Wine & Spirits - April 2018 - 97

YEAR'S BEST PINOT NOIRS
rich, the wood-derived tannins providing a
firm close. (727 cases)

511022

91 | Duck Pond

$35

2016 Dundee Hills Reserve Pinot Noir
(Best Buy) ^ A complex aroma of black tea and
black cherry amplifies with air as this wine
grows luminous in its red-fruit essence. It's
exuberant, a vibrant beam of red in the glass,
with a kiss of oak in the finish. This is ready to
drink with smoked trout. (250 cases)
510963

91 | Et Fille Wines

$38

2014 Willamette Valley Heredity Pinot
Noir (Best Buy) ^ This barrel selection starts
off burly and tough, then blossoms with
air into a wine of poise and prettiness. The
scents of red plum and cherry have a background note of tar, which recedes nicely with
air, revealing a pinot of ample, juicy intensity.
(277 cases)
449044

91 | J. Christopher

$75

2015 Eola-Amity Hills Elton Vineyard
Pinot Noir ^ Oak is in the driver's seat in this
posh, generous red, a caramel core of structure in support of dark spiced cherry flavors. The texture has the feel of burnished
wood, smooth and fine grained, with lingering notes of allspice on the finish. (215 cases)
510358

91 | Lavinea

$38

91 | Second Growth

$30

2015 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ^ Le
Cadeau's estate vineyard in the Chehalem
Mountains delivered a lean, brisk and balanced pinot noir in 2015, its cedary, amarolike spice driven by a portion of the lot made
with whole clusters. The red and black cherry
scents are lent a modest savory thrust by that
spice, lasting through a delicately mineral
final impression. (W&S 8/17; 143 cases)
510443
2015 Chehalem Mountains Pinot Noir
(Best Buy) ^ Woodsy and ripe, with a tobaccoleaf savor adorning sweet red-cherry scents,
this wine may be forward but there are complex elements, of baked cherries and Keemun
tea, and a sumptuous oak finish that calls for
mushroom pasta. (330 cases)
510972

91 | St. Innocent

$28

2016 Willamette Valley Villages Cuvée
Pinot Noir (Best Buy) ^ Mark Vlossak sources
this fruit mostly from the Vitae Springs and
Zenith vineyards. It's dark and heady, with
notes of bittersweet chocolate and black
plum. The flavors are full and spicy, with a
dusty soil note that girds the wine and gives
it focus. (2,620 cases)

$40

2014 Chehalem Mountains Nuages Pinot
Noir ^ A quietly assertive pinot with a dark
frame, this leads with a whiff of tar and cinnamon stick, fruit skin and caramel. All come
together with a day's air, buoyed by vinous
tannins that frame the fruit with an easy elegance. (W&S 6/17; 375 cases)
510362

91 | Lavinea

91 | Le Cadeau

510625

91 | Violin

$48

2015 Eola-Amity Hills Pinot Noir ^ A fivebarrel selection from three Eola-Amity Hills
vineyards, this is redolent of freshly turned
earth and strawberries. It's lush, medium
bodied, red fruited, grippy but not drying or
astringent, a simple pinot for chicken mole.
(140 cases)

$55

2015 Yamhill-Carlton Lazy River Vineyard
Pinot Noir ^ Like the Elton Vineyard wine
(also recommended here), this Lazy River
pinot has a pronounced and generous suite
of oak flavors, like a spiced caramel coating
on lush cherry fruit. The wine is round and
medium bodied, with a silky texture and a
whiff of turf on the finish that suggests pork
loin as a pairing. (237 cases)
449135

509589

91 | Willamette Valley
Vineyards

$50

2015 Ribbon Ridge AVA Series Pinot
Noir ^ A posh, stylish pinot, with lushness all
around its raspberry fruit, this is leavened

by a savory note of tobacco and forest floor.
Those flavors are a bit oak driven, in a caramel through-line that should mellow with
cellar time. (W&S 2/18; 150 cases)

510552

91 | Willful

$26

90 | Adelsheim

$75

90 | Andrew Rich

$45

90 | Argyle

$40

90 | Brick House

$48

2015 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir (Best
Buy) ^ Light and lifted, with a scent of crushed
berries and an earthy bottom note, this has
the acid structure to support its sweet berry
fruit. Its light tannins make it an aperitif wine
to chill down. (640 cases)
450050
2014 Chehalem Mountains Calkins Lane
Pinot Noir ^ Adelsheim has worked with fruit
from Calkins Lane, the vineyard surrounding the winery, since 1988. It generally has a
demonstrative Chehalem Mountains southslope personality captured in a whiff of pine,
a dark plum fruit profile, a warm soil character. This vintage is a bit burly, some time
from peak expression, but there's a lot there.
For the cellar. (W&S 8/17; 532 cases)
510937
2014 Willamette Valley Volcanic Pinot
Noir ^ Andrew Rich has debuted two pinots
blended for their respective soil types. The
Volcanic starts off blocky and intense, but
with air becomes ever brighter and more
nimble, with crushed-cherry flavors and a
deft complement of oak. (240 cases)
449912
2014 Willamette Valley Reserve Artisan Series Pinot Noir ^ This is a wine with
appealing reticence and reserve, its staunch
texture yielding faint dried-cherry notes and
an airy sense of redwood fronds. The flavors
are lean, savory and resolved, with the delicacy to handle something aromatic, like wild
mushroom risotto. (W&S 8/17)
510967
2015 Ribbon Ridge Cuvée du Tonnelier
Pinot Noir ^ From the Brick House property's oldest vines, planted in 1990 before the
introduction of Dijon clones, this is mostly
WINE & SPIRITS

APRIL 2018

97

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - April 2018