2021 The Eyrie Vineyards Pinot Noir Estate

The 2021 Pinot Noir The Eyrie's initial flintiness takes plenty of time to give way to deeper scents of cranberry, pipe tobacco, pepper, bergamot and charcuterie. The medium-bodied palate is luxuriously silky and seamless, with a latent core of spicy fruit and a long, savory finish. It's youthfully coiled and deserves five or more years in the cellar to unwind.

The 2021 Pinot Noir Estate lifts from the glass with a mentholated freshness, giving way to dried roses and strawberries. Silky and enveloping, it possesses a core of vividly ripe wild berries and sweet herbal tones that resonate over a tactile staining of saline minerals. Grippy tannins saturate through the long, spicy finish as repleting inner florals and bitter hints of licorice fade.

Pouring a pale ruby hue, the 2021 Pinot Noir The Eyrie is fantastically detailed and reveals layered aromas of fresh cardamom, rose petal, and wild raspberry. The palate is tension-packed, with a linear feel and ripe red-berried fruit, but it’s more about its mineral and gravelly texture, with mouthwatering salinity and balanced fruit throughout. It also offers a touch of toasty cedar on the finish. It’s coiled at this stage and will benefit from another 2 or more years in bottle to start to show its best. Drink 2025-2035. The 2021 releases from The Eyrie were tasted at the winery and tasting room in McMinnville with owner and winemaker Jason Lett. In addition to producing some of the benchmark Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay in the Willamette Valley, they produce a wide range from Trousseau to Pinot Meunier to explore. Having only tasted out of barrel the previous year, I was especially impressed with the range of 2021 Pinot Noir from the estate. Annual production is at approximately 10,000 cases, using 95% estate-grown fruit.