2015 The Eyrie Vineyards Pinot Noir Willamette Valley

JancisRobinson.com

• By Tim Jackson MW
  2/6/2019, (See more on JancisRobinson.com...)

  (Eyrie Pinot Noir Dundee Hills Red) Subscribe to see review text.

• By Josh Raynolds
  Oregon Pushes the Quality Needle for Pinot (Jan 2018), 1/18/2018, (See more on Vinous...)

  (The Eyrie Vineyards Pinot Noir Oregon Red) Login and sign up and see review text.

JamesSuckling.com

• By James Suckling
  11/2/2016, (See more on JamesSuckling.com...)

  (The Eyrie Vineyards Pinot Noir Willamette Valley, United States) Login and sign up and see review text.

Full Pull

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Eyrie, 9/23/2018

  (Eyrie Vineyards Willamette Valley Pinot Noir) Hello friends. One of the real treats of the Pacific Northwest wine trade is being able to attend Oregon Pinot Camp. (Yes, it’s a thing.) Paul went a few years back, and this year, I was honored to be selected as part of the cohort. Without a doubt, the highlight of the trip was a small gathering held at Eyrie’s Outcrop Vineyard House, which sits along Eyrie’s estate vineyard by the same name, adjacent to the winery’s original vineyard, Eyrie. There lay the original plantings of Pinot Noir in the Willamette Valley. Eyrie’s history is long—and worth the read. For the sake of space, here are the unofficial CliffsNotes: 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. 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. There, he planted Eyrie Vineyard. In 1980, at a blind tasting hosted by Robert Drouhin, the 1975 Eyrie Vineyards South Block Reserve Pinot Noir finished second to the 1959 Domaine Drouhin Pinot Noir—by two-tenths of a point. This set into motion Domaine Drouhin’s establishment of its Oregon outpost, Domaine Drouhin Oregon, and solidified Eyrie’s status as the benchmark producer of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. David Lett continued for the coming decades to create honest, terroir driven wines, and now his son, Jason, continues the tradition. My visit to Eyrie this past June was special for many reasons. First off, their generosity and hospitality is unmatched—the entire trip featured many bottles like this. My favorite part of the evening was walking from the Outcrop house to neighboring winery Sokol Blosser by way of Eyrie’s original vines. Jason guided us through the vineyard, pointing out the tree from Eyrie’s iconic label, showing us how to tell Chardonnay and Pinot Noir leaves apart (it’s the shape of the petiolar sinus, the empty space surrounding the stem of the leaf), and talking about his father’s vision over 50 years ago. Jason knows that piece of land like family, and treats it with the same tenderness. He’s managing the near-impossible dual feat of carrying on a family tradition while carving out space for his own vision, and doing it with a preternatural sense of calm and equanimity. The results of his work are clear: Eyrie’s wines are as spectacular as they’ve ever been. 2015 was the warmest year in Oregon on record—but a cooling pattern in September allowed the grapes to drift slowly into optimal ripeness. Eyrie is no stranger to customizing harvest due to weather conditions. In less knowledgeable hands, this wine would be entirely different. But thanks to years of experience (and probably just a little bit of luck from the genetic lottery), Jason and his team preserved beautiful, natural acidity, making a Pinot Noir with near perfect typicity for their terroir. The 2015 Willamette Pinot cuvée is a blend of 72% estate grown Pinot and the rest fruit from organically-managed, older-vine sites around the valley. All hand picked and destemmed, this wine undergoes native primary fermentation in a range of different fermenters—from small bins to five-ton wooden cuves. It then undergoes malolactic fermentation in mostly neutral barrels (11% new) and is bottled after 23 months. It clocks in at 13.79% alcohol. What I love most about Eyrie’s Pinot Noir is its innate sense of place—and that place is the Willamette Valley. It smells like bright red berries, tall grass, Dundee dirt, and thickets of wild roses. The palate is savory Pinot at its finest—spicy, earthy juice just spotted with wild berries and macerated strawberries. Its light tannins and acid hint at years and years of aging potential. This is a special, terror-specific wine that deserves a place in your cellar (or basement, garage, shelf, under the bed etc. Really, put it wherever you store your wine).