Andrew JeffordAJ | Anthony Rose AR | David Williams DW
DW | An attractive splash of sweet fruit in ripe-cherry mode opens into a fleshy palate of similarly sweet fruit; alcohol swells the palate but burns the finish a touch, which is abidingly sweet. 2024–28. | 87
Sequitur Sundog Pinot Noir Willamette Valley Ribbon Ridge 2021 (13.2% ABV)
| 88
AJ | The darkest of the Ribbon Ridge wines: opaque black-red, and from visuals alone you might guess Malbec. Much more Pinot on the nose, with its lively, sweet black-cherry curves. Come on in! Super full-on here, but you know what? I’m enjoying this surf of cherry washing over my tongue and swinging my tonsils about. Super-cherry, super-charged. Another less-than- subtle wine but great fun. 2024–30. | 90 AR | This has quite considerable depth of vivid, youthful color, which translates in the aromas into a super-ripe, dark-berry fruit aroma, and while it’s clearly very ripe, it is not, for all that, jammy, and that lack of jamminess is confirmed on taste by a linear streak of underlying acidity that mitigates the initial impression of super- ripeness; if it were a Burgundy, it would most likely be called super-modern for its ripeness and extraction levels, and perhaps even marked down as such, whereas I think drinkers of this style outside Burgundy are more forgiving, even if I find it a tad blocky and one-dimensional. 2024–28. | 88 DW | Dark ripeness: glossy fruits of the forest seasoned with cooked orange peel and dried herbs; darkly juicy and compelling, very attractive and plentiful fresh acidity and a saline quality; then a resonant, darkly fruited but clear, ringing finish. 2024–30. | 87
Antikythera Antikythera Willamette Valley Eola-Amity Hills 2021 (13% ABV)
| 88
AJ | Dark black-red, but with lots of full red and less scarlet than many... This is an interesting variant. Lots of warmth and meaty fullness building the fruit here, which in any case is much less fragrant-cherry and raspberry than its peers. The result is very satisfying, almost secondary, using the oak very well, almost like an old-style Nuits. You might almost use the word “hearty” here. Let’s see what the palate is like… Very full, glowing, softly fruity and resonant. Almost devoid of tannin, alas, and the acids are super-soft. The result is a lovely kick-back, rose-glow, easy- ball Pinot, friendly as you want. But for me, it’s inadequately gastronomic—you need a bit more edge and structure for that. Nonetheless, a super-interesting wine. 2024–28. | 90 AR | Medium-dark ruby and showing some evolution in color. This is Pinot alright, but with a distinct herbal tinge to the aromatics; and when you taste, the first impressions are more savory and salty than fruity, and so it’s quite demanding and very much in need of food; this initial impression is confirmed by the salty, drying finish. 2024–26. | 88 DW | Soft on entry, and just a tad soupy and unfocused in its fruit character, which has the quality of overripe strawberries with a similar absence of lift and energy. 2024–30. | 85
Adelsheim Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2021 (13% ABV; screwcap)
| 87
AJ | Deep cherry-scarlet. Warm, softly meaty fruits and sweet earth. Attractive. It grows resinous with air—minty rather than meaty after five minutes or so. Pure, clean, and crunchy fruit: down-the-line delivery. Fresh and vibrant to the end. 2024–28. | 87 AR | Vivid ruby hue. Youthful, fresh aromas, still a little on the shy side, even if it’s clear that Pinot Noir is involved; and the same goes for the fruit quality on tasting, the texture surprisingly soft and already approachable; I say surprisingly—some might say suspiciously, given the relative youth of the wine and perhaps not quite as much freshness or acidity as might be hoped. 2024–26. | 87 DW | Slim and slinky in feel, and primary in fruit character, this has a scant handful of dusty, fine tannins—it’s not entirely frictionless—and an easy, accessible drinkability; relatively simple, but a superior vin de soif. 2024–28. | 88
Goodfellow Family Cellars Whistling Ridge Heritage No.19 Willamette Valley Ribbon Ridge 2021 (13% ABV)
| 87
