Winemaker Notes
A delight straight out of the bottle, the 2019 SUNU is a pure, crystalline ruby, and filled with intense just-ripe strawberries and red cherries, with accents of fresh mushroom, ground spices, and rose petals. Superbly elegant on the palate, yet full and penetrating with crisp red berries and melon leading the way. The finish is a pleasure, supported by silky tannins and fresh acidity. This lovely wine will accompany just about anything you can put on the table and might make you think you’ve stumbled on an old-world treasure.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Refined and handsomely built, with brooding blueberry and cherry flavors highlighted by orange peel, clove and other dark spices as this builds toward medium-grained tannins.
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James Suckling
Cherry and sliced green-strawberry aromas with some watermelon. Medium body, firm tannins and a fresh finish. Dark-hibiscus and candied-citrus aftertaste. Drink after 2024.
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Wine Enthusiast
This cuvée is a blend of fruit from Lonesome Rock, Matteri, Saffron Fields, Shea and Lazy River vineyards. The aromas are brooding, with notes of dark cherry, flower, sarsaparilla and herb. Polished, juicy flavors follow. It offers a lot of quality, value, persistence and straight-up deliciousness.
Editors' Choice
Home of some of the planet’s most amazingly elegant and expressive Pinot noir, the Willamette Valley is a pastoral, mixed landscape of green, bucolic rolling hills, dramatic forestlands and small, independent, friendly wine growers. As a leader in environmental stewardship, the valley has some of the nation’s most protective land use policies, with two-thirds of its vineyards farmed sustainably and over half, organically. While the valley claims a cool, continental climate, and is heavily influenced by the cold, moist winds of the Pacific Ocean, its warm and dry summers allow for the steady, even ripening of Pinot noir.
The potential of Willamette Valley Pinot noir continues to attract the investment of serious growers and winemakers both locally and from abroad, as naturally the finished wines bring accolades from professionals and enthusiasts. With a range of styles from delicate dried cherry, raspberry and hibiscus to stronger notes of truffle, mocha, plum and spice, a fine Willamette Valley Pinot noir is a perfect expression of both character and grace.