Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Impressively built and expressive, with vibrant rose petal, black cherry and orange peel flavors that take on richness and depth toward polished tannins. Drink now through 2025. 610 cases made.
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James Suckling
There’s a very impressive sense of focused cherries on this fresh, young pinot and the palate delivers a crisp yet supple dose of fresh red cherries, again in pure, focused form. Drink now.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale to medium ruby-purple, the 2016 Pinot Noir Coast Range has lovely aromas of dried red cherries and blueberries with touches of cinnamon stick, stewed black tea leaves, potpourri and earth. Medium-bodied, it fills the mouth with black and blue fruits and lovely baking spice accents, with a good frame of fine-grained tannins and mouthwatering acidity, finishing long with potpourri hints. 500 cases produced.
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Wine Enthusiast
From a cool site set on sedimentary and volcanic soils, this sets a sleek, supple tone throughout the palate. It deftly mixes in strata of earth and herb under black cherry fruit. Tannins are polished and firm. It's drinking well already, but seems likely to improve further with additional bottle aging.
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.