About our Dundee Hills Pinot noir
This is the flagship bottling of Pinot noir from Winter’s Hill Estate. We select barrels from multiple blocks in the vineyard to create a wine of complexity with the potential to age in your cellar. In most years, the Dundee Hills bottling highlights the Pommard clone of Pinot noir, and the ripe red cherry flavors that are synonymous with the Dundee Hills AVA.
All of our vineyards are harvested by hand, with the fruit quickly transported to the winery. As the fruit passes through the de-stemming equipment, it falls directly into the small bins that we use for fermentation. Each bin holds approximately 1.75 tons of fruit, which will create about 4 barrels of wine. These small batches of Pinot noir allow us to carefully monitor the wine, preserving the unique character from each section of the vineyard. Warm fermentation temperature and pump overs allows us to extract the color, tannin, and spice from the fruit without extracting too much to showcase the softer elegant side on Pinot noir. After pressing, the Dundee Hills Pinot noir is aged in French barrels for 10 months.
Tasting Notes
Red cherry and cranberry driven on the nose with supporting aromas of milk chocolate and cola. The palate gives flavors of baked red cherry pie, red licorice and a touch of clove.
92 pts Wine Enthusiast
“By and large, the 2018 Pinots from the Willamette Valley show lush fruit and midpalate power, and this is no exception. The aromas conjure up rose petals and pie cherries, while the flavors solidify in a firm palate with supporting acids and toasty, lightly chalky tannins. It’s full-bodied, somewhat blocky, but a quite delicious wine that will respond well to aeration and/or further bottle age.” Paul Gregutt Wine Enthusiast April 2022
“Bright ruby-red. Lively, spice-accented cherry and raspberry scents pick up pungent herb and floral qualities as the wine stretches out. Juicy and focused on the palate, offering sappy red and blue fruit and lavender pastille flavors that deepen steadily through the back half. Shows good energy for the vintage and finishes very long and smooth, with discreet tannins framing a lingering cherry note.” 2017 vintage 92 points, Josh Raynolds, Vinous.
