Current Release
2008 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley

All of Elk Cove’s delicate Pinot Noir fruit undergoes the same meticulous vineyard management and gentle handling through our gravity flow system, thus achieving the elegance, texture and luscious quality that are the hallmarks of exquisite Pinot Noirs. From the early pioneering days to now, our Willamette Valley Pinot Noir has remained the foundation of Elk Cove Vineyards. This Pinot Noir is blended from several select vineyard sites comprised of Pommard and Dijon plant material and shows the softest, most approachable drinking style Elk Cove makes.

There is a quiet kind of excitement in the Willamette Valley after harvest 2008. Phrases and clichés keep rolling on such as classic cool climate, vintage conditions that are only dreamt of, potential to show the best of what Oregon has to offer. Add to this, repeated references to perhaps one of Oregon’s best vintages, 1999 and understandably many in the valley are smiling. Oregon’s 2008 growing season started late, with bud break on average ten days to two weeks behind schedule and followed with a relatively cool growing season. Thoughts of the recent wet and cool harvest of 2007 had many aggressively thin vineyards to concentrate fruit and speed up ripening and ward off disease pressure. Yet as in 1999, a beautiful Oregon autumn saved the day! Fall was spectacular with sunny days and cold nights, producing the tiny berries and small clusters not seen since the 1994 and 1998 vintages, laying the foundation to produce extraordinary wines.

Wine Reviews

Wine & Spirits, October 2010

90 — Best Buy.

[Tanzer] International Wine Cellar, July 2010

"Deep red with a bright rim. Pure but subdued aromas of blackcurrant, cherry pit and rose petal. Juicy and penetrating but quite tight, even austere, hinting at musky dark fruits and succulent herbs. This youthful, concentrated wine offers little immediate sweetness but unwinds nicely with an hour or so of aeration." - J. R.

© Elk Cove Vineyards
27751 NW Olson Road • Gaston, OR 97119
Phone (877) ELK-COVE • Fax (503) 985-3525
www.elkcove.com • info@elkcove.com