JamesSuckling.com

• By James Suckling
  11/2/2016 (link)

  (The Eyrie Vineyards Pinot Noir Dundee Hills Original Vines, United States) Subscribe to see review text.

Vinous

• By Josh Raynolds
  Oregon Pinot Noir: The 2013s & 2012 Late Releases (Oct 2015), 10/1/2015 (link)

  (The Eyrie Vineyard Pinot Noir Original Vines Oregon) Subscribe to see review text.

Decanter

• By William Kelley
  Oregon Pinot Noir (link)

  (Eyrie Vineyards, Original Vines Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Dundee Hills, Oregon, USA, Red) Subscribe to see review text.

Full Pull

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Oregon’s Beginnings, 7/17/2017

  (Eyrie Vineyards Original Vines Pinot Noir) Hello friends. There are moments in life that create space for reflection. Buying your first house. Finding out you’re going to have a baby. Drinking that first bottle of wine that finally made you leave magnums of Yellow Tail Sauvignon Blanc and Two Buck Chuck in the dust. Well, businesses have the same milestones, too. For Full Pull, they are marked largely by people—and most importantly, wine. The first wine offered. The first employee that was hired. The first weekend of open hours for our tasting room. Eyrie Vineyards in Willamette Valley marks such a moment of reflection for team Full Pull—the first Oregon winery we ever offered. Much like Full Pull’s first offering (2004 Mountain Dome Brut), Paul knew from the beginning what the first Oregon offering would be. It just took finally getting there (physically and metaphorically) to offer it. Eyrie Vineyards is a special winery, not only to our team, but for the Pacific Northwest, and new world Pinot in general. These esteemed and wildly popular wines are steeped in a rich history of the region itself—Eyrie is responsible for pioneering Pinot in the Willamette Valley. This winery served as a guiding light for many wineries to follow. Believe it or not, it has actually been over two years since our last exclusive Eyrie offer. So, as a reminder, or for those of you who aren’t familiar with the winery, here’s a relatively brief history: A trip through Europe in the early ’60s convinced David Lett of the singular beauty of Pinot Noir and that the grape could only reach its highest expression in difficult environments. After graduating from UC-Davis in 1963, he blazed a trail north to Oregon, where he was convinced he could find just such a clime. In 1966, he settled on a site in the Dundee Hills, at a time when banks wouldn’t give loans to winemakers interested in this area because it was universally known that the Willamette Valley was too cold and too wet for grape-growing. Fast forward a few years and lo and behold, Eyrie Vineyards was producing wine—wine that was grown in dark, cold Willamette Valley. But it wasn’t until 1980 that the landscape shifted seismically. That was the year that Robert Drouhin included the 1975 Eyrie Vineyards South Block Reserve Pinot Noir in a blind tasting against many of Maison Joseph Drouhin’s finest Burgundies. Finishing in first place: one of Drouhin’s 1959 Pinots; and in second, two-tenths of a point behind, the Eyrie Vineyards. That event set in motion the eventual move by Drouhin to establish an Oregonian outpost, an absolute win for Oregon’s wine country. David Lett continued for the coming decades to create honest, terroir driven wines—even when it wasn’t in fashion. One of my favorite quotes to show David’s style, his humor, and passion, comes from an interview done with Paul Gregutt at his own home in. “I embrace vintage variation because I love it. It makes life exciting. I could grow pinot noir in a warmer climate; what’s the use? Every year you get the same product, you know exactly how much you’re going to get, when you are going to pick, how ripe it’s going to be… and ho hum – where’s the fun in that?” David passed away in 2008, after passing the winemaking responsibilities at Eyrie down to his son Jason. Jason Lett is doing a remarkable job both honoring his late father’s legacy and stamping his own indelible mark on Eyrie wines. In his time as head winemaker, Jason has continued to produce some of the most elegant, transparent, truthful Pinot Noirs in the Willamette Valley Today, we have three wines to offer you, showing the full spectrum of what Eyrie does best. At the end, you’ll also see a list of library wines and special offerings we may be able to get our hands on. If you’re interested in any of those, just reply to this e-mail or e-mail info@fullpullwines.com to let us know and we will do our best to get our hands on them for you. While 2014 was hotter than ever, 2013 was a truly dynamic vintage that threw much of Oregon through a loop. This is the kind of vintage David Lett would dream of, remember? Eyrie’s experience again shows in a vintage that proved troublesome for other wineries. Eyrie’s 2013 wines prove balanced between the bright acidity of a cool year and the ripeness of a warm one. It’s lively, energetic, and lovely. This wine is 100% certified organic and all of the grapes come from the original Eyrie Vineyard—the one that started it all. This bottle is almost like a time capsule, a little bit of insight into the people and places that created Oregon’s first Pinot. You cannot find older Pinot vines than this in Willamette Valley, which personally gives me goosebumps to think about (but maybe that’s just the temperature of our warehouse as I write this...) Wine Enthusiast: Copyrighted material withheld. First and foremost, this wine is fragrant with cranberry, wild-grown berries, and lemony blood orange citrus. The palate is structured and elegant, with ever-present acidity that speaks to cellaring, as Paul G. mentions, but also to pairing with food. If you have the patience, drink this bottle at Thanksgiving in 2025.