Top Oregon pinot producer recommendations

I’ve been enjoying Oregon Pinots for a well over a decade, but it always seems to be a bit hit and miss for me. I do see a couple of dozen wineries that are consistently mentioned in top Oregon Pinot lists, so I was wondering if there are any up-to-date recommendations for great Oregon Pinot (preferably under $100) or wines that are occasionally available at auction. I am familiar with Cristom, and love their style of wine. I find Elizabeth Chambers to be pleasant, but not amazing. Domaine Serene can be quite good, but Ken Wright has always disappointed.

Also curious to know if anyone has any tasting notes on Ponzi, Authentique, Winderlea, Hyland Estates, or Susu.

It’s not the hip answer, but Beaux Freres is my go-to. Rock-solid reliable, ages well, ripe but not trying to be anything but Oregon.

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There are quite a few threads on the board that cover this, so you might search around.

Most of the wineries you’ve named are larger productions, so I would recommend looking at some smaller producers (see the Teeny Tiny Wineries of Oregon thread). You can also look at a number of “What ________ wine are you drinking?” threads that feature Oregon wineries popular on the board like Kelley Fox, Vincent, Patricia Green, and more (including our own wines).

Berserker Day offers are also something you might look at: Hundred Suns, Suzor, and Championship Bottle are all excellent.

And for me personally, take a peek at the Deep Roots Coalition website. It’s a group of great Oregon Wineries (and some out of state gems as well) all committed to dry farming (no irrigation). Full disclosure, Goodfellow is a member and I sit on the board but it’s a group of great wineries. Including Beaux Freres referenced above (great wines but probably not under $100).

Good luck!

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This is a good place to start.

Old vines are another good filter, especially for pinot noir.

Beyond that, id say it depends on what style of wine you like, how important is site character in a wine, do you want ageability?

Among older wines (15+ years) ive had this year ive really enjoyed a st. Innocent Maresh vineyard, Brickhouse Evelyns, PGC Eason, Thomas.

For younger wines, so generally lower tier wine within a producers lineup, i really like arterberry, PGC old vine, goodfellow Ava or WV, evesham la grive bleue, Vincent ribbon ridge and eola, kelley fox mirabi, and cameron dundee and ribbon ridge.

People im interested in trying more of this year include martin wood and violin.

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Some great ideas. Thanks. Familiar with Beaux Frères. Similar to Peter Michael, Morlet family or Occidental in Sonoma. Higher end. I don’t usually drink Pinot over a hundred a bottle, at least not regularly.

I have had Brickhouse before and I really liked it, and they do seem to age well.

I’m old enough and wise enough to avoid hip stuff like the plague.

Some wines I have enjoyed in the past 6 months, in good spots:

2013 Cristom Marjorie Vineyard:
One of the first wines I bought, nearly a decade ago, This Cristom showed awesome at 12 years of age, and speaks to aging those age worthy Oregon reds!
Wine is in a perfect spot, straddling fruit and savory complexity. In a blind, could see this called Burgundy from a mature, warm vintage… with confusing fruit note mixed with autumn flavors. Strawberry, cherry, fall leaves, autumn smells, rose petals, touch of cinnamon and bitter orange peel. Nice complexity while still being approachable. Medium weighted. Slightly polished and clean. 93

2018 Goodfellow Lewman Heritage:
In 2020 I thought this wine was Burgundian. Today - for a second - I thought I WAS drinking a Burgundy! My mind went to 2010 Burgundy and I thought I opened the wrong bottle! Sous bois, red and black berries on the nose. Medium bodied. Med+ acidity. Slightly tannic. Slightly polished. A melange of raspberry, strawberry, currants, sage, slight orange peel. I can see this wine improving over the next 5-10 years as it picks up autumnal complexity. Could be the best $50 wine I’ve had in a while. Will drink another soonish, and the last two in 5 years. 92-93

2018 Kelley Fox Red Barn Blocks:
Markedly better than 2 years ago and this wine is on the upslope - I’ll drink my remaining two in 5 years. Per my last tasting note, in 2023 this wine showed fuzzy strawberry and a hint of cola. Today - and with a double decant & some time uncorked - the wine poured purer with vivid red cherry and some alpine cherry, a little fruit forward and rounded with medium acid. I think this wine is headed in the direction of the 2013 Cristom I had a few months ago, and that it will reach a point of keeping a good chunk of red fruit alongside autumnal flavors yielding a complex and quaffable wine. 93-94 (94 is the potential). Will hold off the others for some time.

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Excellent tips and wine notes. Found the same with Cristom. Excellent wines that age well. Had a 2015 Eileen recently, that was superb. Much appreciated.

If you like Cristom, I see Goodfellow as a step up for a dollar less

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Whenever people ask about anything exciting wines of Oregon, I always fall back on the wines that got me excited about Oregon 25 years ago. Ponzi still makes amazing Pinots, they have the vineyards and age to do it. Bethel Heights, second generation just making wines better by the vintage. Drouhin, and sometimes their “other label” Roserock. Beaux Freres still rocks. But the pricing keeps me at bay.

