Winemaker Notes
The 2017 Estate Pinot Noir expresses the terroir of our three vineyards — the original planting by Founder Jim Bernau at the winery in the Salem Hills, Tualatin Estate planted by Oregon wine pioneer Bill Fuller in the foothills of the Coastal Range and Elton planted by Dick and Betty O'Brien on the east face of the Eola-Amity Hills. This wine exemplifies the "Willamette Valley-style" opening with aromas of strawberry, raspberry, florals, and earth to create an elegant bouquet. On the palate, the wine is medium-bodied and offers flavors of cherry, orange spice, dried herbs, bergamot and cedar around a frame of soft tannins and balancing acidity. This wine will pair beautifully with classic Pinot Noir dishes including Oregon lamb, steelhead, duck, pork, mushrooms and aged cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a chewy wine, even a bit rugged, but flavorful in tones of wild blackberry and black cherry. There’s a hint of cherry candy, and the tannins bring a touch of green tea, yet everything in proportion.
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Wine Spectator
Tightly focused, with a narrow beam of cherry and pomegranate flavors, accented by green tea notes and persisting toward fine-grained tannins. Drink now through 2026.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 Willamette Valley Vineyards Estate Pinot Noir shows an excellent bite on the palate; TASTING NOTES: This rich wine exhibits attractive red fruit aromas and flavors. Serve it with salmon sashimi handrolls. (Tasted: March 4, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
A combination of determination and extraordinary people has brought Willamette Valley Vineyards from a bold idea to one of the region's leading wineries, earning the title "One of America's Great Pinot Noir Producers," from Wine Enthusiast Magazine.
The “budwood” of Willamette Valley Vineyards began long before its founding in 1983 by vintner Jim Bernau. His Dad was hired by a California winemaker to secure the first winery license in Oregon since Prohibition. Jim’s Dad allowed him small tastes of Richard Sommer’s wine, lighting a path that led Jim from home winemaking to studies at UC Davis and eventually Beaune, France.
In 1983, Jim cleared away an old pioneer plum orchard in the Salem Hills and hand-watered his first plantings using 17 lengths of 75’ garden hose.
Jim's vision of organizing the support of wine enthusiasts to build a winery that would produce world-class wines through shared ownership has resulted in more than 16,000 owners. The winery's Common (WVVI) and Preferred (WVVIP) are traded on the NASDAQ.
The winery sources all of its barrel-aged Pinot Noir from its estate vineyards and practices environmentally sustainable farming. All of the vineyards have been certified sustainable through LIVE (Low Impact Viticulture and Enology) and Salmon-Safe programs since 1997.
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.