2016 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir - Domaine Drouhin Oregon

Lifted cranberry, crushed pine needle, fragrant orange peel. Fresh picked strawberry, shaved truffle, barely-ripe cherry. Forest floor and autumn leaves, powdered nutmeg and ground allspice. High-toned and ethereal yet impressively restrained notes of pomegranate, raspberry, and rhubarb unite triumphantly with undergrowth and evergreen grove in a delicately expansive and expressive attack. Rose petal leads a procession of impressively perfumed florals that dance playfully with earthy tones of tilled soil and downed tree. Clove and vanilla emerge revealing hints of barrel spice as iron and a lightly gamy edge provide just a hint of old world rusticity. Elegant, pretty, and exceptionally aromatic; presenting bright tart fruit and impressive umami-laden nuance in a package that is highly finessed and tremendously balanced. Medium in body with soft yet persistent tannin and nicely elevated acidity. This 2016 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir by Domaine Drouhin Oregon is a flawlessly executed and brilliantly Burgundian red from the Willamette Valley.

As proprietors of one of Burgundy's most prominent houses that also happens to boast a substantial presence in Oregon's Willamette Valley, the Drouhin family is uniquely positioned to produce wine that is acutely expressive of the place where it was grown. This bottling, crafted by Domaine Drouhin Oregon using Pinot Noir sourced from their estate vineyards in the Dundee Hills, magnificently presents the hauntingly complex varietal character of Pinot Noir through the lens of Oregon terroir. First impressions place this wine squarely in the old world as it wholeheartedly embraces Pinot's unmistakable tones of sous bois and soil, yet its pristinely perfumed fruit slowly brings things back to the new. This is Pinot Noir at its purest and most authentic, without a trace of jammy ripeness or oversaturation. A remarkable appellation level wine from one of the world's most capable Pinot Noir producers.