Winemaker Notes
The nose is rich with mushroom, truffle, and forest floor, accompanied by black cherry, cranberry, and clove. The palate reflects the cranberry, black cherry and truffle, but also introduces a dash of black pepper with medium tannins and acidity on the finish.
This wine pairs beautifully with the bounty of Oregon, like wild mushroom risotto or grilled lamb with an herbed, hazelnut crust.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of elderberry, red cherry, ground clove and rosemary. Medium-bodied with fine, tense tannins. Juicy red fruit on the palate, complimented by ground spice. Lovely, fresh finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Estate Pinot Noir Dundee Hills matured for 16 months in about 20% new oak. It has a pale ruby color and flinty tones that give way to blackberries, licorice, earth and citrus peel aromas. The light-bodied palate is soft and inviting with bright, spicy fruit and a refreshing finish.
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Wine Spectator
Vibrant and gracefully structured, with pretty strawberry and cherry flavors that draw in black tea and dusky spice accents.
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.”
Home of the first Pinot noir vineyard of the Willamette Valley, planted by David Lett of Eyrie Vineyard in 1966, today the Dundee Hills AVA remains the most densely planted AVA in the valley (and state). To its north sits the Chehalem Valley and to its south, runs the Willamette River. Within the region’s 12,500 acres, about 1,700 are planted to vine on predominantly basalt-based, volcanic, Jory soil.