Winemaker Notes
Complex and intense aroma profile with notes of black cherry, dried rose petal, baking spices and a hint of sage. The palate is pure and focused, with supple tannins and a long, refined finish
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale ruby-purple, the 2018 Pinot Noir Estate Cuvée has a pure, detailed perfume of lilac, blueberries, aniseed, tea leaves and woodsmoke. The medium-bodied palate has a powerful frame of grainy tannins and mouthwatering acidity that elevates its nuanced, floral flavors, and it finishes very long and layered.
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Tasting Panel
Aromas of earth are sweetened by wildflowers and mocha. Scrumptious, sumptuous notes of strawberry and more mocha are elegantly joined by a unique thread of red tea with a hint of maple. The finish ushers in bright notes of cherry-flavored licorice and a touch of salinity
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Wine Spectator
A vibrant red, with cherry and rhubarb flavors that are laced with savory underbrush notes, finishing with fine-grained tannins. Drink now.
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.