Winemaker Notes
Deep rose blush in color, the Shea Vineyard Pinot Noir has beautiful aromas: barrel spice, delicate strawberry, rosewater, forest floor, and earthy mushroom spill from the glass. On the palate there is cinnamon and minerality. The tension and structure create a rich and creamy texture finishing with hints of anise.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Based in the Napa Valley, this brand from Kathryn Hall focuses on Pinot Noir. This release features grapes from one of Oregon's best sites—the Shea Vineyard, located in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA. It's jam-packed with black cherry and cassis fruit, nuanced by firm streaks of tobacco, espresso and sweet spice. Its density and balance are superb.
Editors' Choice -
Wine Spectator
Expressive lavender and raspberry aromas open to supple and layered cherry and licorice flavors that glide along the finish.
WALT is dedicated to the production of premier Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Pacific Coast's most distinctive vineyard sites, spanning nearly 1000 miles and including Sta. Rita Hills, Sonoma County, Anderson Valley, and the Willamette Valley. Their philosophy is that of precision, non-interventionist winemaking, thereby allowing the wines to naturally and honestly express the character of the site where the wines are grown. Under the artisanship of Director of Winemaking Steve Leveque and Winemaker Megan Gunderson, WALT Wines will continue to evolve and develop.
Located in the heart of Sonoma, just off the historic Sonoma Plaza, WALT Wines focuses on sourcing Pinot Noir fruit from premiere appellations stretching from Oregon's Willamette Valley to the Santa Rita Hills in California to craft the finest wines possible.
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.”
Yamhill-Carlton, characterized by pastoral, rolling hills composed of shallow, quick-draining, ancient marine soil, is ideal for Pinot noir and other cool-climate-loving varieties. It is in the rain shadow of the Coast Range to its west, whose highest point climbs to an altitude of 3,500 feet. Yamhill-Carlton is actually surrounded by mountains on three sides: Chehalem Mountains to the north, the Dundee Hills to the east and the western Coast Range to its west, which, when it lets Pacific air through, serves to cool the region.
Vineyards grow on the ridges surrounding the two small communities of Yamhill and Carlton and cover about 1,200 acres of this 60,000 acre region, which roughly makes a horse-shoe shape on a map.