100% Pinot Noir

Food pairings: A very versatile Pinot Noir: sweet and tangy barbecue, pizza with red sauce, teriyaki short ribs, gourmet burgers, cedar-planked salmon, sushi and spicy Asian dishes. Try it slightly chilled on a warm summer evening.

Winemaking: The aim is pure Pinot Noir fruit with depth and structure, through whole cluster fermentation and carbonic maceration. Whole bunches, stems included, are gently conveyed into stainless steel tanks filled with CO2; yeast is added and the lids are sealed to keep out oxygen. The wine is pressed when the aromas and flavors are at their best and the tannins are still gentle, then finishes fermenting over seven to ten days in stainless steel. The 2023 fruit, from clones 114, 115, 667, 777, Pommard and Wädenswil, was picked between September 13 and October 3 and bottled in May 2024. The vintage began with a very cold, dry winter and a late bud break; hail during flowering lowered yields, giving concentrated color, tannin and body, and a warm summer with a brief mid-August heatwave raised sugars just in time for harvest.

Vineyards and terroir: The vineyards are chosen to suit this style, within the Willamette Valley appellation. The soils are Jory and Nekia, iron-rich volcanic soils, and Laurelwood, a windblown glacial loess, including pisolites and Missoula Flood sediments. Willamette Valley Vineyards' own estate vineyards are farmed sustainably and certified LIVE and Salmon-Safe.

Winery history: Founder Jim Bernau grew up in Roseburg, where his father, an attorney, helped Richard Sommer, who brought the first Pinot Noir vines to Oregon, obtain one of the state's first winery licenses since Prohibition. Jim studied at UC Davis and in Beaune, and in 1983 cleared an old, overgrown plum orchard in the Salem Hills to plant Pinot Noir, hand-watering the young vines through their first summer with 17 lengths of garden hose. In 1988 he ran the nation's first crowd-funding to build the winery, and Willamette Valley Vineyards is still owned by thousands of wine-lover shareholders. Whole Cluster began with his own experiments: hand-picked clusters dropped into a chilled, sealed stainless steel fermenter filled with CO2, where the berries swelled, turned pink and burst into aromatic, fermenting Pinot Noir. Today Terry Culton, Director of Winemaking and Vineyards, leads the winery and vineyard teams.

In the pictures: Founder Jim Bernau pouring a glass in the vineyard (photo: Melinda, 2007, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons); the courtyard and tasting room at the winery's Estate in the Salem Hills (photo: Gregory Dean Specht, courtesy of Willamette Valley Vineyards); and rows of the estate vineyard (photo courtesy of Willamette Valley Vineyards).