2011 Raptor Ridge Winery Pinot Noir Meredith Mitchell Vineyard McMinnville 750 ml

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait...

Eight years. That’s how long Oregon Pinot fans have been looking forward to this: Winemaker Scott Shull’s 2011 Raptor Ridge Pinot Noir Meredith Mitchell Vineyard is finally here, and just hitting its stride. Lively and energetic, with silken tannins and a Burgundian savoriness of mushroom and tilled earth that match the flavors of black cherry and dried herbs, this is an ultra-rare gem from a top Oregon site.

“It tasted like high-end Burgundy, with super-complex aromas,” Scott told us about the revelatory moment, just last year, when he tasted the 2011 and knew it was ready for showtime.  

Now, we have this gorgeous and graceful Pinot Noir, which presents a youthful ruby color with a subtle tinge of garnet, and a beautiful developing bouquet of dried cherries and violets, sweet tobacco, truffle, baking spice, and sandalwood, straight from the cellar of Wine Access-favorite Raptor Ridge. 

2011 was a special vintage in Oregon: cool and very dry. This afforded the grapes tremendous hang time, which resulted in beautifully balanced ripeness, fresh acidity, and rich and bright tannins: a perfect formula for an age-worthy Pinot. So instead of laboring to make the Pinot more approachable early (as many winemakers would do), Scott followed the lead that Mother Nature gave him: He did a long cold soak to extract color, flavor, and tannins, knowing the rewards would come slowly. As he put it: “We built the wine to last.”

When we spoke to Scott, he waxed poetic about the source of the 2011 Pinot. “The Meredith Mitchell vineyard, for folks who follow Willamette Valley, is one of the jewels in the crown, up there with Gran Moraine and Temperance Hill,” he told us. “It’s out west of McMinnville in an old lava bed called the Nehalem flow. The soil is broken basalt, and the own-rooted Pinot has to struggle tremendously to eke out very low yields: about a ton and a half per acre. It makes very concentrated, very dense Pinot Noir.”

Because Wine Access members have been huge supporters of Raptor Ridge, Scott is offering a preview of this perfectly-aged red at the best price in America. This is a massive win for Wine Access members, because rabid Pinot fans in the Northwest have been waiting for this perfectly aged Burgundy taste-alike for years. 

Since it still has years of life ahead of it, plan on drinking some now, and do what Scott did: Hold some back, so you can enjoy it for years to come.