2021 Pinot Noir Louise

Pure class, Domaine Drouhin’s 2021s stand out for their textural elegance and perfumed personalities. From top to bottom, these are world-class interpretations of both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Even the introduction to the brand, the Pinot Noir Dundee Hills, makes the case for how refinement and purity can be obtained at a price that's easy to digest. I tasted along with Veronique Drouhin and her assistant winemaker Aaron Bell, overlooking their estate vineyards in the Dundee Hills. It’s important to note that the Drouhin wines are all produced using estate fruit. When speaking about 2021 and the heat dome that settled on the region in late June. Veronique Drouhin explained, “The good news was that it got hot before veraison.” Aaron Bell added, “We had also received a very good rain on that weekend before the heat spike, which helped the vines quite a bit.” He said that the summer was a constant rollercoaster of temperature fluctuations. Still, he believed it was balanced, with harvest starting on September 7th, about a week earlier than historical averages. That said, the harmony Drouhin obtained in their 2021s is absolutely fantastic, and I expect them to be long-lived wines, even though they are so appealing today. Despite losing part of their Chardonnay production to frost, Drouhin and Bell are even more excited about 2022. Bell explained how a “cool and wet spring going into June followed by moderate temperatures in the summer, and an October where we were blessed with the most unbelievable conditions, no more than 78-80 degrees.” The 2022 Chardonnay Arthur was the only wine I could taste from 2022, but it showed the vintage’s merits.