2012 Belle Pente Pinot Noir Estate Reserve

• By Josh Raynolds
  Oregon Pinot Noir: The 2013s & 2012 Late Releases (Oct 2015), 10/1/2015, (See more on Vinous...)

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Full Pull

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Mixed Cherries, 4/30/2018

  (Belle Pente Pinot Noir Estate Reserve) Hello friends. For better or worse (we’re about to find out), I’ve had a bias towards “yes” this year. That has especially applied to wines that we love where the parcel size is awkward: too small for a proper offer; too large for the retail rack. In previous years, I would shed a silent tear and let these wines slip past. Not this year. This year I’ve just been saying yes, purchasing the wines, and figuring we’d find a place for them later. And now we have. So today’s offer is a mixed bowlful of cherries: a quartet of wines where we purchased the entire remaining parcel available to the western Washington market. Any of the four on its own would not warrant an offer based on the amount available. But together? A different story. There’s no particular thematic thread holding this quartet together. What they share is simple: scarcity and excellence.Just 46 bottles to start the day (updated availability) for the only Oregon Pinot in this version of the Eliminator. I was shocked to learn this wine was still available earlier this year, asked for a sample, and immediately upon tasting purchased every remaining bottle. “Oh my this is amazing” was my initial notebook scrawl. Josh Raynolds is more articulate in Vinous: Brilliant ruby-red. A heady, strikingly pure bouquet evokes ripe red and dark berries, potpourri and Asian spices, along with suggestions of sassafras, cola and smoky minerals. At once concentrated and lithe, conveying superb energy and focus to its juicy raspberry, cherry and spicecake flavors. A suave floral quality emerges with air, carrying through a very long, sweet, gently tannic finish that leaves sappy red berry and rose pastille notes behind. Is this the best bottling yet to emerge from this winery, which has firmly established itself as one of America's finest sources of elegant Pinot Noir? One thing's for sure, it's an excellent value. Drink 2019-2024. 94pts.