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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Drinking window: Drink between 1999 and 2002 (based on 46 user opinions) |
| Community Tasting History |
| WillaKenzie Estate Producer Website
Passion for Pinot with a Sense of Place is what defines WillaKenzie Estate, a family owned winery located in the heart of the Willamette Valley. We produce Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and small amounts of Pinot Meunier, Gamay Noir and Chardonnay. Our wines are made from grapes sustainably grown on the Estate and their Old World style reflect our French heritage. Come visit and taste Oregon terroir at its best!
Early Years
WillaKenzie Estate Winery is the longtime dream of co-founder Bernard Lacroute. After a successful career in high tech, Bernard decided to return to his Burgundian roots and grow Pinot Noir.
Finding an Ideal Site
The Lacroutes (Bernard and then wife Ronni Lacroute) searched for a suitable grape growing site for several years and finally purchased a cattle ranch in January 1991 just outside Yamhill, Oregon. The rolling hills of the Yamhill-Carlton AVA (American Viticultural Area) are ideal for growing world-class Pinot Noir. They named the property WillaKenzie Estate after the ancient Willakenzie sedimentary soil on which the vineyards are planted.
The First WillaKenzie Vines
As the Lacroutes laid the foundation for what would become a small, family-owned Oregon winery, they knew their goal would always be to make wines reflecting the place on which the vines are grown. In 1992, they planted their first vineyards on south-facing slopes replacing pasture, blackberries, and poison oak. Additional plantings in Yamhill continued through 2001. Today, 105 acres of grape vines (about a quarter of the Willamette Valley estate) are planted around untouched stands of Douglas fir, oak, and maple trees. Two-thirds of the vineyards are Pinot Noir, primarily Dijon clones as well as some of the Pinot Noir varietal clones originally planted in Oregon. Remaining vineyards are planted to Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Meunier, Gamay Noir, and Chardonnay.
The WillaKenzie Estate Jory Hills Vineyard
In 2000, the Lacroutes purchased 95 acres of land in the Dundee Hills AVA of Oregon, again naming the vineyard after its soil type: Jory (of volcanic origin). To date 25 acres have been planted at the Jory Hills vineyard, using various clones of Pinot Noir vines.
Building the WillaKenzie Winery
Construction of the Lacroutes’ state-of-the-art, multi-level, gravity-flow winery was completed in 1995, just in time to make the wines from their first Oregon harvest. Since then, they have continued to make improvements, building an innovative facility in 2007 to dramatically cool their grapes before processing as well as a large solar array and new tasting room in 2010. Today, production remains at around 20,000 cases, no plans to increase further. Instead, emphasis remains on quality wine, not quantity.
After nearly two decades, WillaKenzie Estate has remained true to its founding principles. We are dedicated to sustainable viticulture and organic vineyard farming practices with the goal of making Willamette Valley wines that reflect the distinctive character of our land and the diversity of our extensive clonal plantings.Pinot Meunier Pinot meunier (Wikipedia)
Varietal character (Appellation America)USAAmerican wine has been produced since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84% of all U.S. wine. The continent of North America is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina, but the wine-making industry is based almost entirely on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.Oregon Oregon Wine, Oregon Wineries (Oregon Wine Board)Willamette Valley Willamette Valley Wineries Association | Willamette Valley (Oregon Wine Board)
On weinlagen-info including some single vineyards
Willamette Valley Vintage Reviews
Willamette Valley Willamette Valley Wineries Association | Willamette Valley AVA Wikipedia article
#2012 vintage:
"Broadly speaking, the Willamette Valley's 2012 pinots are fleshy and fruit-dominated, with round tannins and forward personalities. The fruit tends to the darker side of the pinot spectrum--think cherry and blackberry rather than strawberry and raspberry, much less cranberry and redcurrant--and this gives the wines massive crowd appeal. The best wines also have the depth to age, so don't be fooled by their accessible nature in the early going." - Josh Raynolds
#2013 vintage:
"The key to a successful foray into the ‘13s is first to understand that in most instances the wines lean to the red fruit side of Pinot Noir; they tend to be tangy and tightly wound but often lack concentration. While some wines may put on weight and gain sweetness with bottle age, that’s a gamble I’ll personally leave to others. The 2013s also tend to lack the tannic structure for more than mid-term aging although they will likely endure on their acidity, which I suspect will usually outlast the fruit in this vintage" - Josh Raynolds
#2014 vintage:
"The 2014 vintage in Oregon may be remembered as the vintage of a lifetime [for growers] . . . these wines as they will be similar to the 2009 vintage . . . lovely, ripe, rich, deeply concentrated and aromatic" - winebusiness.com
"The conditions made it relatively easy to make good wines, with no worries about achieving ripeness, and the lack of frost risk allowed us to keep grapes on the vine as long as we wished." - Casey McClellan |
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