Winemaker Notes
Roserock Pinot Noir is a cuvée selection from the estate’s 35 blocks, which are handpicked, sorted and individually fermented. While Pinot Noirs from the Eola-Amity Hills are typically known for their structure and power, Véronique Drouhin emphasizes Roserock’s elegant and refined qualities, making for a delicious and age worthy cuvée.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby, the 2019 Pinot Noir surprises with its concentration of cranberry and spice, pennyroyal and tobacco leaves, its autumnal character notably pure this vintage. Medium-bodied, it has a slender frame that supports incredible depth of fruit, finishing with persistent spice and energy. Such a beautiful expression!
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Wine Spectator
This version is defined by a beam of vibrant acidity and tannins that’s framed by refined blueberry and cherry flavors, accented by stony minerality and dusky spiced tea. Drink now
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James Suckling
A pretty nose of cherry, cranberry, rose and dried herb. It’s medium-bodied with sleek tannins and crisp acidity. Juicy and lively on the palate with spicy character and a silky texture. Delicate, fresh and flavorful finish. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
This brings an Eola-Amity Hills focus to the fruit, more brambly, more herbal and more earthy than the wines from Drouhin's Dundee Hills estate. It's lightly peppery and striated with thin seams of raspberry, chocolate and lemon. In addition to the fresh and forward flavors, this wine is among the most affordable from this iconic winery.
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Wine & Spirits
Domaine Drouhin Oregon’s Roserock property produces wines of a soft purity, and this one fits that bill, with scents of black tea and lavender overlying a generous red-cherry and strawberry fruit profile. The texture is velvety and fineboned, with the delicacy for a whitefish like miso-glazed cod.
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.