tasting / savor / Oregon Pinot Noir
TERRIFIC AROMATIC WORK HERE. HARD NOT TO KEEP COMING BACK TO THIS ONCE YOU’VE SMELLED IT. OUTSTANDING WINE. DEEP, TRENCHANT PINOT, BUT FINE PURITY OF FRUIT
AR | A youthful medium-ruby hue, this is pretty shy in aroma; you feel that there’s some berry fruit lurking there but you want it to give you more to bring you in rather than hold you at bay, which this is doing; Pinot Noir does, however, come through when you taste, softly rounded in texture and quite juicy and approachable, even if the tannins are a little dry on the finish and the middle is not quite as filled out as hoped. 2024–26. | 88 DW | Expressive and deceptively simple, at first sniff and on first taste, this is light but rounded and pretty, with darting, fine acidity and sappy tannins; refreshing and prettily red-fruited on the finish, and with no little charm, if just lacking a little presence and flesh on the mid-palate. 2024–28. | 89
Mills Wine Company Quaintrelle Pinot Noir Willamette Valley Ribbon Ridge 2021 (13.5% ABV)
| 89
AJ | Dark black-red though still translucent. Warm, full, though with much less focus than its peers; and countryside notes, too. But why not? It’s agreeable, satisfying, and intriguing, and nothing says that “everything must be fruity”; quite the contrary. That “full landscape” spectrum in the wine only grows aromatically with more time in the glass. The palate reflects the nose. It is very different to its peers, and technical obsessives might find fault with a few discreetly funky notes—though I should stress that this is complexing for me. It evokes the meadow and the copse as much as the vineyard and the orchard. A fascinating reading of its place. 2024–29. | 90 AR | Medium-ruby and now just starting to show some evolution in the glass. This is fresh and pleasingly floral in aroma, with background red-berry, herb, and savory notes; there’s an appealing cherry-sweet fruitiness when you taste, allied to a firmness that, unusually, links more to the acidity than to the tannins; the oak is well-integrated, bringing a pleasing roundness of texture, even if the savory, drying elements slightly detract from what might otherwise have been a more charming red. 2024–27. | 89 DW | Extravagantly cherried nose, primary in tone, bordering on banana; on the palate, the fruit is kirsch-like, macerated, the tannins sinewy, the alcohol just a touch spirity, with that sweet banana-like tone coming through on the finish. A wine of strong personality that isn’t quite holding together today for me. 2024–32. | 88
216 | THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 87 | 2025
00 Wines Chehalem Mountain Willamette Valley Chehalem Mountains 2021 (13.3% ABV)
| 89
AJ | Translucent, dark black-red. This is a little bit grassy and light, without the compensations of cherry fruit. A jonquil, spring-bulb nose. The palate is very much as the aromas sketched out. It is a mouthful of springtime, but I’d like just a little bit more summer. Good wine (and to be fair, there is some light primeur raspberry, too) but we are in auspicious company. 2024–29. | 90 AR | Mid-ruby in color. This is certainly distinct in its aroma, like strawberry cheesecake, i.e. elements of strawberry on the one hand and cheesecake on the other; the medium-bodied strawberry fruit here is nicely textured and juicy, showing no overt signs of oak, while the acid and tannin twins do their job of keeping the fruit in check and balancing it nicely. The finish is a little on the dry side, but nothing that wouldn’t be absorbed by a piece of fatty fish or meat. 2024–28. | 90 DW | Cherries and creamy lactic tones—cherry yoghurt—with the essential tang in place, but the oak is to the fore, and some slightly clunky, dry tannin massing on the finish. 2024–30. | 87
Hope Well Wine Eola-Amity Hills Pinot Noir Willamette Valley Eola- Amity Hills 2021 (13.8% ABV)
| 89
