Winemaker Notes
Located about 5 miles east of Yamhill, Oregon, this vineyard was planted in 1988 by Dick Shea, a financier from Connecticut. Dick chose to plant both Pinot noir Pommard and Wadenswil clones, as well as a small quantity of Clone 108 Chardonnay. He concluded planting in 1989, with about 80 acres of Pinot noir, Chardonnay, and a small quantity of Pinot gris. Shea's well-drained Willakenzie soil type and the meticulous care of the vines by Dick's vineyard manager, Javier Marin, yield spectacular fruit that is sought after by many winemakers.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
From Shea Vineyard, where the vines in sedimentary soil over fractured sandstone produce some of Oregon's finest pinots, this wine is both forward and elegant. Scents of the forest floor and a wisp of smoke surround the black cherry flavors, all held in suspension by fine cherry-skin tannins. It's built for the long haul, and it will reward tea-smoked duck with wild mushrooms if you open it along the way.
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.”
Yamhill-Carlton, characterized by pastoral, rolling hills composed of shallow, quick-draining, ancient marine soil, is ideal for Pinot noir and other cool-climate-loving varieties. It is in the rain shadow of the Coast Range to its west, whose highest point climbs to an altitude of 3,500 feet. Yamhill-Carlton is actually surrounded by mountains on three sides: Chehalem Mountains to the north, the Dundee Hills to the east and the western Coast Range to its west, which, when it lets Pacific air through, serves to cool the region.
Vineyards grow on the ridges surrounding the two small communities of Yamhill and Carlton and cover about 1,200 acres of this 60,000 acre region, which roughly makes a horse-shoe shape on a map.