Penner-Ash 2016 Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley

Founded in 1998, by husband and wife team Lynn and Ron Penner-Ash, Penner-Ash Wine Cellars is a boutique Willamette Valley producer, making wines in their their sustainable, gravity-flow estate winery with grapes sourced from the best vineyards in the Valley.

This Pinot Noir from the excellent 2016 vintage was sourced from Zena Crown Vineyard, Gran Moraine Vineyard their own estate vineyard and several other prime vineyards. The wine was aged 10 months in 24% new French oak, 33% one year-old French oak, 43% two and three-year-old French oak.

The Wine Advocate scored this 93+ saying "In 2016 we had access to vineyard sites that came with the purchase by Jackson Family Wines," Lynn Penner-Ash explains. "Those sites brought some freshness to the wines. They are fresher and livelier than what we saw from the other warm vintages." She also notes that the oak usage dropped quite a bit in 2016, down to about 19% -23% from 20%-40%. Pale to medium ruby-purple in color, the 2016 Pinot Noir opens with just the slightest touch of gunflint-like reduction on the nose, giving way to red cherries, cranberries and warm raspberry with underlying suggestions of pink peppercorn and flowers. Light to medium-bodied, it gives up great layers of warm red and blue fruits with earthy accents of forest floor, wet earth and bark. It's structured by fine-grained tannins and great juicy acidity carrying the long fruit-forward finish. This is youthfully coiled but should blossom beautifully."