Winemaker Notes
Symbolizing a dark winter’s night, Slope exhibits aromas of blueberry cobbler, wet concrete, lavender, and root beer with flavors of braised meat, rose petal, and rhubarb. The wine has incredible polish with good tannin that is backed by fresh acidity. A Pinot that reminds Winemaker, Shane Moore, of flying first class to Europe, happily, enthusiastically, and unashamedly listening to and singing along with cliché music.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale ruby-purple, the 2018 Pinot Noir Slope takes some time in the glass to reveal scents of cranberry sauce, orange peel, charcuterie and flinty streaks that make the generosity on the palate all the more surprising. Medium-bodied, it's bursting with layer after layer of concentrated, savory fruit and is loaded with floral perfume. Grainy and fresh, it offers a harmonious structural balance and glides effortlessly into an incredibly long, detailed finish. Wow!
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Wine Spectator
A wine of presence and personality, with dynamic black raspberry and guava flavors that take on stony mineral and dusky spice accents as this gathers richness and tension toward broad-shouldered tannins. Best from 2022
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.