AJ | Dark black-red. Round, warm, sweet, and nuanced, with honey and mimosa notes qualifying the gorgeously sweet cherry fruits. Terrific aromatic work here. Hard not to keep coming back to this once you’ve smelled it. This is an outstanding wine. Relatively deep, trenchant Pinot, but fine purity of fruit, some tannic support, a concentrated, sweet core, and a long, searching finish. Stylistically assured and lots for drinkers to discover, with a few years left in its boots. 2024–32. | 92 AR | A youthful ruby in color. This is pleasantly aromatic, with a decent, juicy core of dark-berry fruit and firm acidity, with no overt oak but the fruit expression is limited to the extent that it’s closer to a generic dry red than an enjoyable Pinot Noir. 2024–24. | 85 DW | Intriguing and attractive spiced tones here: something subtly herbal, too, dried rather than fresh; the spice is sweet, fresh-ground red paprika-like, the fruit nicely sappy dark berry; the tannins are a little dry and grippy, and the finish dries a little, too, but that spiced fruit is compelling. 2024–32. | 90
Evesham Wood Vineyard Haden Fig Cancilla Vineyard (Organic) Will. Valley (Cancilla Vineyard) 2021 (13.5% ABV)
| 89
AJ | Dark, dense black-red; very nearly opaque. This is a little closed and reductive as first sniffed; will return in ten minutes. Sure enough, the fruit has emerged, chunkily enough, and with some savory and hedgerow complexities—clearly worth decanting this. Mouthfilling on the palate, quite aquiline, with ample forward energy that’s the legacy of its brisk cherry fruits; fine yet firm tannins take it up another notch or two. Serious stuff and well worth a look. 2024–30. | 89
AR | The medium-ruby color is quite vivid and there’s a light floral fragrance linked to red berry in the aromatic profile; the fruit flavors are in the dark-berry and loganberry spectrum, supported by sub-threshold oak and a well-managed, sinewy structure of youthful tannins and juicy, and in no way acerbic, fresh acidity; rendering this wine well-balanced and still-youthful, yet to fully blossom with time in bottle. 2024–29. | 89 DW | Briary, ripe fruit—almost Grenache-like in its sweet-berry plumpness; the tannins barely perceptible, but there’s good energy and flow, in an expressive and accessible style with just a touch of sweetness on the finish. 2024–26. | 88
00 Wines Richard Hermann Cuvée Willamette Valley Eola-Amity Hills 2021 (14.4% ABV)
| 89
AJ | Dark, lively black-red. Sweet and warm, with ultra-classy oak bubbling the ripe fruit forward and sending celestial, toasty vanilla down through the cherry: You just gotta love it. I challenge anyone to sniff this and not sip... Warm, full, ample, and... yes, the same oak is bubbling through the fruit. A fast white car with sumptuous upholstery: pure-pleasure Pinot, given a whole lotta love in the winery. Perhaps I’d think about more emphasis on the fruit itself, and less on the oak, for the future, but customers are going to love this wine. I’d take a look in three or four years, when it has calmed down a little. 2024–30. | 91 AR | This is dense and vivid in color, almost surprisingly deep for Pinot Noir; there’s a nice, unhurried complexity to the aroma, a hint of subtle oak, some dark-berry fruit, all in refreshing lockstep; and when you taste the fruit, there’s a nice surprise; intense and concentrated dark- berry fruit, such as loganberry, tayberry, encased in a firm, structured grip of refreshing acidity and fine tannins, the oak bringing more of a texture than flavor element to the wine, whose savory finish underlines the fact that it is youthfully elemental, with time to go. 2024–32. | 92 DW | Raw toasty, grainy, mocha oak and overripe fruit; very prominent alcohol; a rare misstep in this tasting, reaching back to flaws from another turn-of-the-Millennium era. 2024–30. | 83
Penner-Ash Wine Cellars Penner- Ash Willamette Valley 2021 (14.1% ABV)
| 88
AJ | Bright, deep, dark scarlet-red. Sweet and lifted black-cherry fruits: subtle, enticing, classy. Oak a feature but not occluding anything. Tangy, bright, and sweet-fruited, though with a little less bass behind than the nose suggested we might find. The sweetness mitigates in the mouth and there’s an agreeable vegetal pull, lending the wine a vinous drive. 2024–28. | 87 AR | A pleasant medium-ruby in color. This shows some instantly appealing fresh-berry notes in the aromas, with a light herbal underlay; to taste, it’s appealing, fresh, and quite vivid, showing juicy strawberry flavors underscored by a clean, incisive blade of freshness and supported by well-handled tannins that bring a dimension of grip and structure, if not for the long haul, at least over the medium term; a wine I would enjoy drinking. 2024–28. | 91
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