2015 WillaKenzie Estate Thibaud's Cuvee Pinot Noir Yamhill-Carlton 750 ml

Wine Spectator Grand Award Restaurant Exclusive

WillaKenzie Estate’s “Thibaud’s Cuvée” brought about a partnership between winemaker Thibauld Mandet and Andrew Green, the beverage director for the Bacchus Group, which owns two Wine Spectator Grand Awards at Spruce and The Village Pub restaurants in san Francisco. The “Thibaud’s Cuvée” was blended exclusively for both restaurants, but when WillaKenzie’s founder Bernard Lacroute sold the estate last year, every last bottle of this stunning 2015 release (from one of the “state’s most extraordinary” vintages) was rerouted from the restaurants to Wine Access — thanks to our own Master Sommelier, Sur Lucero MS’ connections. This estate-grown 2015 WillaKenzie Estate “Thibaud’s Cuvée” Pinot is a ruby beauty filled with Volnay-like red fruits, juicy and perfectly chiseled. This vintage is available exclusively through Wine Access at $29.99 per bottle — a major coup for one the state’s finest, most expressive Pinots.

Born in Mâcon, France, Lacroute always wanted to own a winery, and after making a fortune in Silicon Valley, he had the means to do it. He could have returned to Burgundy and purchased a hillside swath of Volnay or Pommard, maybe a chunk of Grand Cru Vosne-Romanée or Gevrey. But when the Frenchman saw the magnificent undulating hillsides packed with marine sedimentary soils in Willamette Valley’s Yamhill-Carlton district, he was smitten. Under winemaker Thibaud Mandet, the winery would go on to win awards from Decanter and gain recognition from Jancis Robinson and Food & Wine as one of Oregon’s elite Pinot makers.

In 2015, a vintage of tremendous natural concentration, Mandet hand-selected this blend from Dijon clones 113, 115, and 777. If you’re a Pinot Noir collector weaned on the luscious, juicy refinement of Volnay or Chassagne, buy every bottle your cellar budget allows.