Winemaker Notes
Momtazi Vineyard is located in the McMinnville AVA, 7 miles west of McMinnville, Oregon. The grapes for this wine come from four blocks at the top of the vineyard on steep, exposed and windblown hillsides. Planted in 1999 and 2004 on thin, poor soils, the vines have a south and SW exposure at an elevation of 680-760'. The vineyard is certified biodynamic by Demeter.
Pair with braised meats, roasts, mushroom or dishes with eastern spices.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
This feels loose and light in its scent, with a burst of wild strawberry lined with a dusty, wind-blown Van Duzer accent. The flavors go deeper, toward dark cherry and a hint of cinnamon, with a cherry-skin grip. For plank roasted salmon.
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Wine Spectator
Shows expression and elegant dimension, with savory plum and blueberry flavors laced with crushed stone and forest floor accents that build richness toward medium-grained tannins.
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.”
Stretching southwest from the city of McMinnville, the AVA with the same name covers about 40,000 acres across 20 miles until it meets the Van Duzer Corridor. This corridor is the only break in the Coast Range whose gap allows the cool Pacific Ocean air to flow eastward into the Willamette Valley.
The Pacific's moderating winds hit McMinnville’s south and southeast facing slopes where cool-climate varieties—namely Pinot noir and Pinot blanc thrive on ridges at between 200 to 1,000 feet in elevation.
Soils here are primarily uplifted marine sedimentary loam and silt, with alluvial formations; McMinnville receives less rainfall than its neighbors to the east because it is situated in the rain shadow of the Coast Range.