Winemaker Notes
The 2009 Rex Hill Willamette Valley Pinot Noir is a classic example of Oregon Pinot Noir from a vintage that gave us intense fruit and intense flavors. Initial perfumed aromatics redolent of violets and roses, black currants, blueberries, black raspberries and wild strawberries are joined by suggestions of tobacco leaf, clean earth, dried fruit, smoke and spice as the wine opens. Some whole-cluster fermentation contributes dark fruit, tea and savory aromatic characteristics. The attack is rich with beautifully ripe tannins and flavors of red fruits and the blue fruits which are a hallmark of the vintage. The lithe mid-palate finds additional complexity with a strong, lingering finish that includes minerality, graphite and spices.
This wine has the intensity, structure and concentration to age and become more complex over the next 15 to 20 years.
100% Pinot Noir
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Focused, satiny and elegant, with a powerful thrust behind the pure currant and boysenberry flavors, shaded with touches of talcum and cream as the finish expands. Drink now through 2019.
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Wine Enthusiast
Rex Hill makes a wine assortment of Pinots; this sports the black label and is widely available and fruit forward. It's loaded with raspberry and cherry flavors and dusted with a bit of clean earth. There is a typical (for Oregon) streak of Dr. Pepper flavor as well. Overall, a nice bottle for immediate enjoyment.
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.
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.