Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2022 Pinot Noir Triple Seven was raised in 30% new French oak and fermented in concrete. A jeweled ruby color with a light magenta hue, it’s pure and spicy with a savory depth to its notes of ripe raspberry, preserved cherries, wild roses, and mossy earth. Medium-bodied, it has a wonderfully refreshing feel, with ripe, well-defined tannins and a long, tapered, spiced finish. It’s crispy and refreshing all the way through. Drink 2026-2040.
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Vinous
A cascade of violet and lavender florals gives way to blackberries, hints of wet stone and flowery underbrush as the 2022 Pinot Noir Sequitur Vineyard blossoms in the glass. This is vividly fresh and cool-toned in feel, with depths of ripe wild berry fruit that add a tart concentration towards the close. Zesty acidity maintains tremendous freshness despite the 2022’s tannic heft, finishing dramatically long and full of tension. There's an energy and vibrancy here that I find wildly attractive.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Sequitur Pinot Noir was crafted with around 12% whole clusters and matured in 35% new French oak. It has inviting scents of brown sugar, red cherry and raspberry jam, aniseed, wild mint and fern, and it continues to unfurl aromatically as it airs in the glass. The medium-bodied palate is powerful, with bursts of nuanced, spicy fruit. It has abundant, clay-textured tannins, mouthwatering acidity and a long finish with complex spicy accents.
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Wine Spectator
Brooding and deeply structured, this Pinot isn't showing all of its cards yet. Dark raspberry and cherry flavors are accented by black tea, forest floor and dusky spice notes that build tension and grip on the finish. Hands off for now. Best from 2026 through 2032.
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Jasper Morris
Notes of red and blue fruit with violets, crushed herbs and hints of licorice. Firm and a little chalky, with solid structure and focus. Medium-bodied. Chalky, mineral 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.”
Ribbon Ridge is a regular span of uplifted, marine, sedimentary soils (called Willakenzie), whose highest ridge elevations twist like a ribbon. An early settler from Missouri named Colby Carter noticed this unique topography and gave the region its name in 1865—though it wasn’t declared its own AVA until 140 years later, in 2005. The AVA is enclosed by mountains on all sides between Yamhill-Carlton and the Chehalem Mountains, and is actually part of the larger Chehalem Mountains AVA. Its soils have a finer texture than its neighbors with parent materials composed of sandstone, siltstone, and mudstone. Given its presence of natural aquifers in this five square mile area, most vineyards are actually easily dry farmed!