Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Matured in 20% new oak, the 2021 Pinot Noir has inviting scents of blueberry, cranberry, damp earth and mossy bark. The medium-bodied palate offers compelling concentration for its silky, seamless frame, and it has a long finish streaked with floral and spicy perfume.
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Wine Enthusiast
Black currants and beignets kick off the aromatic festivities, with just a touch of leather and saline. The flavors are in layers, with rich blackberries on top of tart red cherries. The fine-grained tannins provide a rough mouth roof and a black tea flavor. The wine feels full and round in the mouth, with a nice bit of acidity. Elegance and power coexist here.
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Wine Spectator
Graceful and precise, with dynamic cherry and red plum flavors highlighted by fresh violet and brown spices, which glide on the long, sleek finish toward refined tannins.
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James Suckling
Bright and vibrant with savory notes, raspberries and dried wild strawberries, hints of chocolate orange and dried sage. So crunchy and fleshy on the palate with a medium body and round, creamy texture. Attractive, berry-soaked mid-palate with a toned and fresh finish. Drink or hold.
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.