2016 Raptor Ridge Winery Barrel Select Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 750 ml

Swinging through the Willamette Valley, we stopped by to tell Scott Shull that one of his Raptor Ridge wines had just become one of our top-selling Pinots of the year—even though we expected to find him amid harvest craziness. 

Luckily, we caught him enjoying the last low-key week before harvest, and after the good news, he agreed to share another jewel with us: the 2016 Pinot Noir Barrel Select. Sourced from Scott’s Estate Vineyard and some of the choicest Pinot vineyards in the Willamette Valley—Meredith Mitchell, Temperance Hill, and Gran Moraine among them—Scott’s Barrel Select is one of the perennially overachieving Pinots of Willamette Valley.

The 2016, which earned a glowing 93-point rating from James Suckling, is a classic. It’s got a delicate body and intense flavors of black raspberry, dark cherry, and a touch of baking spice on the finish. Showing off some of the top vineyard sites in Oregon, this 93-point Pinot is a must for fans of elegant reds, Oregon Pinot, and riper vintages of Burgundy. And since we caught Scott in such a good mood, we’ve got it for just $30.

It’s no wonder that Scott was eager to relax with a glass of wine and a tour of the cellar. He was about to weather “the storm” of harvest: three months of 16-18-hour days that won’t let up until Thanksgiving. That’s the kind of work Scott volunteers for by making 14 distinctive single-vineyard Pinots, and we saw the evidence: hundreds of barrels, stained around the seams and marked with some of the most famous vineyard names in Willamette Valley: Shea, Temperance Hill, Gran Moraine, and others. Even meticulously labeled, we struggled to see how someone could keep them all straight. 

“We’ve got probably 60-90 fermenters going during the peak of harvest,” Scott told us as we passed through the aromatic maze of cooperage. “That means 400 or so barrels of Pinot Noir, each of which ties to a specific clone, a specific block, a specific vineyard. It gives us tremendous diversity, which we maintain when we make blending decisions.” 

For Raptor Ridge’s Barrel Select, Shull and his team taste blind, and there’s no preconceived recipe. They go with what makes the best wine, and if that means using single-site Pinot that could easily go into a vineyard-designate wine that commands twice the price, then so be it. Those blending decisions—guided by palate, and not by economics—are what make the Barrel Select of the top values in Willamette Valley, and a top performer among Wine Access members. 

In 2016, more than 65% of the fruit for the Barrel Select came from vineyards that Raptor Ridge bottles as vineyard-designates: their estate vineyard in Chehalem Mountains provided half, and 15% came from Meredith Mitchell, Gran Moraine, and Temperance Hill, vineyards whose names are commonly featured on some of the Willamette Valley’s pricier bottles.

The dark-fruited nature of the Estate Vineyard, plus a very early harvest, produced a Pinot of uncommon richness. “The wine’s got structure,” Scott said. “It’s got density, darker fruit, and earth notes to it. It’s slightly brooding, with more of that dark cherry, blackberry sort of note.”

Aging in 18% in new French oak gives this Pinot silky tannins, and a touch of baking spice on the finish. This is a ripe and savory, supple and pleasing Pinot from a Wine Access favorite producer, and it's perfect for the season.