Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
Looking for something to savor for the next decade or more? Then settle down with this reserve wine, which coaxes you with its aromas of bright red raspberries, strawberries, saline and lemon. The wine's gentle acidity, silky tannins and elegant mouthfeel are at home with ripe cherry, earthy oregano and bittersweet dark chocolate flavors. Enjoy now until 2035.
Cellar Selection -
Wine Spectator
Sleekly styled and elegantly layered, with cherry and strawberry flavors highlighted with dusky spice and rose petal tones as this builds structure toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2031.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Matured in 35% new oak, the 2021 Pinot Noir Reserve’s initial scents of flint and cinnamon give way to cranberry, rhubarb and floral perfume. The medium-bodied palate is concentrated yet slender, its layered, spicy flavors structured by softly chalky tannins and vibrant acidity, and it has a long, flavorful finish.
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.