Tasting: 2016 Rainstorm Pinot Noir

Rainstorm

Variety: Pinot Noir
Region: Willamette and Umpqua, Oregon
Country: USA
Year: 2016
Price: $17

Winery Review: 
To craft our wonderfully balanced Rainstorm Pinot Noir, we take advantage of our diverse landscape by selecting grapes from our vineyards in the Willamette and Umpqua Valleys. With its cool, mild climate, the Willamette Valley of northern Oregon produces Pinot Noirs with an earthy, elegant style and complex flavors and subtlety. The hotter and drier climate in the southern Oregon’s Umpqua Valley region produces Pinot Noirs bursting with brilliant, ripe, rich fruit flavors.

By creating a 50/50 blend of these two wine regions, we’ve crafted an Oregon Pinot Noir that reflects the dynamic diversity of our very green (and sometimes very wet) state. The result: Rainstorm Pinot Noir is a perfect harmony.
We harvest our Pinot Noir grapes at about 22.5 Brix and then gently destem them before the maceration phase. Our macerations – that’s when the skin comes in contact with the juice and when we extract color and tannins – are brief (usually about a week, to avoid harsh tannic flavors). The maceration ends with pressing and a full malolactic fermentation. After a rough filtration, the wine is put in contact with oak for at least 12 months. The resulting wine is fruit-forward, soft and elegant with rosehip aromas and flavors of bright cherry and pomegranate.

My Review:
This Pinot Noir was an incredible example of a Northwestern wine. There were significant aromas of bright fruits like strawberry, pomegranate, and raspberry, with a slight aroma of violet perhaps. The flavor was predominantly fruity as well, a little bit more on the sweet rather than dry side, and was light bodied compared to other red wines. However, although I loved the fruitiness of the wine, I think it would have been a little bit better if it was a little more tannic.

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