The Westmount Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2020 is one of the brands from NW Wine Company, a custom crush wine company, that also produces its estate wines. The website mentions that it has over 800 acres of vines, while the Westmount website says they have over 100 acres of vines.
The back label says that Westmount Wine Company “made and bottled” this Pinot Noir, which legally means that they fermented at least 75% of the wine and it was bottled at their address. But, it looks like this is a single vineyard estate wine.
Modern wine companies have various divisions and LLC companies, the vineyard may be owned by one branch of the company, the winery facilities by another, and the bottling line by another. All the companies are directly related, but legally separate.
So, the Westmount Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2020 looks like it is sourced from grapes grown in their vineyard in the heart of the Willamette Valley. The Willamette Valley is located near Portland in the north and Eugene in the south, with the Coastal Mountain range to the west and the Cascade Mountains to the east.
The Westmount Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2020 used Pinot Noir Clones 23, 113, 115, and 777. All wines use grape clone varietals, but with Pinot Noir which clones are used, either alone or in combination are extremely important.
The 2020 vintage for the Westmount Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2020 was a jumble of temperature conditions, warm first, then cool, then warm again. The nighttime temps were always cool, so the vines had that differential between day and night temps that they preferred. The 2020 yields were down, but the grape quality was high.
This tasting notes for this Pinot Noir suggests oak barrel aging though the website and its technical notes do not mention how the wine was aged. Most of the information about this wine is vague, which is why I think it is or mostly is a single vineyard estate wine, but I can not be completely sure. The alcohol content is 13.4%.
The Westmount Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2020 Tasting Notes
The color is a clean, clear ruby red. The nose is classic Oregon Pinot Noir, cherry, herbs, mushroom, baking spice, black pepper, and strawberry. The Westmount Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2020 is medium to light bodied with smooth and slightly rough-edged flavors.
This Pinot Noir tastes like black cherry, exotic spice, vanilla, plum, and black pepper. The mid-palate adds a brush of herbs, baking spice, sour cherry, orange zest, and tart cranberry. This Pinot Noir has excellent structure and would excel as a food wine, while also being an enjoyable sipper.
The Summary
- The Westmount Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2020 is an excellent reasonably affordable Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, I found it for $16.
- The price is on the low end of Oregon Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, but the quality is high.
- The flavors are intersting and the body of the wine are smooth and silky, this is a fun wine to sip.
