Winemaker Notes
#41 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2025
This wine is a pure expression of the unique terroir of the Dundee Hills. A selection of blocks and clones from across Stoller's estate vineyard, this classic Oregon Pinot Noir opens with notes of ferrous minerality, baking spice, and layers of juicy red berries. On the mid-palate, the tannins are lush and soft, with a plush, generous structure. Lingering notes of cordial cherry and minerality fade into a seamless finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Broad, plummy and relaxed in texture, this full-bodied red is ripe-tasting and easy-going. It’s drenched in blackberries, black cherries and dark plums, with accents of cloves and cocoa.
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Wine Spectator
Rich and structured at the core, with handsome flavors of raspberry and pomegranate laced with forest floor and dusky spices as this gathers tannins on the finish.
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Vinous
The 2023 Pinot Noir Dundee Hills Estate is dusty and floral, with nuances of geranium and rose petals giving way to a licorice tinge. Energetic and spry, it offers a cascade of red and blue fruits elevated by juicy acidity. The finish is medium in length, leaving a gentle array of grippy tannins and a tart blackberry twang.
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.