Winemaker Notes
This approachable wine pairs well with a variety of foods, including cedar plank grilled salmon with tarragon aioli, pulled pork with cherry chutney and pickled onions, creamed morel mushrooms with shallots and hard cheeses, especially Comte.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Sleek, taut and focused, layering cherry, raspberry, smoke and mineral notes on a refreshing frame that lets the flavors glide into a long and expressive finish. Drink now through 2023.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
Who says, "Elegance is dead?" This so far from where wine is going. The Stollers have made a point in showcasing this point as they have some of the purest Pinot Noirs to market. When I tasted the 2013 Stoller, I immediately found it appealing. This is a food lovers' wine! It zips around with plenty of bright red fruit goodness that can only be loved by true Pinot Noir lovers. Pair nicely with grilled salmon and all will be fine. Medium red garnet in color; zippy red fruit aroma, very true to the varietal; medium bodied, lively on the palate; dry, fine acidity, well balanced; bright and sassy red fruit flavors; tangy aftertaste. (Tasted: December 17, 2015, San Francisco, CA)
Located in the heart of Oregon's Willamette Valley in the Dundee Hills AVA, Stoller uniquely offers world class wines and genuine hospitality in a stunning setting. Owners Bill and Cathy Stoller purchased the nearly 400 acre property, which was originally his family’s turkey farm, in 1993 and crafted the winery’s inaugural Pinot Noir in 2001. Their vision of innovation blending vineyard stewardship with environmental sustainability was recognized in 2006 when Stoller became the first LEED® certified winemaking facility in the United States attaining the rare Gold level certification. Today, the winery features panoramic views including Mt. Hood, ample outdoor space for relaxation and guest houses.
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.