2015 Vineyard 29 Cru Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 750 ml

The Vineyard that Made A Napa Veteran Leave California

When we met up with Vineyard 29 winemaker Keith Emerson in the Willamette Valley last week, it was easy to feel his excitement—and to understand what inspired him to leave behind the top-scoring vineyards in his backyard and go north in pursuit of the perfect Pinot.

It all came back to an unforgettable wine he tasted at the 2007 Aspen Food & Wine Festival. “It had a fascinating aromatic profile,” Keith told us, describing the Pinot Noir from Oregon’s famed Shea Vineyard that led him to pass up California’s most famous sites in the Russian River, Sonoma Coast, and Carneros AVAs to head to the Willamette Valley. “It smelled like fine Burgundy, unlike California Pinot, and the non-fruit elements were so complex and integrated.”  

That legendary Oregon site—whose name Ken Wright, Penner-Ash, and Bergstrom are proud to put front and center on their $58, $60, and $64 Pinot Noirs—is the primary source of fruit for today’s exclusive offer, the 2015 Vineyard 29 Cru Pinot Noir Willamette Valley. It’s a true Oregon Grand Cru, and we’ve got it for just $40.00.

Keith’s Vineyard 29 Zinfandel crushed it with Wine Access members, so he is giving us the first shot at the 2015 Vineyard 29 Cru Pinot Noir, which is Oregon Pinot at its finest. It comes from the once-in-a-decade 2015 vintage, and is sourced from just five vineyard blocks: two at Shea and three at the widely lauded Hyland and Domaine Danielle Laurent sites. This is an impeccably sourced Pinot showing tons of bing cherry, violet, and generous vanilla notes, from a Grand Cru-like French oak aging. If you want to experience Oregon’s finest Pinot Noir sites—and the power that pulled a top-flight winemaker from his home base in California to the Pacific Northwest—don’t let the Vineyard 29 Cru slip by.

Keith knew exactly what he wanted for his Pinot Noir, and now that he’s got it, he can rattle off exactly how every vineyard block—every strain of Pinot, even—carries its weight in the Vineyard 29 Cru blend: Wädenswil and Pommard clones from Shea add lush fruit, structure, and acid. The fruit from Domaine Danielle Laurent—just a stone’s throw from the Shea in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA—offers perfume and aromatic lift, while fruit from the cooler Hyland Vineyard in McMinnville supplies forest floor, mushroom, and other non-fruit characteristics. This combination is exactly what he sought when he departed California’s wine country for the Northwest.

“Oregon’s acid and tannin structure sets it apart from California Pinot. The non-fruit characteristics too: forest floor, truffle, mushroom, tea leaf, and herbal notes,” Emerson explained as he poured us a taste of the Vineyard 29 Cru. “Oregon Pinot still has fantastic fruit, but so many other interesting aromas and flavors as well.”

The Vineyard 29 Cru may come from three different vineyards, but it is one of the most site-specific wines we have ever seen wearing the Willamette Valley label. Consider that a wine from the Shea Vineyard could come from anywhere and everywhere on the 140-acre site and still be labeled as a vineyard-designate wine. The Vineyard 29 Cru, on the other hand, comes from just five vineyard blocks—including Shea’s Block 28, the very one that blew Emerson away back in Aspen—and they cover just ten acres. These are the kind of prime parcels that can draw a California winemaker across state lines. One taste of this Oregon Grand Cru, and you’ll see that it was well worth the trip.