This winery was founded in 2013 by Liz Chambers, a third generation Oregonian. Her family has been making wine in Oregon since 1991.
She has teamed up with Winemaker Michael Stevenson, who has been making wine in Oregon for over 20 years. They source the fruit for their four Pinot Noirs from some of the top vineyards in the Willamette Valley – Freedom Hill, Lazy River and Shea.
Their first wine is the 2011 Winemaker’s Cuvee Pinot – a blend of fruit primarily from Freedom Hill and Lazy River Vineyards. The wine is light and elegant with sturdy raspberry and blueberry fruit. It also has some lovely notes of dried leaves and earth. It’s a delicious wine with velvety, but light, tannins; it offers a full mid-palate and long, pretty length. It comes in at a very reasonable 13.3% ABV. When this wine comes to New York, it should retail around $40.
The 2011 Shea Vineyard Pinot Noir is sourced from Shea Vineyard in the Willamette Valley. This is one of the most prized sources of Pinot Noir fruit in Oregon. It is located in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA. This is a serious wine with bitter-sweet blackfruit – think blackberries. The nose is very earthy and dirty, while still being fresh. The palate shows ripe, but bittersweet, fruit and some fallen leaves. It has a medium body, searing acidity and soft but prominent tannins. It has a lovely mid-palate, as well as finish and long length. The intense black fruit on this makes it a more “masculine” version of Pinot, like you would see from Nuits-Saint-Georges in Burgundy.
The 2011 Freedom Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir has its fruit sourced from the Freedom Hill Vineyards located in the foot hills of the Oregon coast range northwest of Monmouth. It offers super-ripe blue and blackberry fruit, balanced by a lovely earthy quality. It has very good acid structure and slightly drying tannins. It’s very clean on the attack (front palate), has a strong mid-palate and a long, lovely finish.
Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to taste the final wine in this line up: The 2011 Lazy River Vineyard Pinot Noir from Yamhill-Carlton.
These single vineyard Pinots should retail for about $60 in New York. The only place I know that carries any of them right now is Uncorked Wine Co. at 98 Christopher Street. They have the Shea Vineyard Pinot for $62.