AJ | Light and translucent, bright scarlet. Sweet, with some oak as well as the soft cherry; drier and more aerial than some. Bright, crisp, and sinewy. Fruit-hounds might be disappointed here, but if you love Savigny, Beaune, or Pernand, you have come to the right place with this slender, graceful, darting wine, in which both acids and tannins do all the shaping and battery-pack the wine. Aesthetically daring (unless it is straight a reflection of a high/cool site), but it works well for me. 2024–30. | 91 AR | This is medium-ruby and showing some evolution in the garnet at the rim of the glass. There’s a pleasant fragrance here, and when you taste the wine, a quite marked acidity and slightly drying tannin seem to take over quite soon, before the red fruits have really been allowed to express themselves; above all, that throat-catching, drying finish just scoops out the fruit from a potentially good wine. 2024–26. | 87 DW | A touch of savory oak and a tad green in the tannin department; there is raspberry coulis and cherry but the feel is dry and a little forced and extracted, this is a little effortful in the company. 2024–32. | 84
Evening Land Vineyards La Source Seven Springs Estate Willamette Valley Eola-Amity Hills 2019 (13% ABV)
| 86
AJ | Bottle 1: Dark black-red. Warm… very warm: a touch of tar. Smoke taint? Almost. A pronounced aromatic character to this wine. Bottle 2: Very similar to bottle one. So, unfortunately, aromatically unenticing. Ditto on the palate: very tarry and, frankly, spoiled, for me. 2024–24. | 79 AR | Youthful medium-ruby. There’s a pleasing, aromatic, berry-fruit quality, and some strawberry fruit, too, but it’s rather dry and over the (Amity) hill. 2024–24. | 85
DW | Tight and contained at the moment, this has an attractive roots and botanicals earthiness and bittersweet tang, white pepper, too; beyond that are bergamot and pomegranate and strawberry, as well as forest floor and an almost-Syrah-like spicy meatiness; a tumbleweed mass of fine tannin; tangy fruit and an umami finish. Wild and fascinating and with plenty to come. 2024–32. | 94
Domaine Drouhin Oregon Rose Rock Zephirine Willamette Valley Eola-Amity Hills 2021 (15.1% ABV)
| 86
AJ | Bottle 1: Dark black-red. This is not a great success aromatically, and since we have another bottle I’m going to ask for it. Bottle 2: This just seems (as did the first bottle) a little dry and undemonstrative alongside its peers. There are some citrus-peel perfumes but the main fruit interest isn’t evident. Concentrated on the palate, but relatively simple in constitution, with a kind of lime-sundae sweetness than I am at a loss to account for. I don’t see a lot of purity or vineyard trace here. 2024–27. | 85 AR | Youthful mid-ruby. This lacks a little aroma and energy on the palate, enveloped as it is by rather rustic tannin and marked acidity, unfortunately just with a low fruit core. 2024–23. | 83 DW | Plump, ripe, and full: a curious note of the tangy, herbal sweetness of cola-bottle gummy sweets, that sense of fruit gum lingering on the finish, which has a slight smoky-ashy tint, too. Just a little confected and disjointed. 2024–32. | 87
Lavinea Elton Vineyard Pinot Noir Willamette Valley Eola-Amity Hills 2021 (13.3% ABV)
| 84
AJ | Clear, glowing scarlet. Another wild card… this somehow contrives to smell of basil and pesto. Not unpleasant… indeed, it may well be the perfect Pinot for trofie al pesto alla genovese; but you couldn’t quite call it a classic. Honestly, this is not a great success on the palate; this has the same pesto character and is rather mechanical and coarse on the palate. Sorry. 2024–24. | 82 AR | Medium-ruby in color. There’s a sausagey/ salami-like, savory oak aroma to this wine, which follows through when you taste; overall, savory (probably bretty, to be honest), and without any of the fruit fragrance or charm you should associate with Pinot Noir. The acidity here is off the scale. 2024–24. | 82 DW | Spiced blackberry and cassis fruit and graphite, with a hint of sweet oak; there’s a lot of grainy tannin and lipsmacking cherryish acidity; almost Cab Franc-like in its upright acid-and-tannin structure, with some coffee-ish oak notes abiding on the finish, which is more acid and oak than fruit. 2024–32. | 88
The following wine was deemed by all three tasters to be corked: JK Carriere Wines Vespidae Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2021.
THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 87 | 2025 | 217
SAVOR: OREGON PINOT NOIR
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