ROCO The Stalker Pinot Noir 2015
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James
Suckling -
Wine
Spectator -
Wine
Enthusiast -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Plum jam and cherry pie give way to a refined but powerful tannin structure. Just try to catch the fleeting hints of aged grape stems in the mid palate then again during the superb finish! This wine has one thinking about beautifully aged Nebbiolo.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of plums, cherries, lemons and lavender. Hints of cedar, too. Light to medium body, firm and tights tannins and a vibrant finish. Delicious now.
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Wine Spectator
A distinctive style, well-built and framed by refined tannins, this offers blueberry, cherry, sassafras tea and spice notes, with an appealingly minerally, earthy accent. Best after 2018.
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Wine Enthusiast
Not a mere whole-cluster wine, the Stalker is made by drying the stalks separately and adding them to whole berries. It's slightly chalky as a result, with a green edge to the tannins and green tea flavors. Black cherry, espresso and cacao components also factor in. Give it another couple of years and drink after 2020.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Pinot Noir The Stalker is made using whole Pinot Noir berries mixed with grape stalks, as opposed to whole cluster fermentation. Pale to medium garnet in color, it opens with notes of herbs, dusty earth, crushed rock and potpourri over a core of red cherry, raspberry jam and cranberry. Light to medium-bodied, it’s red fruited in the mouth with a good spicy layer and earthy notes, with firm, slightly fuzzy tannins and juicy acidity to carry the long spicy finish.
Other Vintages
2021-
Tasting
Panel -
James
Suckling -
Jeb
Dunnuck
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Wilfred
Wong -
Wine
Spectator
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Wine
Enthusiast -
Wine
Spectator
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Wilfred
Wong -
Wine
Spectator
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Wine
Spectator
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.
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.