2022 Basalt Pinot Noir

Tasting Notes:

Heady aromas of ripe red berries with Christmas spices and a subtle note of pine resin. The medium bodied palate is lush yet juicy with tart raspberries and sweet cherries, along with beautiful baking spices and red licorice. The finish is long with warm red fruits and hibiscus tea floral notes. 250 cases made

Our Soil Series Pinot Noir

Here in the Willamette Valley, we are blessed with an ideal combination of exciting soils and a perfect climate for growing Pinot Noir. The cool climate creates an ideal situation for Pinot Noir to showcase the uniqueness of our impressive array of soils found throughout the valley. Each year we’ll pick one soil type out and blend multiple vineyards of the same soil together to create a delicious, small-production SOIL SERIES Pinot Noir.

Our 2022 Soil Series release is named "Basalt" after the igneous, volcanic parent material that wears down into the iron-rich red clay soils that we love for growing Pinot Noir. These soils are found up and down the Willamette Valley with several different variants originating in the Columbia River Basalts, Coast Range volcanoes, and Cascade volcanoes. Each a little different from the other, but one thing is consistent: grapevines love volcanic soils. Vineyards with these soils tend to produce what many would consider a "classic" representation of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, beautifully layered with red fruit character, rose petal floral notes and earthy spices.

Pike Road Pinot Noir is hand-picked and hand-sorted then fermented in small open-top stainless steel tanks. Our Soil Series Pinot Noir is barrel-aged for 9 months in primarily neutral French oak barrels to highlight the soil's impact on the wine. 

The 2022 Vintage

A year that kept us guessing, 2022 was an unusual vintage in the northern Willamette Valley. April brought one of our latest snows on record, with growers worried about frost damage. Thankfully, most vineyard sites set a generous crop which after a slow spring required thinning to encourage ripening. Temperatures finally warmed in August and September, but cool nights ensured adequate hangtime and flavor development. A string of sunny October days gave us the final ripening we desperately needed. Nearly every block of fruit was ready over a compressed two-week period, so the fruit arrived at peak ripeness during a very intense harvest season in the cellar. We expect our hard work to be rewarded with complex, fruit-forward wines.