Lavinea Tualatin Estate Pinot Noir 2018
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Winemaker Notes
Beautiful bright ruby, brilliant and pale at the edge. Evolved and high-pitched aromas of dried cherry, orange peel, mixed red fruits and just-turned earth lifted by a wisp of rose petal hint at what’s to come. A round and pliant entry opens to black cherry cola, bright cranberry, and, with hints of black licorice and iron. Light on its’ feet but no shortage on intensity, this is very well balanced with a seamless and elegant texture and a juicy framework of acidity that carries persistent flavors to a long finish. This 2018 will develop gracefully.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is a very concentrated and intense pinot that has been built around ripe yet fresh red cherry-toned fruit. The aromas and flavors are fresh and right in the red-berry and cherry zone. The palate has a bold, rounded style.
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Vinous
Bright ruby. Pungent, finely etched cherry and dark berry scents pick up suggestions of pipe tobacco, baking spices and cola with air. In an ample and yet energetic style, offering sweet cherry pie, black raspberry and spicecake flavors that unfurl slowly through the back half. Dusty tannins add grip to the long, focused finish, which strongly echoes the berry and spice notes.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a full-throttle wine with muscular fruit and tannins that grab hold of the palate and don't let go. There's a seam of funky earth underlying ripe blackberry and black cherry fruits. A wash of espresso comes over the palate as the flavors linger on through a finish dusted with coffee. The wine was aged in 30% new oak.
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Wine Spectator
Savory and Burgundian in style, with distinct underbrush impressions along with raspberry, plum and summer savory notes that build richness toward the steely finish. Drink now through 2030.
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2017-
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Lavinea’s definition means “of the vineyard.” Lavenia is committed to advancing the reputation of Oregon Pinot Noir and Chardonnay by bringing to the attention of the world the Willamette Valley’s finest vineyard sites. Encompassing 5 vineyards; Tualatin Estate, Lazy River, Nysa, Elton, and Temperance Hill.
Tualatin Estate Vineyard, established in 1973, is one of the oldest and most respected vineyard sites in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Wine grapes from this 145-acre vineyard have produced world-renowned wines for over 40 years. Tualatin is the only vineyard to have won the Best of Show for both the red and white categories at the London International Wine Competition in the same year. Tualatin’s Pinot Noir captured the Governor’s Trophy, Oregon’s most prestigious wine award, two years consecutively in 1994 and 1995. This is a feat unduplicated by any Oregon winery.
Lazy River Vineyard lies on the steep south facing slope of Mt. Richmond in the Northwest Willamette Valley, three and one half miles from Yamhill, Oregon. From the top of the hill one looks down to the mixed terrain, interlocking puzzle pieces of woods, rolling meadows, grape vines and ponds. The land is separated north from south by a meandering small river, which by August is typically dry.
Nysa Vineyard sits at 620-780 feet elevation in the Dundee Hills of Oregon’s northern Willamette Valley. Nysa spans 41 acres of volcanic Jory soil with basalt bedrock 8 to 12 feet below the surface. The high percentage of clay combines with soil depth to hold moisture late into the season, permitting dry farming.
In 2007 Elton Vineyards was named one of Oregon’s top ten vineyards by Wine Press Northwest, and in 2006 Wine & Spirits listed it as one of the five key vineyards in the new Eola-Amity Hills American Viticultural Area. Owned by Dick and Betty O’Brien, the vineyard was planted on land inherited from Betty’s parents, Elton and Peggy Ingram – hence the name Elton Vineyards and the address on Ingram Lane. The first five acres of wine-grapes were planted in 1983 by the OBriens. The vineyard now includes sixty acres planted on east-southeast slopes of the Eola Hills, just west of Hopewell, in Yamhill County, in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA. The elevation rises from 250-500 feet, and the vineyard soil is primarily Jory and Nekkia.
Perched at very high elevation above Bethel Heights Vineyard overlooking down the mouth of the Van Duzer Corridor, Temperance Hill is truly on the fringe of grape growing boundaries. This second generation vineyard was first planted in 1981 by the Koo family on what is believed to be the remnants of an ancient volcano. Dai Crisp, one of the pioneers of organic grape growing in the Willamette Valley took over management in 1999 and began farming it in accordance with Oregon Tilth Organic Certification standards. It’s high and cool location produces wines of exception, providing excellent growing conditions for Pinot Noir often resulting in outstanding wines with tremendous aging potential. Nicknamed “the staircase vineyard”, we are proud to be amongst the twenty-two wineries that source fruit from this amazing site. We share it’s it’s mid-step, between the blocks of Bergström and Adelsheim, with glorious south facing slopes.
Home of some of the planet’s most amazingly elegant and expressive Pinot noir, the Willamette Valley is a pastoral, mixed landscape of green, bucolic rolling hills, dramatic forestlands and small, independent, friendly wine growers. As a leader in environmental stewardship, the valley has some of the nation’s most protective land use policies, with two-thirds of its vineyards farmed sustainably and over half, organically. While the valley claims a cool, continental climate, and is heavily influenced by the cold, moist winds of the Pacific Ocean, its warm and dry summers allow for the steady, even ripening of Pinot noir.
The potential of Willamette Valley Pinot noir continues to attract the investment of serious growers and winemakers both locally and from abroad, as naturally the finished wines bring accolades from professionals and enthusiasts. With a range of styles from delicate dried cherry, raspberry and hibiscus to stronger notes of truffle, mocha, plum and spice, a fine Willamette Valley Pinot noir is a perfect expression of both character and grace.