Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Pinot Noir Jacob Hart Vineyard was picked 14-27 September, aged for 12 months in 47% new oak. It has a mixture of red and black fruit, the whole cluster fruit quite impressive here, lending earthy, almost peaty notes into the wine. The palate is medium-bodied slightly chewy tannin on the entry. There is satisfying depth, but it is quite broody in style, at least at the moment. I appreciate the judicious dash of spice towards the broody finish, although it needs 2-3 years to fully absorb the new oak. Good potential here.
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Wine Enthusiast
Arguably the iconic vineyard at Rex Hill, Jacob-Hart brings subtle nuances into play from older vines and biodynamic techniques. There's lots to enjoy here—hints of spice, earth, even hemp, along with the core fruit flavors of blackberry and black cherry. It's just a little thinner than usual in this new vintage.
REX HILL has been making elegant Pinot Noirs for over 30 years in the Willamette Valley at the gateway to Oregon's wine country. It is one of the original LIVE certified wineries and owned vineyards that are farmed following Biodynamic principles. REX HILL honors exceptional single vineyards and continues a legacy of singular Pinot Noirs that reflect their origin. That sense of place is paramount to the way we farm our land and make our wines. Named a 2017 Wine Advocate Extraordinary Winery in the Americas, REX HILL consistently offers authentic wines that are balanced, complex, rich and delicious.
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.”
The Chehalem Mountains is a northwest-southeast span of several distinct mountains, ridges and peaks in the northern part of the Willamette Valley. Of all of Willamette Valley's smaller AVAs, it is closest to the city of Portland. Its highest summit, Bald Peak at an elevation of 1,633 feet, serves to generate cooler air for the rest of the AVA and its hillside vineyards. The region covers 70,000 acres but only 1,600 acres are planted to vines; soils of the Chehalem Mountains are a mix of basalt, ocean sediment and loess.