2016 Ken Wright Cellars Pinot Noir Carter Vineyard Eola-Amity Hills Willamette Valley Oregon 750 ml

It’s simple: If you haven’t had a single-vineyard Pinot from Ken Wright, then it’s hard to say you’ve truly experienced Oregon Pinot Noir. 

That’s why, even as we’ve offered some of the greatest bottles made in the Northwest, we’ve considered Wright somewhat of a Willamette Valley white whale. The Oregon pioneer parlays an unrivaled network of vineyard sites in the Willamette Valley into some of the greatest Pinot Noir produced in the New World, and has amassed huge honors for it: He was the first Oregon winemaker on the cover of Wine Spectator, and he crafted the #1 wine on Wine Enthusiast’s 2014 Top 100. 

Today we're offering a rare allocation of the 2016 Ken Wright Cellars Pinot Noir Carter Vineyard. This bottle does not exist outside of the winery and its immediate vicinity—but those who manage to get their hands on it are in for a taste of Willamette Valley at its luxurious, legendary best: Wine Enthusiast called it “sensational” in their Editors’ Choice review, and Wine Spectator praised it as “impeccably structured and elegantly expressive.” 

Every sip shows why Ken Wright is the must-know name of the Willamette Valley. Showing a dark ruby color, the nose offers warm blueberries, black cherry, and plum with notes of anise, cola, and a whole box of hard spices in the periphery. Soft, juicy, generous, and silky on the palate, it shows excellent concentration and composure from the first aromas to the last lingering notes of warm spiced fruit, faint smoke, and black cherry liqueur.

You can’t discuss the history of Oregon’s Willamette Valley without discussing Ken. The UC Davis alum began his winemaking career working for some of the legends of California’s Central Coast, before a friend piqued his interest in Oregon. He took a trip north in 1976, and that was enough to convince him that he’d seen North America’s most promising region for Pinot Noir.

After finally making the move a decade later, Ken founded Wine Access-favorite Panther Creek Cellars, followed by Ken Wright Cellars in 1994. Now, for nearly three decades, he’s been crafting some of Oregon’s greatest wines, and has become one of the region’s essential figures in the process. He wrote the proposal for establishing Yamhill-Carlton as an AVA, and he even chose the trees and streetlights on Main Street in the town of Carlton—where he and his wife Karen purchased the old train station and turned it into their tasting room.

Located well south of his Carlton home base, Carter is one of just two vineyards the Wrights own in the southerly Eola-Amity Hills. The 21-acre, south-facing site consists of the AVA’s typical volcanic Nekia soil. Just one to three feet in depth, these soils dry sooner than clay-heavy soils, which encourages early ripening. The result is a plump and supple black- and blue-fruited Pinot, with gorgeous natural acidity balancing out the ripeness and encouraging a little time in the cellar. 

We’ve been waiting as this wine mellowed in Ken’s cool Oregon cellar, and we can’t wait for you to taste it—it’s one of the Willamette Valley’s true must-try wines.