Oregon Pinot Noir: The Winning Streak Continues

BY JOSH RAYNOLDS | AUGUST 04, 2020

Oregon’s unprecedented run of outstanding vintages which began in 2014, has been extended yet again with 2018. In fact, you have to go all the way back to 2011 and 2007 to find years that were truly challenging, and both of those vintages actually produced a large number of outstanding wines.

Brian and Jill O'Donnell's Belle Pente Vineyard, in Yamhill-Carlton, has produced some of the Willamette Vallley's most graceful Pinot Noirs since 1996.

2018 – Power and, Often, Elegance 

In 2018, Oregon saw an abnormally dry, sunny and hot growing season, even by recent standards, and the wines show it. By and large, the 2018s tend to possesses deeper, darker fruit profiles than the 2017s. In a number of cases, alcohol levels are on the high side, but many of those wines have the freshness to buffer the heat, not to mention the balance and backbone to prevent them from coming off loose or markedly warm in character. Oregon Pinot drinkers whose taste runs to richness and power are going to flip over the 2018s, while I suspect that those whose preferences lean more towards brightness and red fruit will largely prefer the 2017s.

A cool spring kept budbreak on schedule, although some of the colder spots, especially those at high elevation, lagged a bit behind. Then came a stretch of basically zero rain in most of May, June, July and into August. The days were warm and often hot, but the evenings were much less so, which kept rising sugar levels in check and acidity levels sound. The weather took a welcome, cool turn in late August, followed by quenching rain at the beginning of September. Because of dry conditions mildew pressure was nonexistent, which ensured perfectly clean fruit and easy work in the vineyards aside from rigorous canopy management. The skins of the grapes were thicker than normal as well, which no doubt contributed to the wines’ power and often higher tannin levels. In most cases, harvest began in the second week of September and was pretty well wrapped up the first week of October. Alcohol levels in 2018 are on the somewhat low side – 12% to 14%, generally speaking – but the fruit profile of most of the wines I tried shows a deep, dark cast, suggesting cherry and dark berries, a different style compared to the more red-fruited and animated 2017s. Acidity levels aren’t crazy low, so there’s also a liveliness to the wines that doesn’t entirely reflect the hot year. It was the rare Pinot I encountered that had overt jammy, much less cooked or stewy fruit character or flabbiness.