Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale to medium ruby-purple, the 2014 Pinot Noir Conifer offers up pretty red flower and wild herb notions with a core of red cherries and red currants, plus suggestions of garrigue and Ceylon tea. Medium-bodied, it gives a good concentration of red fruit and earthy flavor layers, supported by firm, grainy tannins and just enough freshness, finishing long and perfumed.
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Wine Spectator
Supple and expressive, with vibrantly layered raspberry, rose petal and spiced cinnamon flavors that glide toward a polished finish. Drink now through 2023.
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.”
Running north to south, adjacent to the Willamette River, the Eola-Amity Hills AVA has shallow and well-drained soils created from ancient lava flows (called Jory), marine sediments, rocks and alluvial deposits. These soils force vine roots to dig deep, producing small grapes with great concentration.
Like in the McMinnville sub-AVA, cold Pacific air streams in via the Van Duzer Corridor and assists the maintenance of higher acidity in its grapes. This great concentration, combined with marked acidity, give the Eola-Amity Hills wines—namely Pinot noir—their distinct character. While the region covers 40,000 acres, no more than 1,400 acres are covered in vine.