90 Points Wine Spectator: Well-built and elegantly focused, with expressive raspberry, sweet anise and black tea flavors that take on richness toward polished tannins. Drink now through 2026.

ABOUT THE WINE

WillaKenzie Estate is located in Oregon's Willamette Valley on rolling hillsides in the Chehalem Mountains. After a successful career in high tech, Bernard Lacroute decided that growing Pinot Noir in Oregon would be a fulfilling way to return to his Burgundian roots. Ronni Lacroute grew up in the suburbs of New York City and Washington, D.C., and then finished high school in Switzerland, which is how she first learned to appreciate wine. After earning a B.A in French at Cornell University, she completed a Master’s degree in Romance Languages at the University of Michigan. Several subsequent years of life in France included graduate degrees at the Sorbonne. The next stage of her life began with a return to the U.S., 14 years of French teaching in Massachusetts, occasional wine drinking, and then a momentous move to the West Coast. Next there were 14 years in Silicon Valley, California, with occasional teaching, much organic gardening, and a strong focus on tasting fine wines. After visiting many vineyards in California and in France, Ronni dreamed of creating a high quality family wine estate. A Wine Spectator ad for land led to the purchase of a 420-acre cattle ranch in Yamhill, Oregon in January 1991.

This wine is produced from sustainably-farmed, estate-grown grapes and almost exclusively dry-farmed vines. A 35/65 blend of fruit from the Jory Hills and WillaKenzie Estate vineyards. Grapes are hand-picked and sorted; destemmed; four to six day cold soak; approximately 21 days of skin contact. The wine is ged 13 months in French oak barrels.

Willakenzie Winery is LIVE Certified Wine as well as salmon safe. 

Brunch Foods, Charcuterie, Cheese, Chicken/Turkey, Duck, Fish-full flavored (salmon/tuna), Ham, Mexican, Mushrooms, Spicy Food, Sushi, Tapas, Vegetables, Wild Game