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I second the suggestion to check out the “Teeny Tiny Wineries of Oregon” thread.

Some of my favorites are:

  • Bethel Heights
  • De La Boue
  • Evesham Wood
  • Goodfellow
  • Violin
  • Vincent

I know you asked for Pinot recommendations, but I’ll also throw in Championship Bottle which makes some of my very favorite white wines.

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Beserker Day is a great resource for exploring Oregon producers. They typically offer an assortment of choices allowing you to explore a variety of sites and vintages at outstanding prices. For me, while I’ve had several already mentioned my favorites mirror the BD participants, also because I’ve had the chance to interact with the some of the winemakers. Those are:

Goodfellow
Vincent
Kelley Fox
PGC
Hundred Suns
Thomas

I’m awaiting my first case of Violin which I’m fairly certain I’ll adding to the list above.

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Given you are willing to go to auction, it seems you can target particularly awesome bottles with some age on it.

I’m curious for Forumite thoughts on 2018… seems like a great earlier drinking vintage that will be in an awesome spot in 3-5 more years, showing complexity I don’t think you can get from other regions. If you DM me I am happy to sell a mixed case of Goodellow, Kelley Fox, Arterberry Maresh, Thomas, Walter Scott (what I own) at around my cost (but that’s net of shipping storage etc.). I don’t have much older stuff than 2018 though (2017 Goodfellow may be the oldest).

I think many on this forum would have been pleasantly surprised by the 2013 Cristom. Fruit and complexity. And I think the latest generation (e.g. Goodfellow as mentioned above) are doing even better things (the 2013 Cristom lacked a little acid I thought)… and so the future of drinking Oregon wines is going to be excellent once these 2018s, 2019s, 2023s, 2024s hit maturity in the decade to come. Will change the nature of discourse IMHO.

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Since we are on the subject, I haven’t tried them, but I’m interested in tasting the Lingua Franca pinots. What are the thoughts on those?

Good fruit, supple textures, slightly coarse tannin, not cheap. Curious for others views…

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Thank you

If you like that list, you’ll like Violin. Stellar wines both red and white.

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(Or at least I thought they were stellar the one time I’ve tried them, which was tasting at the winery! So small sample, but was p.d. impressed!)

All mine are in storage but I should probably grab a couple to drink as they are 7-8 years. From what I’ve read, 2018 seems like a warmer, riper, bigger vintage, but the two producers you drank tend towards the more elegant styles so their 2018s may not be indicative of the 2018 as a whole.

To the OP, it would be helpful to know more of what you mean by ‘good pinot producer’ and what you are looking for in the wine in general. I say this because I think Oregon pinot takes a bit of study to understand and appreciate. Take a producer like PGC, they are among my favorite producers in Oregon but they make 30-ish wines, some of which I love and some of which I don’t. Or take producers like Beaux Freres and Bergstrom which are both generally well-regarded producers but both have undergone substantial changes in the style of wine they produce over time, which makes buying their wines trickier. Then there are subtle issues like the Cristom Majorie wines where at some point the original vines were re-planted and the Marjorie bottling switched from 100% older vines to more younger material.

My point is, I think it’s really hard to recommend producers without knowing your preferences and how you enjoy the wines. My general take, I really try to focus on wines from non-irrigated sites as irrigation disrupts the terroir. Next I tend to focus on older vine age wines as I think that as pinot vines age they transition from more fruit forward primary wines (which cover up site differences) into more complex, earhy, non-fruit flavors (which highlight site differences). Next, I would focus on figuring out which AVAs you like best, or at least which soil types and general areas, Ribbon Ridge, Dundee, and Eola wines really do taste different and have different aging curves.

One of the things I love about Oregon is the ability to study, learn, and dig into details. Just one example is to look at temperance hill vineyard. The sites is large and varied, in aspect, elevation, and soil depth, and it has multiple producers, Vincent, Evesham Woods, Goodfellow, and others. But that small hill that Temperance is on also has Cristom, Bethel heights, Justice, Lewman, X-novo, and Zenith vineyards (plus others). I love Evesham Woods and Goodfellow, they both produce Temperance hills west block wine, but they have much different approaches to winemaking, buy both and compare them. I tend to think Vincent and Evesham woods are more similiar in winemaking approachs (could be wrong!) and they both make temperance hill wines but from different blocks, try them together and compare/contrast. Marcus made a Temperance and Lewman wine, again similiar area but different vineyards. These types of details are why I love Oregon Pinot (and Chardonnay), not just because the wine is good but because there is variation, in producer style and site expression. And that’s all within a single vintage and from just one very small area of WV, it expands out from there if you want!

This variation is fascinating to me and is what I use to determine the producers I like, but you need non-irrigated sites to show it, and older vines tend to highlight it more.

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