Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Built with a mix of clones from the estate vineyards, this tart, tight, still young and stiff wine delivers black fruits cloaked in pepper, espresso and dark chocolate. At this age it opens rather grudgingly, and will reward your patience. Decant or tuck it away for a few years.
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Wine & Spirits
Pierre Leon is usually the most masculine of WillaKenzie’s offerings, and in 2012 the wine is dark and red, the black cherry aromas lent contour by oak-derived clove and cinnamon spice. The flavors remain sleek and fresh, the textures plush but giving way to a fine, savory finish. For herb-crusted pork loin.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale to medium ruby in color, the 2012 Pinot Noir Pierre Leon opens with spiced red and black fruits on the nose with nuances of cassis, cardamom and potpourri with touches of vanilla, smoked meat and dried leaves. Medium-bodied, the palate gives up layers of fruit and spice, with very fine, grainy tannins and mouthwatering acidity, finishing long with sweet fruit and savory nuances. This is just lovely!
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Wine Spectator
This has presence and a vibrant range of red berry, black cherry, plum and spice flavors, set on a light, transparent, glassy foundation, lingering gently. Drink now through 2020.
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.