Winemaker Notes
Reserve Pinot Noir is textbook Willamette Valley Point Noir, a balancing point between the characteristics of fruit grown in the Dundee Hills, Eola-Amity Hills, and the Willamette Valley AVAs.
Food Pairing Notes
Argyle Pinot Noirs are long aging, maintaining their high natural acidity and minerality borne of late season ripening and fresh fruit character. This wine can be cellared for 10-15 years (or more).
Vineyard Notes
The 2018 growing season began with a relatively mild and dry winter and moderately cool spring, leading to bud break during the second and third weeks of April. Temperatures picked up in May and continued into a beautiful mid-June bloom. The rest of the summer continued to be warm and very dry, with no precipitation for nearly 3 months. Early September remained warm and dry through the beginning of the sparkling harvest, but then cooled down with a few days of precipitation in the middle of the month. This allowed for still wine ripening (and the cellar crew!) to slow down and catch their breath before finishing out with beautiful late September and early October weather. In all, the 2018 harvest was very condensed, having started with Chardonnay at the lower elevations of Lone Star Vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills on September 4th and finishing with Pinot Noir in the upper elevations of the Eola-Amity Hills at Spirit Hill Vineyard on October 2nd.
Accolades
92 Pts., Wine Spectator: "“Refined and sleekly structured, with multilayered raspberry and cherry flavors that are laced with black tea and spice and glide on a long finish.” —TF, 25 Jan 2021
