Benton Lane Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2022
93 Points, Decanter – 93 Points, James Suckling
This wine is a true showcase of Orrego’s winemaking talents. It’s the ultimate labor of love. Winemaker Amael Orrego uses 82 different Pinot Noir blocks, keeping the fruit separate before blending the cuvée. This incredibly meticulous, time-consuming process for the winery’s signature Pinot allows him to evaluate his fruit cluster by cluster, identifying the vintage’s strengths and the traits he seeks to bring out in his ultimate cuvée.
This lush Pinot Noir garnered not one but two 93-point reviews from Decanter and James Suckling. This year, Orrego chose to bottle it with 100% French Oak – bringing out the elegance and energy of the new vintage. For a wine at this price, it’s certainly not something you see every day. Decanter called it an “impressive wine, capturing the fresh, lively character of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.” It’s hard to argue with a word of it.
Original price was: $35.00.$29.99Current price is: $29.99.
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93 Points, Decanter
A challenging wine to make, says winemaker Amael Orrego, who crafts the blend of this wine across 82 Pinot Noir blocks. The wine captures the freshness of the Willamette Valley and its bright red berry aromatics that combine with savory herbal notes of mint. The palate offers red fruited complexity. Ripe wild strawberries, cranberries and mint rise up from elements of earth and forest floor for an impressive wine, capturing the fresh, lively character of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.
93 Points, James Suckling
An open, expressive wine with floral, mineral and cherry notes. Grapes grown at the more elevated end of the property on iron-rich, volcanic soil give it just-ripe red and black cherries and moderate tannins on a medium body. Generous in flavor but still nervy and structured in texture.
Oregon’s Willamette Valley was once considered a big risk as late as the 1980s. Most wine folks didn’t think Pinot Noir could fully ripen in such a rainy, cold environment. Attracting winemaking talent to the Pacific Northwest was nearly impossible.
Now, the region is widely considered the best place in the country to find great Pinot Noir outside of the Sonoma Coast. With temperatures hitting 100 degrees well into September, the area is flush with some of the world’s greatest winemakers from France, Italy, Portugal, New Zealand, and beyond. Hordes have come from Europe to cash in on the ‘Great Oregon Goldrush,’ including many from Burgundy. Yet amazingly, two of the best winemakers in the Willamette Valley right now are from Chile.
One is Felipe Ramirez of Rose and Arrow, whose cult Pinots sell for upwards of $200/bottle. The other is Amael Orrego, the man in charge of Benton Lane in the beloved Eola-Amity Hills. This Chilean-born winemaker honed his skills in America at Quintessa before fulfilling a dream of becoming a winemaker in his home country. Ultimately, an American love interest and an affinity for Pinot Noir drew him back to the States and the Pacific Northwest. Benton Lane has been soaring ever since.
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