RR Pinot Noir Estate Reserve 2009 (750ml)

100% Pinot Noir

ABV 14.5%

25th Harvest Anniversary! The flavors might be fruit driven but it’s more skin than flesh, the plum and black cherry as much savory as sweet.

Vintage Notes
The 2009 vintage may be one of the best, with nice balance in all ways for both reds and whites—very good quality and yields as well as good ripeness and acids. The closest vintage in memory might be 2002. It was the type of vintage to satisfy winemakers AND accountants, with yields in the 2.5–3 tons/acre average this year, compared to 2–2.5 in normal years, and with high quality demanding only patience awaiting flavor development. Fruitfulness caused some problems early on, with large berries and full clusters pushing off berries in the cluster, allowing early-harvested blocks to develop botrytis and require sorting. Later blocks were pristine and, assuming patience (and if nothing else, we’re patient!) to await flavor development rather than picking on simple analytical numbers like TA and brix, will be as good as any wines we’ve made, especially for Pinot Noir.

Scores/Reviews
94 points Wine & Spirits - From the best lots of Chehalem’s oldest vineyard, this vinous red lays out a range of scents that feels at once natural and wholly exotic; floral and musky, rose petal here, plum skin there, earth and tanbark grounding it. The flavors might be fruit driven but it’s more skin than flesh, the plum and black cherry as much savory as sweet. That fruit skin firmness informs its finish and will certainly provide longevity.

92 points Editor's Choice Wine Enthusiast - Vivid ruby-red. A heady bouquet evokes candied red and dark berries, cola, incense and dried rose. Ripe and fleshy on entry, then tighter in the mid-palate, offering intense black raspberry and bitter cherry flavors and a supple texture. Dusty tannins add shape to the long, gently sweet, smoky finish. - Josh Raynolds

92 points Vinous - Vivid ruby-red. A heady bouquet evokes candied red and dark berries, cola, incense and dried rose. Ripe and fleshy on entry, then tighter in the mid-palate, offering intense black raspberry and bitter cherry flavors and a supple texture. Dusty tannins add shape to the long, gently sweet, smoky finish.- Josh Raynolds

91 points Wine Spectator - Firm in texture, with dark berry flavors playing against black pepper and floral hints. The finish persists impressively on a deftly balanced frame. Best from 2014 through 2019. 578 cases made. — HS