“From nine selected barrels, the 2019 Pinot Noir Reserve is highly expressive and pours a deep jeweled ruby hue. Opening in the glass, it reveals aromas of black cherry preserve, licorice, scorched earth, and toasted pine. Full-bodied, with silky tannins and ripe, mouth-filling fruit, it’s long on the palate, with a note of delicate smoky earth that lasts on the finish. It’s going to need some time to come into its own. Drink 2025-2035.” – Audrey Frick
“Pouring a nearly opaque ruby-red, the 2021 Pinot Noir Mount Richmond is darker and more introspective, with brooding notes of blackberry fruit, toasted baking spices, licorice, and scorched earth. Structured, full-bodied, and opulent, it takes on ripe tannins, white pepper spice, and ripe meaty fruit through the finish, with lingering notes of incense. This age-worthy red will need time to soften and open up. Drink 2025-2035.” – Audrey Frick
“Taking on more primary ripe floral and fruity aromas, with notes of red and blue fruit shining though, the 2021 Pinot Noir Five Mountain pours a deep ruby and offers generous enveloping aromas of candied purple flowers, blackberry, and an accent of toasted spice. Mouth-filling with fruit, this full-bodied red is generous with supple, sweet tannins and a rounded mouthfeel that’s juicy all the way through the finish. It’s going to benefit from another year or two in bottle so it can shed some of its baby fat to reveal more of its spiced notes. Drink 2025-2035.” – Audrey Frick
“A solid appellation wine, the dark ruby 2021 Pinot Noir Estate is ripe and sunny with aromas of blackberry, scorched earth, and violets. Full-bodied, with a silky texture, a stony mouthfeel, and notes of toasted cedar on the finish, it’s supple and attractive now and will drink well over the next 3-5 years.” – Audrey Frick
“Deep ruby, the 2021 Pinot Noir Clay Court is layered with floral and spice notes as well as black raspberry liqueur, anise, mossy earth, and cracked pepper. Medium to full-bodied, with an elegant mouthfeel and a beautiful texture, it offers fine tannins and a silky, clean, rounded palate of fruit. Long on the palate and very well-balanced, it’s hard to resist now, but I imagine this will improve over the next 6-8 years.” – Audrey Frick
“The first of their single vineyard wines, the 2021 Chardonnay Mount Richmond pours a medium yellow-straw hue and offers sunny aromas of golden apple, yellow flowers, white mushroom, and Meyer lemon. Rounded and medium to full-bodied, it displays a supple, creamy texture, with even acidity and a floral finish with lasting notes of vanilla. Drink it over the next 5-7 years.” -Audrey Frick
A dynamic red, with vivacious cherry and cranberry flavors highlighted by rose petal, orange peel and forest floor accents, which glide on the long, sleek finish.
Elk Cove winemaker Adam Campbell, son of founders Pat and Joe Campbell, makes a range of Pinot Noirs, but his dynamic Willamette Valley bottling is the most accessible in terms of price, case production and taste. It offers vivacious cranberry flavors with floral and citrus highlights. Campbell used grapes only from Elk Cove’s six estate vineyards and fermented the 2021 in small, open-top steel tanks before aging it for ten months in French oak.
Our Elk Cove Vineyards 2022 Rosé was awarded a Gold Medal by Sunset Magazine.
Savory and lean, this leads with zesty lemon-lime scents lined with savory breadcrust notes. The flavors are all apple pulp and dusty minerals, grippy and firm. A pork wine. —Patrick J. Comiskey
Leading with a dramatically wheaty, nutty lees note, this is fresh and lifted on the palate. A crisp apple tang to its youthful flavors makes it lively and broad, for cress and poached whitefish. —Patrick J. Comiskey
If you could put strawberry blossoms into a bouquet you’d have a sense of how this pink bursts from the glass, bright, generous and expressive. Its flavors are round and juicy, exuberant with berry fruit that’s as red as its assertive color. Delightful with chilled prawns.
“The 2021 Pinot Noir, made with about 15% whole clusters, has a medium ruby-purple color and pure scents of cranberries, baked rhubarb and allspice with wafts of forest floor, charcuterie and orange zest. The palate is light on its feet with generous, floral fruit, refreshing acidity and a soft, approachable frame, and it has a satisfying, spicy finish.” -Erin Brooks
“The 2021 Pinot Noir Roosevelt is intense and expressive this vintage. Medium ruby-purple, it opens with streaks of graphite and pipe tobacco accenting a core of crushed cherries and smoked meats. The medium-bodied palate is impressively concentrated yet offers soft, silky tannins and seamless acidity. It’s full of fragrant fruit and has a layered, spicy finish. It’s a touch more coiled than the other 2021s in this lineup and will benefit from 3-5 years in bottle.” -Erin Brooks
“The 2021 Pinot Noir Reserve is a barrel selection from several of Elk Cove’s vineyards. It has a medium ruby-purple color and savory aromas of red and black cherries, aniseed, pipe tobacco, flint and Christmas spice, continuing to unfurl aromatically as it airs in the glass. The light-bodied palate is chalky and refreshing with fragrant fruit and a long, latent finish. It feels particularly coiled and will benefit from 3-5 years in bottle.” -Erin Brooks