Winemaker Notes
Amassed from multiple vineyard blocks and clones, this wine has a timeless beauty that can be inherently understood by innate human nature. Wines of this stature, much like great art, reflect the complex and compelling relationship between humanity and Earth. Expressing autumn, (The Sum) leads with briar patch, lightly roasted coee and grandmother’s perfume on the nose, with Nutella, choke cherry and fennel bulb flavors. Driving tight acidity rings like a tuning fork through this wine that is shaped like a wide brimmed hat. 50% whole-cluster fermentation bolsters the wine, sustaining the tannic imprint and crunchy texture, like dry autumn leaves, lingering as a sort of familiar, can’t-quite-place-it ambient noise.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple, the 2016 Pinot Noir The Sum is scented of Earl Grey tea, tar, loamy earth, lavender and garrigue with black currants and black cherries at the core and hints of smoked meats and peppercorn. Medium-bodied and silky, it offers an intense dark fruit core with grainy tannins and seamless freshness on the very long, savory finish.
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Wine Spectator
Polished and plump fruit wraps gracefully around a complex backbone, with an expressive range and dusky spice accents that build toward refined tannins.
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.