2014 Solena Estate Pinot Noir Grande Cuvee Willamette Valley

2014 Oregon Pinot Noir: “No Finer Value in the World”

We first tasted the stunning 2014 Oregon Pinot Noirs from barrel in April of 2015. Wine Spectator confirmed our inkling, dropping a blazing 94-97 points on the vintage overall, fueling the fire every week with each new score of 94 points or more. Soon after, Antonio Galloni’s Vinous came on in a paragraph titled “Another Vintage of a Lifetime? Maybe Two in a Row?”, emphasizing that 2014 is “a vintage that’s at least the equal of 2012.” We quickly booked our flights back to Willamette.

After two glorious days in Santa Barbara, we caught the 7pm out of LAX, landed at PDX at 10pm, jumped in the rental, and made our way down the 99W. The following morning, we woke up at the Allison Hotel in Newberg to drizzling, gray clouds, but after one cappuccino and plate of eggs, the always-stubborn October sun poked its head out. Usually we don’t recommend visiting Oregon past September, but the beauty of the undulating green and orange Willamette Valley hills during that time of year is undeniable. After breakfast, we hit the road and made our way to Yamhill, where we caught up with Laurent Montalieu at Soléna Estate.

As we were reminded, with the piping-hot 2014 vintage in the market and the ‘15s just around the corner, there is no doubt that Oregon will be a hotbed for Pinot Noir in the coming years. When it comes to “quality, complexity, and price,” Montalieu emphasized, “there is no finer value in the world.”

Before going any further, here’s a quick buying tip for American Pinot Noir and red Burgundy collectors. Buy EVERY top wine you can get your hands on — ALMOST REGARDLESS OF PRICE — from the top winegrowers in Willamette Valley: Beaux Frères,Bergström, Penner-Ash, Cristom, RR, and Bethel Heights. For reasons we are about to explain, 2014 is a sensational year for Oregon Pinot Noir, much akin to Burgundy’s 1976 and 2003, vintages that are still showing beautifully 36 and 9 years, respectively, after bottling.

2014 was a picture-perfect season, characterized by warm weather, but not too hot, with very generous yields of about 2.5 tons per acre for Montalieu’s vineyard selections. The result was tremendous natural concentration — high natural sugars across the board, with finished wines tip-toeing around 13.5 to 14% alcohol and acids sufficiently piercing to keep everything in balance. The finest are bright, velour-like in texture, and marked by a Burgundian-like cut.

The 2014 Soléna Estate Grande Cuvée is brilliant dark-ruby, infused with luscious aromas of black cherry, raspberry, violets, and Asian spices. Rich, juicy, and precise on the attack, filled with crushed-red-fruit preserves, black cherry, and cherry pit, and finishing with terrific energy and tension, particularly given the opulence of the vintage. Drink now-2020.

• ABV 13.40%
• Enjoy right away
• % Pinot Noir