Winemaker Notes
The 2016 Rex Hill Jacob-Hart Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir opens with a complex nose of red and black fruits (raspberry, blackberry, cassis, plum), classic Jacob-Hart floral notes of violets and rose petals, pomegranate, sassafras, sandalwood, fresh earth, charred herbs (marjoram, bay leaf), toast, and nougat. On the palate, the tannins are plush and pillowy rather than big and blocky. The full, concentrated, rich mouthfeel has firm acidity and compelling flavors of cocoa, honeycomb, cherry essence, ruby port, and boysenberry. Elegant yet structured, this wine is well deserving of its place at the top of REX HILL’s single vineyard offerings. Drink now through 2030.
Pair with foie gras, roasted pheasant, pan-roasted quail and roasted lamb loin stuffed with wild mushroom duxelles and butternut squash puree.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A deep and dark pinot with notes of blackcurrants, black cherries, roasted meat, baking spices and forest floor. The palate has plushly layered tannins and the finish is glossy, suave and vibrant.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby in the glass, the 2016 Pinot Noir Jacob Hart Vineyard is scented of blackberries and red berries with touches of sweet spice, flowers and earth. Medium-bodied with earth-laced fruits, it's firmly framed with good freshness and a long, spicy finish. This could use another year in bottle.
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Wine Enthusiast
This powers ahead with loads of blackberry and black cherry fruit, fully ripened and wreathed in wood smoke. Aged in 41% new oak, it’s smooth and palate coating, with toasted walnuts and other barrel flavors wrapping up a delicious finish.
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Wine Spectator
Precise and tightly wound, offering deep blueberry and raspberry flavors laced with crushed stone and forest floor accents, finishing with fine but broad tannins. Best after 2019.
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.