Winemaker Notes
As always, the Estate Pinot noir is the best representation of the vineyard as a whole in each vintage. For 2015, that means a wine full of rich, dark flavors. A powerful bouquet of black cherry, blackberry, subtle spice notes and hints of floral aromatics lead to a rich palate with plum, black tea and well integrated tannins that will continue to soften with time.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
A blend from numerous blocks on the estate, this is a lovely and classic expression Oregon Pinot Noir. From the rose-inflected aroma to the brambly blue fruit and polished tannins, it's a knockout bottle. Barrel aging adds a sexy touch of mocha to the long, delicious finish.
Editors' Choice -
Wine Spectator
Plush and structured, with expressive black cherry and toasty spice aromas and focused plum and licorice flavors that pick up speed and precision on the finish. Drink now through 2024.
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.”
Yamhill-Carlton, characterized by pastoral, rolling hills composed of shallow, quick-draining, ancient marine soil, is ideal for Pinot noir and other cool-climate-loving varieties. It is in the rain shadow of the Coast Range to its west, whose highest point climbs to an altitude of 3,500 feet. Yamhill-Carlton is actually surrounded by mountains on three sides: Chehalem Mountains to the north, the Dundee Hills to the east and the western Coast Range to its west, which, when it lets Pacific air through, serves to cool the region.
Vineyards grow on the ridges surrounding the two small communities of Yamhill and Carlton and cover about 1,200 acres of this 60,000 acre region, which roughly makes a horse-shoe shape on a map.