Winemaker Notes
The aromatics are giving and voluptuous with notes of black cherry, leather, mint, bramble and hints of red cedar. On the mouth it has a certain refined elegance with soft tannins, violets, earth and cassis. Enjoy now or cellar through 2020.
Professional Ratings
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2012 Pinot Noir Domaine Danielle Laurent offers notes of raspberry coulis, polished leather, sous bois, and mossy earth. The palate has a good deal of focus and more definition, with refined, well-defined tannins, refreshing acidity, and great salty, mineral accents that last long on the finish.
-
Wine Spectator
Sleek, focused and generous, with blackberry, mint and floral flavors, playing against crinkly tannins before gaining momentum on the refined finish, where this picks up an earthy note. Best from 2016 through 2020.
Home of some of the planet’s most amazingly elegant and expressive Pinot noir, the Willamette Valley is a pastoral, mixed landscape of green, bucolic rolling hills, dramatic forestlands and small, independent, friendly wine growers. As a leader in environmental stewardship, the valley has some of the nation’s most protective land use policies, with two-thirds of its vineyards farmed sustainably and over half, organically. While the valley claims a cool, continental climate, and is heavily influenced by the cold, moist winds of the Pacific Ocean, its warm and dry summers allow for the steady, even ripening of Pinot noir.
The potential of Willamette Valley Pinot noir continues to attract the investment of serious growers and winemakers both locally and from abroad, as naturally the finished wines bring accolades from professionals and enthusiasts. With a range of styles from delicate dried cherry, raspberry and hibiscus to stronger notes of truffle, mocha, plum and spice, a fine Willamette Valley Pinot noir is a perfect expression of both character and grace.