Alcohol: 13.4%
Grape(s): 100% Pinot Noir
Localization: Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA
Tasting Notes: Nose presents a pronounced perfume of sun-kissed red/black fruits, alpine meadow florals, warm spice & minerals—beautifully textured with melted, fine-grain tannin structure woven into the sauve, mouth-filling palate— lovely in so many ways—enjoy now or cellar 10-15+ years.
98 - Jeb Dunnuck: "Youthful ruby in hue, the 2022 Pinot Noir KoosahVineyard offers notes of potpourri, wild herbs, mossy earth, wild berries, preserved raspberries, and a clean note of stony earth. The palate is outstanding and pure, with refined tannins and a crystalline feel to the fruit profile. This is just a hell of a good, delicious wine now, and it’s going to drink well for a long time to come. Drink 2024-2046."
Notes: The Eola-Amity Hills is situated to the immediate east of the Van Duzer Corridor, the "air-conditioning" pathway through the Coast Range where marine air blows in from the Pacific Ocean, lowering the growing season temperatures as well as elevating the presence of salinity in the wines. Koosah, which in the Coast Salish dialect means "beautiful ceiling of the sky", sits at the very top elevation (1,100 feet) along the upper slope of a dramatic drainage that runs all the way down to the valley floor (200 feet). The cool, east-southeast aspect combined with the slope's prominent wind exposure, leads to especially extended hang times and patient development of complex flavors. Koosah is without question one of the most thoughtfully-planted vineyards in the Willamette's history, but also one of the riskiest. Fall rains will almost always threaten the harvest. Yet these calculated risks are already paying dividends: bright acidity, perfectly ripe fruit, and lifted aromatics. Furthermore, the shallow topsoil and rocky volcanic subsoil provide balanced stress to the vines, resulting in open canopies, restrained yields, and berries that develop thicker skins, leading to wines of remarkable texture, tension, and fine structure. Altogether, Koosah is evidence of the promise that Willamette Valley Pinot Noir's greatest days are present and future.
The Domain: Martin Woods(the woods and the winery) is hidden in the oak-forested foothills of Oregon's Coast Range, within the cool-climate McMinnville AVA, Willamette Valley. Martin Woods is both the home and winery for winemaker/vigneron Evan Martin, who has been driven by a passion since 2009 for discovering the most compelling terroir in Oregon. Elegant Pinot noir and Chardonnay are the focus of the portfolio, but Riesling, Gruner, Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Syrah are more than proving extremely exciting for exploration. Evan’s small team farms according to sustainable, wholistic principles and the growers he partner's with are of the same mindset. The winemaking methods are delicate and natural, but of greatest importance is that a Martin Woods wine promotes the classic qualities of purity, balance, complexity and fine structure that can only result from great terroir combined with wholehearted dedication to art and craft. Above all, it is the hope that the wines evoke a consistent and inspiring sense-of-place, an authentic Oregon voice. May your wine journey be full of love, laughter and adventure, sincerely, Evan Martin
