Description
Résonance Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2018 got a huge thumbs-up in my tasting notes when I first came across it in September 2021 and it remains one of my favourite Pinot Noirs today. Coming from Louis Jadot’s US winery, it is an Oregon Pinot Noir with a Burgundian accent! It’s a lovely fresh and fruity Pinot Noir – there are red fruit aromas and flavours in abundance – with hints of minerality & spice. Résonance Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2018 tastes predominantly of red fruits – cherries, raspberries and strawberries – with some dried fruit flavours beginning to develop alongside the spicy notes and minerality. The wine is aged in French oak but only 20% is new oak so the oak influence is more in the rounded texture of the wine than in the taste. It is exceptionally smooth and a rather elegant Pinot Noir.
Oregon has a reputation for some great Pinot Noirs and Résonance Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2018 from the Willamette Valley American Viticultural Area* (“AVA”) is no exception. The AVA is a true cool climate area, cooler and wetter than California but with longer hours of sunlight and a big difference between day and night temperatures which leads to fresher wines with more pronounced fruit.
* N.B. AVAs indicate the origin of a wine; there are however no regulations that need to be followed to use the classification as is the case in France for example.
This wine is suitable for vegetarians but not for vegans