2016 Winter's Hill Estate Pinot Noir Dundee Hills 750 ml

High Prestige, Humble Price

The Willamette Valley’s reputation is skyrocketing, and taking the price for estate-grown Pinot Noir right up with it. That doesn’t bother us, because those rising price tags just make today’s deal from Winter’s Hill even sweeter: We’ve got the gorgeous and graceful 2016 Winter's Hill Estate Pinot Noir Dundee Hills, fresh off its performance as one of Wine & Spirits magazine’s Year’s Best U.S. Pinot Noirs.

This is a mouthwatering classic Dundee Pinot, showing vibrant cherry and cranberry, deep earth and spice tones, and it comes from an estate that shares the Willamette Valley’s top terroir with blue-chip neighbors like Archery Summit, Drouhin, White Rose, and Domaine Serene. All at a fraction of the cost.

In a region where prices around and over triple digits no longer turn heads, one might wonder how the Gladheart family manages to pull off a Pinot like this at a price this low. It’s simple. The family has owned the estate for three generations, and instead of hiking up prices so they can afford glitzy distribution trips across the country, they invest their time and energy in farming their lands, and pass the value onto in-the-know customers in Oregon...and Wine Access. 

The Dundee Hills AVA is where the viticultural pioneers of Willamette Valley Pinot planted the first vines over 50 years ago, and has proven itself as an epicenter Pinot Noirs of Burgundian grace—and Winter’s Hill boasts a location that would be the envy of any grower.  “At 500-750 feet of elevation, we’re at a sweet spot for Pinot Noir,” winemaker Russell Gladhart told us, as we looked down upon some of their more famous neighbors. “We’re sloped to the south, on the western side of the AVA, so we get a little more of the ocean breeze. That makes it a slightly cooler site, which is a real benefit, especially in warmer vintages.” 

That coolness, plus the red, volcanic Jory soil that is prized for producing the most delicate and ethereal Pinots in the country, pays off in a Winter’s Hill wine that struts the kind of grace that made Dundee Hills ground zero for Burgundian Pinot in the U.S. Plus, those stellar vineyard qualities give Russell little reason to look beyond his family’s 35 acres of vines. “What’s special about us is that we are 100 percent estate,” Russell said. “As a winemaker, it allows me to learn from the vineyard year after year. You get more comfortable with the vines, how they react to different vintages.”

Russell is quick to point out that 2016 was an early vintage not because of a hot summer, but due to an early spring. “Summer was nice, mild, and warm, with no heat spikes.” Perfect, in other words, for what he calls “Goldilocks” Pinot Noir—a fickle grape that likes its conditions just right. The result was a season that Wine Spectator says “strikes gold” in Willamette Valley, and turned out a Winter’s Hill Dundee classic: a pale ruby hue, bright red cherry and cranberry, and accented with deep notes of mushroom and cardamom.