2012 Soléna Estate Pinot Noir Domaine Danielle Laurent 750 ml

2012 Solena Estate Pinot Noir "Danielle Laurent"... and the Spectator Top 100

We were the first to break the story. Then all hell broke loose.

Our first barrel-tastings of the phenomenal 2012 Oregon Pinot Noirs was in the early spring of 2013. As was the case in Napa and Sonoma to the south, 2012 was a mild, exceedingly dry growing season in the Willamette Valley. But unlike Northern California, where yields were copious, the Pinot Noir harvest in Oregon was tiny.

At nearly every stop, we encountered deep, dark, extravagantly concentrated Pinot Noirs, endowed with Russian River concentration, yet still somehow braced by Burgundian acidity. We called it as we saw it. Was this Oregon’s greatest vintage in history? No doubt about it.

In the months that followed, the critics matched our enthusiasm, with some calling 2012 Willamette Valley’s “first 100-point harvest.” With far too little supply to satisfy demand, growers and winemakers were grinning ear to ear at the International Pinot Noir Celebration event in July 2013. The most lavish Oregon Pinot Noirs we’ve ever tasted were completely allocated well before release day.

For the first time ever, four Oregon Pinot Noirs finished in the top 50 of Wine Spectator’s list of the Top 100, all from 2012. Evening Land’s Pinot Noir “La Source” finished #3. The Big Table Farm’s Willamette Valley Pinot Noir came in at #11. A WineAccess favorite, Laurent Montalieu’s 2012 Soléna Estate “Grande Cuvée,” finished #38.

The call we received last week from Soléna Estate was the most gratifying of the year. The winery GM informed us that our membership had purchased more of Wine Spectator’s #38 wine of the year than the entire state of California. More remarkably, he said, while the Soléna wholesale network woke up after the Spectator posted its 92-point review, WineAccess had sold its entire allocation BEFORE that review hit the web.

Now, the GM said, “It’s time for a little payback.”

Bordeaux enologist Laurent Montalieu arrived in Oregon in the early 1980s and was quickly hired by Bernard LaCroute at WillaKenzie. Over the last 30 years, Montalieu has authored some of the most elegant and complex Pinot Noirs in the valley — the greatest of which is the tiny production of Soléna Estate “Domaine Danielle Laurent.”

In 2012, as was the case in nearly every top cellar, Montalieu crafted not only the richest but also the most exquisitely mineral Pinot Noir of his career. Released at $50/bottle two months ago, the lion’s share of the 2012 “Danielle Laurent” was quickly snatched up by the same wholesalers who had jumped on the Wine Spectator bandwagon several months before. But true to his longstanding commitment to our membership, Laurent held a pallet back for the WineAccess faithful.

The 2012 Soléna Estate “Domaine Danielle Laurent” Pinot Noir is MAGNIFICENT. Deep ruby-purple. Pungent floral aromas of black raspberry, violets, and black tea. Rich, flashy, and sappy on the attack, dense and velour-like in texture, filled with crushed-black- and red-fruit preserves, sprinkled with white pepper. Finishes with excellent length and penetration, arguing elegantly for a 7- to 10-year slumber in the coolest of cellars.

$50 on release. $29 today — ONLY on WineAccess. Shipping included on 4.