Wine & Spirits - April 2021 - 86

Year's Best US Pinot Noirs
90 | Lachini Vineyards

$65

2018 Chehalem Mountains Lachini Family Estate Pinot Noir ^ Bright and lean, with
an attractive licorice and clove spice overlaying bright red pomegranate scents, this wine
is firm and compact with a mineral slickness
that gives it an elegant feel. -P.J.C. (1,543
cases) §

DUNDEE HILLS
523173

95 | The Eyrie Vineyards

$45

2017 Dundee Hills Sisters Vineyard Pinot
Noir (Best Buy) ^ The Sisters plantings are
reaching middle age, the first dating to 1987,
and this wine points to Jason Lett's mastery
not only of his father's winemaking style
and legacy, but of the vineyards he's taken
on since his father's passing. There's an old
school savor to the flavors, burnished scents
of leaf, walnut skin and red cherry. Nothing really prepares you for the experience
of completeness on the palate, the fruit succulent and generous, the flavor reined in by
the most delicate of tannins, the wine lasting with uncanny length. -P.J.C. (516 cases) §
522984

94 | Domaine Roy & Fils

mon and tar. For tea-smoked duck. -P.J.C.
(W&S 10/20; 917 cases) §
521481

94 | Rose & Arrow

$150

2018 Dundee Hills Worden Hill Red Dust
Pinot Noir ^ From a planting rooted in a
pocket of basalt-loam, this is slightly smoky
and savory when first poured, with dark plum
and cigar box notes; with air, it becomes completely seductive, a suave, streamlined burst
of cherry flavors marked by tannins as fine
as suede. It takes on a walnut-skin sepia tone
that brings to mind film noir-dark and stylish, lamplit, mysterious, smoky. Cellar this,
and then open it for vintage movie night.
-P.J.C. (W&S 10/20; 138 cases) §

$60

2018 Dundee Hills Incline Pinot Noir ^ From
a vineyard in the heart of the Dundee Hills
known as Iron Filbert, recently replanted at
a high density, Incline is joyous-my notes
aren't so much descriptive as declarative,
delighted by the wine's simple purity. It has
powerful scents of red cherry, forest floor and
red earth, the flavors fleshy, rich and assertive. It's a generous wine, with the stuff to
age, or pour for Cornish hen. -P.J.C. (625
cases) §
523174

521480

94 | Rose & Arrow

$75

2018 Dundee Hills Worden Hill Pinot
Noir ^ Rose & Arrow's Worden Hill holdings are the remnants of a landslide in the
Dundee Hills. The wine the site produces is
simply gorgeous, all smoke and suede and
red dust when first poured, an exotic leather
glove warmed by sunshine. In 30 minutes,
the fruit comes roaring into view, dark plum
and black cherry, with a mild tang of acid and
earth, and all the savor lifts, marked by fine
tannins and a lingering cherry-blossom finish. -P.J.C. (W&S 10/20; 122 cases) §
522904

and spices. The flavors are darker (saturated
cherry), bearing the fine mineral tang often
delivered in fruit from Jory soils. Cellar it.
-P.J.C. (400 cases) §
523176

93 | The Eyrie Vineyards

$80

93 | The Eyrie Vineyards

$180

93 | The Eyrie Vineyards

$80

2017 Dundee Hills Daphne Vineyard
Pinot Noir ^ Daphne is the Eyrie Vineyards'
highest block with vines planted at 850 feet
in the 1970s and '80s. It's lithe and leathery,
needing a day to come into itself, melding
strawberry, tobacco and vinous, suede-like
notes with an old-school tension. By the third
day open, the wine is ethereal and haunting,
translucent but held together in a savory,
tight weave. It's built for the cellar. -P.J.C.
(198 cases) §
523172
2015 Dundee Hills South Block Reserve
Pinot Noir ^ The South Block sustains plantings from 1968, among the first that David
Lett planted in the Willamette Valley; Jason
Lett reintroduced this bottling in 2015 when
phylloxera reached the block. The flavors are
classic Eyrie, with savory elements-tobacco
leaf, rose petal, leaf litter, and a kind of rootiness-all framing pale, lean red-cherry fruit.
The texture is firm but lacy, with dusty tannins that would sing against something
savory and gamey, like roast squab. -P.J.C.
(750 cases) §
523177

$85

2017 Dundee Hills The Eyrie Vineyard
Pinot Noir ^ Loose-knit, light in tone and
character, this wine includes fruit from vines
going back to 1968. There's an ethereal whiff
of rosehips and forest floor adorning palecherry flavors, lean and wonderfully tense.
After several days open it becomes even more
assertive, driven by firm but refined tannins.
-P.J.C. (445 cases) §
522889

$40

2019 Dundee Hills Bergström Vineyard
Pinot Noir ^ The flush of youth is a strong pull
in this pinot noir. Despite the undergirding
of oak and whole-cluster spice, there's a wine
bursting with vibrant red-cherry flavor, with
horehound and clove scents backing up the
fruit. Every element is intriguing-wait at
least a year before uncorking this for flank
steak. -P.J.C. (420 cases) §
522997

2018 Dundee Hills Summit Vineyard
Pinot Noir ^ This is a formidable wine, in its
oak expression, in its streaks of red-cherry flavor that seem to wash over the middle palate,
and in its impressive density. The oak streamlines the fruit and suggests the wine will age
well; its lean finish could take on charcuterie
now. -P.J.C. (263 cases) §
520412

2017 Dundee Hills Volcanique Pinot Noir
(Best Buy) ^ Blended from estate lots planted
on volcanic soils, this really does smell like
volcanic earth in its smoky and mildly earthy
notes. The cool red-fruit flavors seem plush
at first but lengthen and become velvety after
a day, spicy with hints of rooibos tea, cinna-

2018 Dundee Hills Elevée Vineyard Pinot
Noir ^ Elevée planted its home vineyard in
1998 on four acres along a south-facing slope,
giving a wine with a generous carriage in the
warm 2018 vintage. The scents, in fact, are
warm, leading with red cherries, tobacco

94 | The Eyrie Vineyards

$50

2017 Dundee Hills Outcrop Vineyard
Pinot Noir ^ The Outcrop is a north-facing
slope-a different exposition than most of
the rest of the property at Eyrie-and relatively low in elevation, with plantings going
back to 1971. It's savory when first poured,
smelling of forest floor and smoke, turf and
tobacco. From the first sip the wine feels
full of life, cool, lean and lacey, suggesting
an impressive capacity to age. -P.J.C. (196
cases) §
521475

94 | J. Christopher

WINE & SPIRITS

APRIL 2021

93 | Bergström Wines

93 | Elevée

$52

92 | Archery Summit

$150

92 | Archery Summit

$100

2017 Dundee Hills Red Hills Vineyard
Pinot Noir ^ A Jory-soils stalwart, this wine's
attributes are red through and through, with
scents of red-cap mushroom and cinnamon,
dark herbs and plum-a curious panoply of
savory and sweet. The flavors, though, are

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Wine & Spirits - April 2021

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