Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Spicy oak is cast across ripe red berries and cherries and delivers a modern impression. There’s a fresh-earth edge here, too, with attractive, spicy notes and a very vibrant feel to the tannins, which carry a grainy cut that holds freshness into the finish. Drink or hold.
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Wine Spectator
Sleekly structured and savory, with expressive raspberry, violet and smoky tea accents that pick up speed toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2028.
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Wine Enthusiast
Quite young and showing clean primary fruit flavors of tart red berries, this is backed with ample acidity, lending a pleasing citrusy snap to the mouthfeel. It finishes with a wash of minerality. Good now, but another year in the bottle wouldn't hurt a bit.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Soléna Grande Cuvée Pinot Noir shows an excellent juxtaposition between fruit and earth. TASTING NOTES: This wine shines with its ripe berry and chalky aromas and flavors. Pair it with grilled, seasoned lamb chops. (Tasted: May 24, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
Soléna is a combination of the words Solana and Soleil, celebrating the sun, moon, and cycles of life. Our story began in 2000 when our founders purchased the 80-acre estate which became our Domaine Danielle Laurent vineyard. Furthering their successful careers in the Oregon wine industry, Laurent Montalieu and Danielle Andrus gifted this vineyard to each other for their wedding, and began making wine under the label named Soléna after their newborn daughter.
Soléna Estate showcases the beauty of terroir in our site-specific wines. They craft delicious wine from our estate and other iconic vineyards around the Northwest. They're well known for ageable Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Gris all with Laurent's signature expressive aromatics and vibrant mid-palate. Visit our estate in Yamhill to see how they steward wines of legacy and purpose!
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.