Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
This was an especially good vintage in the Willamette, and this wine displays the sturdy structure and weighted depth that can be missing from lesser years. Black cherry fruit, charred barrel toast, coffee grounds and scorched earth combine here. The tannins are well managed and fully ripened. Roughly a fifth of the barrels were new. Drink this now while it retains the ripe, sweet fruit flavors.
-
Wine & Spirits
A selection of estate blocks, “Domaine” often reflects the estate’s cool coastal proximity. The 2016 starts off quiet and mannered, with scents of cinnamon, mocha and Christmas spice. The flavors are sleek and fleshy at once, the rich cherry core edged in smoky orange-peel notes.
-
James Suckling
Aromas of spiced black cherries, raspberries and mushrooms on the nose of this young, ripe pinot. The medium-bodied palate offers soft tannins and a fresh, juicy finish.
-
Vinous
The 2016 Pinot Noir Estate Reserve blossoms in the glass with an air of crushed chalk and sweet spice complementing dried black cherries. Its silken textures and ripe wild berry fruits soothe as hints of dark chocolate and clove swirl throughout. This tapers off with a film of adolescent tannins and dark inner florals while maintaining an admirable freshness. The 2016’s pleasantly mature profile adds value to the experience for a current release bottling.
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.”
Stretching southwest from the city of McMinnville, the AVA with the same name covers about 40,000 acres across 20 miles until it meets the Van Duzer Corridor. This corridor is the only break in the Coast Range whose gap allows the cool Pacific Ocean air to flow eastward into the Willamette Valley.
The Pacific's moderating winds hit McMinnville’s south and southeast facing slopes where cool-climate varieties—namely Pinot noir and Pinot blanc thrive on ridges at between 200 to 1,000 feet in elevation.
Soils here are primarily uplifted marine sedimentary loam and silt, with alluvial formations; McMinnville receives less rainfall than its neighbors to the east because it is situated in the rain shadow of the Coast Range.