Reserve Pinot Noir
A step up. A selection of four vineyards all of the same soil.
Pinot Noir famously reflects the land in which it is rooted. With our Reserve Pinot Noir, we focus on the old sedimentary soils of the Yamhill Carlton AVA to bring you a wine that is dark-fruited and structured with chewy tannins.
Our Y-C Reserve bottling comes from the esteemed Yamhill-Carlton AVA, home to some of the most dark-fruited, spicy and rich wines of the Willamette Valley. A collection of four different vineyards make up our Reserve Pinot Noir, some of which dole out fruit to the likes of Oregon royalty in Cristom, Ken Wright and Solena Estate.
“Pinot Noir is amazing at showing a sense of place in the wines. The Yamhill Carlton AVA has very ancient, poor soils which bring a certain level of stress to the vines that result in a dark-fruited, structure, and velvety wine. “
-Laurent Montalieu | Owner & Vigneron
Kudos Reserve Pinot Noir
92 Points | James Suckling Oregon Wine Report
“A rich, spicy red-cherry nose with chocolate and plenty of fragrance. The palate is delivered in impressively fleshy style and has a juicy and flavorful, sweet-fruit finish. Drink now.
The wine is unmistakable, with velvety chocolate notes that compliment juicy blackberries and black cherries and cola flavors. The fruit used in the Reserve comes from a combination of elevations ranging from 200 feet all the way up to 800 feet. The Willakenzie soil is a trademark of the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, yielding grapes with fleshy tannins that make incredibly age-worthy Pinot Noirs you’ll want to drink and keep drinking for years to come.
Our Winemaking
The ultimate goal in our winemaking is to get out of the way of our vineyards and the fruit that they produce. This means to trust the work that we put into the vineyard during the growing season. In the winery, we treat each vineyard and block differently. We want to build depth and breath while still representing the terroir of our vineyards.
We’re working off a wide range of soils (basalt, sedimentary, alluvial), elevations ranging from sea level all the way up to 750 ft above and vineyard sites across the valley. We age our wine in dozens of barrels, mixing Stainless steel with New French Oak, Neutral barrels, and everything in between.
We’ve got a dozen different Heritage and Dijon clones to choose from, a mixture of whole cluster and machine-picked fruit, and four talented winemakers that bring a plethora of knowledge and unique experience into their work daily. The combination? Brilliance, in a sleek, fun package sold to you at an incredible value. But in a sea of choices, with each and every bottle designed with sexy color combinations, different fonts and clever, beckoning names, you reached out and grabbed this particular one. Kudos to you.
Our Farming
We farm over 500 acres across Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Our goal every day is to make our land better than the day before. We believe that for wines to truly shine, your vineyards must be in balance. All of our vineyards are dry-farmed and herbicide- free.