Winemaker Notes
The 2017 Reserve Pinot Noir is classic Oregon with bright acidity, lighter tannin structure, and fresh fruit characteristics. This Pinot Noir opens with aromatics of ripe raspberry, red rose, and earth. The palate presents elegant tannins, carrying flavors of bing cherry and pomegranate, with hints of bramble. This wine can be enjoyed now; however, it was constructed for longevity with proper cellaring.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Dried-flower aromas abound with ripe plums and black cherries, all leading to a palate that has a slew of fleshy, mellow dark cherries and plums, ahead of a spicy, slick finish.
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Wine Spectator
Polished and sleekly complex, with vibrant raspberry and violet aromas, drawing in multilayered cherry and black tea accents that race toward snappy tannins. Drink now through 2028.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Reserve Pinot Noir is shy on the nose, offering earthy nuances over a core of red and black berries with citrus peel and floral sparks emerging with some air. It's medium-bodied, concentrated and silky, with a long, fresh finish. Give it another year or two in bottle.
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Wine Enthusiast
Production of this reserve has ramped up significantly, and it seems a bit lighter than the previous vintage. Raspberry fruit with lemony acidity carries the lightest suggestion of barrel toast. It's a firm, tightly wound, lightly herbal expression, which may benefit from a bit more bottle age.
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.