, lingering easily on the light, expressive finish.
-
Wine Enthusiast
This is an engaging mouthful of cherry-berry fruit soaked in toasty accents of mocha and caramel. Luscious and long, with a smooth, supple mouthfeel, it's hard to keep your hands off it. Cellar Selection.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2009 Pinot Noir Reserve is a blend of all seven vineyards with which Raptor Ridge works. It is free of any greenness while displaying notes of toasty oak, spice box, and black fruits. On the palate it exhibits plenty of depth, layered fruit, a bit of succulence, and good concentration. It should drink well through 2019.
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.