2014 Head High Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 750 ml

Wine Access Store Exclusive! Bill Price’s Pinot Noir empire touches the Kistler, LUTUM, Three Sticks, and Gary Farrell wineries, controls the famed Durrell and Gap’s Crown vineyards, and until 2015 ran illustrious Pinot Noir producer Kosta Browne. When Bill and his partner Sam Spencer’s attention moved up the coast from Sonoma to the Willamette Valley, we noticed. In 2014, a growing season that Sam calls the “vintage of the decade, if not a lifetime”—an opinion backed up by Wine Spectator which pinned 96 points on the epic harvest season—and with a chance at top-notch Willamette fruit, the partnership brought forth a 2014 Head High Willamette Valley Pinot Noir to die for. Creamy, dark-fruited, released at $40, a downright steal at half off only on Wine Access.

In the early 2000s, Sam Spencer saw two of his former Napa colleagues head north to Oregon’s “greener pastures.” In May of 2014, one called down to Sam with a simple question: Shouldn’t Head High—Sam’s Sonoma Coast venture with Pinot Noir king Bill Price—be making Pinot Noir in Oregon?

The idea had crossed Sam and Bill’s minds. The miraculous 2014 Oregon vintage sealed the deal. To make it happen and span the distance, Sam reconnected with some old friends—one of whom is former Stags’ Leap Winery winemaker Robert Brittan, who raises stellar Pinot in his vineyard in the foothills of Oregon’s Coastal Range. 

Only in rare vintages like 2014 does Mother Nature conspire to provide generous quantity and high quality. Tons of dark red fruit, black cherry, and clove on the nose, with a good weight and creamy texture on the palate. Thanks to old friends and new partnerships, Pinot-loving Wine Access clients get to savor a master craftsman’s handiwork when the vintage and vineyards are just right.