Pinot Noir

Dundee Hills AVA - Willamette Valley - Oregon

2001: This year produced a soft, big vintage. It saw almost ideal growing and ripening weather and less than an inch of rain during harvest. This is not a typical cool-climate vintage, since acids are as low and ripeness as full, despite above average yields before crop thinning, as we’ve seen since perhaps 1987. The Pinot noirs will be soft, fleshy and early appealing, with moderate colors. Whites will be full and broad, and early maturing. The alcohols are restrained slightly by yields that didn’t force extreme extraction. The wines were lighter, slightly harder and not as well-reviewed by critics. Perhaps the weakest vintage of the excellent 1998–2003 string. -WillametteWines.com