Winemaker Notes
This 2018 Gravel Road Pinot Noir has a surprising expression of red fruit, especially given the blacker fruits usually associated with a warm growing season like 2018. Pronounced aromas of rhubarb/strawberry, juicy red plum, and black raspberry fruit is layered with allspice with a bit of cinnamon stick spice. Bright, sippy fruit of strawberry/rhubarb tartlet, red to black plum lifts upon a raft of delicious poised tannin. Classic spices like cardamom, allspice, and cinnamon stick contribute to this wine's attractiveness. With some age, I believe a lovely black cherry will slip out from behind the door making this a very interesting, complex Pinot Noir. Fresh fruity, berries ride a sanded tannin raft that sails on to the finish. The old world style offers bold flavor with balance and grace to pair well with nearly any food.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a fine value and widely available (for Oregon Pinot). Rhubarb and strawberry fruit flavors roll into sweet red cherry, lightly spiced. The medium-long finish is textured and balanced, the tannins smooth and lightly toasty.
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Wine Spectator
Tightly focused, this offers polish and structure, with layered raspberry and cherry flavors, laced with stony mineral and green tea notes and finishing with refined tannins.
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.