Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Super pure aromas of vibrant, red and darker cherries and subtle, foresty complexity. The palate has a very supple, lithe and juicy feel with abundant and intense, concentrated and very pure, red and black-cherry flavors.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Roserock Zéphirine Pinot Noir is pale to medium ruby-purple in color with a blackberry and black cherry pie nose with suggestions of pepper-crusted meat, dried violets and forest floor. Light to medium-bodied, it fills the mouth with black fruits and touches of cardamom, softly framed by grainy tannins and juicy acidity, finishing long with sweet fruits.
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Wine Spectator
Supple and vibrant, with gracefully complex dark cherry, orange peel and herbal tea flavors that build structure toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2025.
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.