Winemaker Notes
On the palate, this wine has a very fine and well-integrated tannin structure and a long, luscious finish. The acidity of this wine due to the cooling effects of the Van Duzer Corridor keeps this Pinot Noir fresh and balanced with a savory element and slight mineral qualities adding to the wine’s complexity and depth. While this Pinot is very approachable in its youth, it will only benefit from a few years of aging. It is a prized choice for those who appreciate nuanced and well-structured Pinot Noir!
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2022 Pinot Noir Eola Springs Vineyard is a jeweled red color. It’s spicy and bright on the nose, with notes of red cherries, baking spice, rhubarb, roses, sanguine, and iron. Its medium-bodied feel has the elegance of Pinot Noir, but it has finely coiled tannins and a chalky texture, as well as a crispy feel that will appeal to Nebbiolo lovers. It’s more focused and laser-beamed. Drink 2025-2037.
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James Suckling
A muscular, full-flavored and full-bodied red with tons of black-fruit and oak-spice flavors on a moderately tannic texture. Intense blackberries, black cherries, cedar, cloves and cinnamon that expand on the palate and linger on the finish. the juice is concentrated by the saignee method, and then aged in 50% new French oak. Drinkable now, but best from 2029.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Pinot Noir Eola Springs Vineyard is a new wine from The Setting. Matured for 18 months in 50% new French oak, it bursts from the glass with scents of cranberry, raspberry, juniper, lavender and potpourri. The light-bodied palate offers nuanced, super spicy flavors. It has a seamless frame of dusty tannins, juicy acidity and a very long, complex finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Fruit from one of the Willamette Valley's oldest vineyards is used to make a Pinot Noir with the most fragrant perfume of dark raspberries, gardenias, and a hint of powdered sugar. It is a lighter-bodied wine with flavors of blackberries, lemon, and horehound candies, supported by brisk acidity and velvety tannins.
Editors' Choice
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.”
Running north to south, adjacent to the Willamette River, the Eola-Amity Hills AVA has shallow and well-drained soils created from ancient lava flows (called Jory), marine sediments, rocks and alluvial deposits. These soils force vine roots to dig deep, producing small grapes with great concentration.
Like in the McMinnville sub-AVA, cold Pacific air streams in via the Van Duzer Corridor and assists the maintenance of higher acidity in its grapes. This great concentration, combined with marked acidity, give the Eola-Amity Hills wines—namely Pinot noir—their distinct character. While the region covers 40,000 acres, no more than 1,400 acres are covered in vine.