Expression 44° Eola-Amity Hills Pinot Noir 2008

The Eola-Amity Hills AVA, which is located within the Willamette Valley, is home to many of Oregon’s finest Pinot Noir vineyards. During the growing season, ocean breezes push through the Van Duzer corridor in the Coastal Range maintaining a consistently cool climate that is the hallmark of all great Pinot Noir winegrowing regions. This climate, combined with the shallow, well-drained volcanic soils of the Willakenzie and Nekia soil series that dominate this area, are the primary reasons this viticultural area is emerging as one of the top winegrowing regions in North America.

Winemaker Notes Moderate crop levels combined with a warm growing season typified the 2008 vintage in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA of the Willamette Valley, and resulted in superb fruit quality at harvest. Winemaking began with cluster sorting and destemming, after which secondarily sorted whole berries underwent a prolonged cold soak, followed by gentle fermentation in small batches. The resulting wine lots demonstrated diverse personalities based on vineyard sites and clonal diversity; these qualities revealed themselves further during 11 months of barrel aging in French oak barrels. Reductive winemaking techniques helped further define and sculpt these wines. The final blend is representative of the spirit of the AVA, with complex aromas and flavors, minerality and plush-textured mouth feel.