Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A beautifully floral edge to the nose here with attractive aromas of fresh, sliced strawberries and cherries, as well as sweet-spiced blueberry pastry. The palate has very elegantly stated tannins and fine, fresh-strawberry and red-cherry flavors. So balanced. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby, the 2018 Pinot Noir opens to delicate but layered, spicy raspberries and rhubarb with uplifted citrus and floral notes. Medium-bodied, the palate offers a ripe, seamlessly fresh frame with layered, spicy fruits and a long, uplifted finish.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Roserock by Drouhin Oregon Eola-Amity Hills Oregon Pinot Noir excels in its boundless richness, yet it stays finely balanced. TASTING NOTES: This wine brings to the fore attractive aromas and flavors of dried fruit and earth. Pair it with a well-seasoned, grilled leg of lamb. (Tasted: February 27, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
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.