Winemaker Notes
The Zéphirine displays exuberance and serious aromatic depth. Violets, lilac, and primary red fruits come to mind immediately, balanced by a delightful mouthfeel. The layered palate presents complex flavors of cassis and red berry bramble, which fold nicely into each other. There is great freshness, soft, silky tannins and a persistent, long finish. Over the course of a few hours, the mouthweight deepens and the finish becomes even longer.
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
This has a very impressive sense of density and power with such immaculate detail and definition, in terms of tannin and fruit. The aromas are in the spicy and floral zone with blue-fruit and leafy nuances. Deceptively elegant and convincingly excellent pinot noir.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Zéphirine Pinot Noir is a selection of the best barrels from the Roserock vineyard. Pale to medium ruby-purple, it's scented of crushed boysenberries, blackberries, cranberries, bergamot and forest floor with touches of dried rose petals and violets. Medium-bodied and über silky, it offers great intensity and flavor layers, grainy and fresh with a long, layered finish.
-
Wine Spectator
A dynamic wine, showing both grace and structure, this opens like a flower bloom, revealing notes of raspberry, crushed stone, fresh violet and savory tea. Builds richness and tension toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2027.
-
Decanter
This is named after a variety of rose created in 1868 called Zéphirine Drouhin, sometimes known as La Belle Dijonnaise. One can imagine the analogy, as this wine has a distinctively Burgundian character. It is a barrel selection of the best results from the Roserock vineyard, which advances the elegance of the regular bottling with a darker, plummy cast to the fruit and more richness, density and volume on the palate.
-
Wine Enthusiast
This barrel selection, a so-called “reference expression of the site”, is named for a species of climbing rose. As a reference point for the site and the AVA it works quite well, with firm black-cherry fruit at the core, and highlights of coffee and earth in the polished tannins.
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.