Winemaker Notes
This “Village” wine comes from 1.6 acres adjacent on top and bottom to “Gathered Stones” where the stones are more weathered than “Gathered Stones” and there is a bit of top soil. The result is a wine that is generous, ripe and lively but still maintains an obvious core of minerality. The wine is an open welcoming conversation with a slight sly edge to the finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Combines plush richness with remarkable structure, showing expressive river stone and black raspberry aromas and refined, layered cherry, black tea and savory spice flavors that pick up speed toward polished tannins.
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James Suckling
Lots of tar and crushed rock with some dark chocolate, dried earth and botanicals. Some black berries. Medium body. Some CO2 but fresh and fluffy in texture. This was the first year of wines made exclusively on volcanic soils. First vintage of Liger Belair at the helm. Tar undertones at the end. Decant before serving.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This is one of Rose & Arrow's "articulate" wines. Sourced from a vineyard at 340 feet in elevation planted on black, red and white basalt, the medium to deep ruby-purple colored 2016 Pinot Noir Hopewell Hills—Gathered Stones opens with some tarry/sulfur aromas, giving way with aeration to a black fruit and dark earth core. Medium-bodied, it floods the mouth with warm black cherries and dried blackberry fruit with touches of violet, dried leaves and earth plus a strong line of rocky minerality. It’s structured by powerful but elegant tannins, juicy acidity and a very long, layered finish.
Rating: 91+?
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.”
Running north to south, adjacent to the Willamette River, the Eola-Amity Hills AVA has shallow and well-drained soils created from ancient lava flows (called Jory), marine sediments, rocks and alluvial deposits. These soils force vine roots to dig deep, producing small grapes with great concentration.
Like in the McMinnville sub-AVA, cold Pacific air streams in via the Van Duzer Corridor and assists the maintenance of higher acidity in its grapes. This great concentration, combined with marked acidity, give the Eola-Amity Hills wines—namely Pinot noir—their distinct character. While the region covers 40,000 acres, no more than 1,400 acres are covered in vine.