96 POINTS The Wine Advocate
94 POINTS James Suckling
93 POINTS IWR
93 POINTS Wine Spectator
92 POINTS Wine Enthusiast
Beautiful and concentrated Pinot Noir with a particularly complex aroma. Restrained notes of redcurrant compote and a bit of tobacco, spices and blackberries. Very pleasant and velvety on the tongue with a core of cherry, earthy undertones and a hint of vanilla. Luxurious finish with a long and elegant aftertaste.
Hand-picked and then hand-sorted and de-stemmed in the vineyard with four levels of gravity flow. Long and careful fermentation. The barrels are specially made in Burgundy with oak from France’s best forests.
About Domaine Drouhin
You can’t say Domaine Drouhin without also saying Maison Joseph Drouhin. It is the same family, and for more than 30 years the Drouhin family has used the enormous experience on both sides of the Atlantic – incl. the vineyards of the Willamette Valley, just southwest of Portland, Oregon. The winery in the Dundee Hills of the Willamette Valley creates elegant, fine Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines with clear links to the family in Burgundy.
Véronique Boss-Drouhin grew up in Beaune, in the heart of Burgundy. She decided on a winemaking career at an early age. In the years since, Véronique has been globally recognized for her work both in Burgundy and in Oregon. She has made more than 30 vintages in each place and is considered to be a bit of an icon both in Oregon and in Burgundy. Therefore, in 2019 she was awarded the Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest award.
Philippe Drouhin is responsible for the management and care of the Drouhin vineyards in Burgundy, Oregon – and Chablis. From the first parquet, he experienced at an early age the viticultural methods that created some of the world’s finest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines, helping his father Robert carry out soil and vine research. After graduating from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce in Tours, he took oenology courses at the University of Dijon. He officially entered the family business in 1988 and the work involves selecting grape stocks and clones, choosing the care to be given to the land and overseeing the pruning plans. He is still a keen student user of sustainable, biodynamic and organic farming techniques. When harvest season arrives, he is an expert in helping to determine the perfect time to pick the grapes to achieve the greatest quality and expression of each vineyard’s terroir.
The vineyards
Right at the top of the Dundee Hills, where gentle slopes catch the sunshine and a light breeze, the 235 hectare vineyard creates some of the finest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay fruit in the world. The goal has always been the dream of a vineyard in Oregon that could compete with the famous vineyards of Burgundy. In the beginning, Domaine Drouhin consisted of 91 ha of wheat fields and fir trees. However, the soil was perfect, and since the 33 ha consisted of south-facing slopes, spruce and wheat had to give way in favor of 28 ha of Pinot Noir and 5 ha of Chardonnay. The vines were one of the first in Oregon to be grafted onto phylloxera-resistant roots – a practice that was not traditionally practiced as the vineyards are far apart and the climate is very inhospitable to the disease.
Natural production in the vineyard
All the house wines are made by hand in their four-level winery, where gravity plays the main role in transporting the wine around. The wines are completely natural with gentle treatment and minimal interference. It’s Pinot Noir and Chardonnay that taste like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Classic wines with great finesse, elegance and an expression of the terroir the grapes come from.
Once the grapes have reached full ripeness with a perfect balance of brix and acidity, and fruit and tannin, they are hand-picked into small 25-pound boxes, ensuring the arrival of pristine, uncrushed fruit into our four-level gravity-flow winery . Everything we do in the winery aims to preserve the unique qualities that nature gave us in the vineyards.
The fermentation typically lasts 7-12 days, during which the ancient Burgundian techniques of pigeage and remontage are used as means for precisely the gentle treatment. The fermentation is careful and when it is finished, the free-flowing juice is moved by gravity to the third level of the winery, the barrel cellar. The house’s Pinot Noir is aged in both new (20%) and neutral French oak barrels. The casks are specially made in Burgundy with oak from France’s best forests, which let the character of the wine and the vintage show through. When the secondary, malolactic fermentation is complete, the wines are moved off their lees via gravity and back into the barrel. After 12-14 months in oak, Véronique selects casks for each of the house’s three cuvées. The wines are then blended and allowed to rest for several months before being moved to the final level of the winery, the bottling room. At this final stage, the wines are again moved via gravity to bottle and are then allowed to mature for 6 to 18 months before release.
Roserock Vineyard
Roserock is the newest addition to the Drouhin family – and it’s also in Oregon. It was purchased in 2013 and has a quite unique terroir characterized by volcanic soil, cool temperatures and an ideal altitude range. Roserock reflects Drouhin’s approach: Patience and nuances, elegance and complexity and, above all, finesse.
Oregon’s leader
Today, Domaine Drouhin is one of Oregon’s absolute leading producers, if not THE leading one: A hard pruning and an extremely dense planting means that each vine only yields must for a little over ½ liter of wine! The more than 30 different parcels are vinified separately, after which a few casks are selected for the prestige wine Louise, additional casks are selected for Cuvée Laurene and the rest – which is by far the predominant part – is used for the regular Pinot Noir.
