Winemaker Notes
This may be the most generous vintage yet for Marsh Estate Vineyard. Fruit aromatics leap out front with a whirlwind of lush raspberry, strawberry jam, red plum, black cherry to marionberry. With time in the glass, a 'whirl' of cinnamon with a touch of black pepper further complex the senses. On the palate, a rich mouthfeel kicks in at the beginning and follows through to a very delicious finish. Black cherry fruit is super dense and long. Velvety molasses, rubbed sage, and black peppercorn prove that this wine hails from the Yamhill-Carlton AVA.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2022 Pinot Noir Marsh Estate comes from Yamhill-Carlton and is a medium red hue, with notes of red cherries, a hint of underlying umami richness, and fresh notes of orange zest and roses. Medium-bodied, it offers refreshing acidity, a soft, stony texture, saline, delicate mineral iron notes, and a clean, tapered finish with a bit of toasted incense. It’s feeling a bit on the dilute side for this vintage although it has a lot of charm. It will show its best over the next 5-7 years.
ROCO represents the finest in Oregon winemaking with storied bottles and humbling accolades. It’s a 30-year history of devotion to craft. In 1987, Rollin Soles purchased a breathtaking hillside property down a gravel road in the Chehalem Mountain Range. The property’s perfect combination of elevation, soil type, natural springs, and geological aspect were the seed of a dream that would eventually become ROCO Winery.
ROCO (Named for ROllin and COrby Soles) For nearly fifteen years, the Soles’ property remained a mostly wild landscape used for a variety of farming endeavors. Rollin was making wine at Argyle, his previous venture, and Corby was busy serving in a number of executive positions in the Oregon wine industry. But as the years wore on, the property’s southwestern exposure and diverse soils begged for the Soles to realize their dream: a vineyard of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay sloping toward the creek below, the Chehalem Valley beyond, and Oregon’s Coast Range in the distance.
In 2001, Rollin and Corby planted Wits’ End Vineyard and began bringing the idea of ROCO to fruition. Two years later, they produced their first vintage of Private Stash Pinot Noir—showcasing the very best of Rollin’s small-lot winemaking skills in a bottle that was eventually served in the White House. Building on their success, in 2009, the Soles built ROCO its own winery and added a tasting room in 2012. In 2013, Rollin expanded Wits’ End Vineyard and transitioned to full-time focus on ROCO to keep pace with its growing prestige and demand. Today, Wits’ End Vineyard remains the heart and soul of ROCO wines. ROCO Private Stash and Wits’ End Vineyard Pinot Noirs derive exclusively from these vines—and serve as Rollin and Corby’s testament to the beauty of place, their devotion to family and friends, and their commitment to Oregon winemaking at its finest.
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.