2014 WillaKenzie Estate Pinot Noir “20th Anniversary” Cuvee Willamette Valley

20th Anniversary Pinot Noir Tribute at WillaKenzie Estate

Bernard “Bernie” Lacroute was born in Burgundy, not far from the colorful tile rooftops of the Hospices de Beaune. While small in stature, Lacroute’s mind, even in his teens, was something to behold. As lesser students took any job they could land after high school, Bernie earned graduate degrees in Physics from l’Université de Grenoble and Electrical Engineering from l’Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs. From there it was on to Ann Arbor, where Lacroute earned another graduate degree in Electrical Engineering.

Over the following 20 years, the Burgundy émigré went on a tear. As executive vice president of Sun Microsystems, Lacroute directed day-to-day operations, transforming a $4M startup into a $2B behemoth. Next came a long stint at one of Silicon Valley’s most successful venture capital funds, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

As Bernie explained one evening over dinner chez Laurent and Danielle Montalieu, when he semi-retired from Kleiner, wanted to either buy or develop vineyard land. Although the understated Lacroute made no such claim at the dinner table, clearly money was no object. He could have returned to Beaune and picked up a hillside slice of Puligny-Montrachet or Grand Cru Corton-Charlemagne. He could have dropped a fortune in Pauillac or Margaux. But when an Oregon real estate agent showed the Frenchman the marine sedimentary soils on the hillsides of a cattle farm outside of Yamhill, Bernie told us, “I was smitten.” Lacroute purchased 420 acres and, after endlessly iterative soil studies, chose 12 clones, each tailored to the characteristics of dozens of distinct vineyard blocks. He named his property “WillaKenzie Estate” after Oregon’s two major rivers, the Willamette and McKenzie.

Twenty-three years later, M. Lacroute was treated to what he and Wine Spectator claim is Oregon’s Pinot Noir “vintage of a lifetime.” Recognizing that 2014 was WillaKenzie’s 20th harvest, Bernie challenged winemaker Thibaud Mandet to craft a 10-barrel blend that would include every clone on the property — Dijon clones 113, 114, 115, 667, 777, 828, Pommard UCD 4, Pommard UCD 5, Wädenswil 2A, Wädenswil “Lett,” and Swan — commemorating all the thought and labor that went into the development of WillaKenzie. Mandet crafted one of the richest and most flamboyant estate-grown and -bottled Pinot Noirs in memory.

Harvested in mid-September under ideal conditions, the 2014 WillaKenzie Estate Pinot Noir 20th Anniversary Cuvée is brilliant ruby-purple in hue. Explosive aromatically, infused with lavish aromas of black raspberry, black cherry, blackberry, and anise. Rich, juicy, and extravagant; due to the vintage, far less restrained than WillaKenzie Pinot Noirs in most years. Filled with black raspberry and black cherry preserves, a splash of Framboise liqueur, finishing with excellent tension and cut. Drink now for its youthful flamboyance or lay down until the early 2020s.

As compared to $42. One of the bargains of the vintage at just $19.99 this morning — ONLY on WineAccess.

• ABV 14.20%
• Enjoy right away
• % Pinot Noir