From: Oregon, USA
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Tasting Notes: In many ways, the 2018 Laurène embodies what we love most about wines from the Dundee Hills. Offering beautiful clarity and a garnet color on approach, the aromatics brim with notes of dried red cherry, spice, wild herbs, earth, and subtle oak. Characteristically elegant, the wine evolves on the palate, moving seamlessly from its pomegranate welcome into its detailed lines of clove, white pepper, and cranberry. As always, cellaring the Laurène over the next 5-15 years will be well rewarded.
Poised atop the Dundee Hills, with gentle slopes that capture the breezes and sunshine, our 235-acre estate overlooking the Willamette Valley produces some of the finest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay fruit in the world.
Robert Drouhin’s vision of an Oregon estate winery that could rival the great vineyards of Burgundy has been realized at DDO. From what began as test plantings of cloned Pinot Noir rootstock, Domaine Drouhin now encompasses 124 acres of hillside vineyards. Interspersed with the Pinot Noir vines are 11 acres of Chardonnay, planted at various elevations and, like in Burgundy, planted right alongside rows of Pinot Noir.
Everything planted at DDO is unique to the estate. We also have two large blocks of rootstock planted on the estate, so we can graft the cuttings onto rootstock that we have grown ourselves. We grow and plant rootstocks that we’ve learned are well suited to the specifics of our vineyard sites in terms of site elevation, soil depth, and moisture-holding capacity. In this way we can maintain the highest level of quality control over our plant material.
Our densely planted vines are farmed sustainably, L.I.V.E. certified, and tended to by hand when leaves and fruit are thinned; harvesting is also done entirely by hand.
95 Points -James Suckling
94 Points -Wine Advocate
94 Points -Decanter
