Getting to Know Oregon’s Top-Rated Wines
Another age-worthy wine from the Eola-Amity Hills AVA — this Pinot Noir has received a 95-point score from Wine Spectator for its impressive structure and body. The wine is fragrant with fresh pine tree and black pepper aromas, while the palate booms with raspberry, earth, and dried flower flavors complemented by supple tannins.

This lively and robust styled Pinot Noir from Kendall Jackson is a translucent medium ruby color. It displays aromas reminiscent of a walk through a raspberry patch, with earthy bramble and juicy red raspberry, along with violet floral notes. On the palate, it is super-smooth and focused, with medium body and fine well-managed tannins and bright plus acidity. I found flavors of red raspberry, strawberry, crushed stone, and hints of cinnamon and nutmeg. The finish is long with a hint of spiced plum. This Pinot will appeal to most guests at an impromptu wine and cheese gathering.

The Rockfall Vineyard is between 2,000 and 2,200-feet in elevation, and the wine that originates there is powerful and concentrated in style, with robust red-fruit and mineral tones. Herbal and classic, it shows elegance and integrated oak and tannin within its context of intensity and structure. Enjoy best from 2027–2037.

From a site planted at 1,800-feet elevation, this impressively built and structured wine is complex, with floral openings of apple blossom and pear. The richness of stone fruit continues on the palate, with notes of rocky soil, mineral and acidity wrapped around a core of elegance and length.

Made from a section of the vineyard planted in 1991 at 2,400-feet-elevation, this wine is concentrated and full of intensity, impressive on every level. Powerfully built to age and evolve, it shows defined layers of dried herb, rock and blueberry, with an underlying crispness and crunch to the texture. Enjoy best from 2027–2037.

Grown on clay-loam soils, with tough ironstone rocks running through, this wine is the most savory and brambly of Giant Steps’s single-vineyard Pinots. A thicket of red and blueberry fruit entwines with white pepper and other savory spices, dried roses and meaty bass notes. In the mouth, fleshy fruit is again met with lovely spice, cinched by fine tannins. There’s freshness, structure and elegance here that makes this a complete wine now, but one that could cellar until around 2032.

From grapes grown between 400 and 1,800-feet elevation, this impressive white overdelivers on its price point, showcasing the beauty of the site. Graham cracker, honeycomb and stone fruit contribute to a rich midpalate of complex concentration and length, finishing balanced and bright in underlying acidity.

This wine demonstrates the tightrope walk of power and elegance at which winemaker Pete Fraser is so adept. An aromatic wine, there’s an appealing perfume of brambly red and blueberry fruit, licorice, winter-warming spices and a dusty, umami-like bass note. The palate is exquisitely balanced, the fruit and savory spice woven into wellgroomed tannins. Textural and powerful yet fresh and approachable. Drink now–2032.

This wine pops with fleshy red fruit, white pepper and woodsy, sap characters. The palate is round and primary-fruit driven, but it hints at depth and complexity yet to come. The juicy berries are woven through with chalky, savory tannins and spicy and sap linger on the finish. Drink now–2030.

This vineyard sits on red basalt soils. As the springtime name implies, it’s the most delicate of the lot. An enticing cherryjuice hue, it’s vibrant, bursting with primary redberry fruit and backed by gentle spice and driedfloral aromas. The palate is medium weight, but fills the mouth with more plump, juicy berries. There’s length and elegance here, and tannins are fine and well-placed, but this is a fruit show at the moment: Those more complex meaty aromas will need another few years before they show up to the party.

Planted in 2000 on a steep slope in the Deep End of the valley, the vines at Maggy Hawk grow in decomposed sandstone soils. Their fruit in 2019 produced a rich and lithe pinot noir, its austerity leavened by a silken texture and red-fruit transparency. Delicate, mouthwatering, as refreshing as rainwater in summer, this draws you back for another taste.

Nikki Weerts makes this wine from a vineyard near Sebastopol, a cool site taken to luscious ripeness, a style of wine that has become a hallmark of Jackson Family Wines portfolio under Barbara Banke’s tenure at the helm. WindRacer is Banke’s outside partnership with Peggy Furth, whose wine career was centered at Chalk Hill Estate, the 1,400-acre property she helped develop with her then-husband Fred Furth. So, it’s no surprise this should be a luxury wine—my notes in the blind tasting describe its “powerglide, ’50s Cadillac richness, a Detroit beauty.” This is satisfying pinot noir with persimmon-red hues to the fruit, tinged with apricot and smoky oak.

Cambria’s Mesa Terrace brings together the winery’s best block selections from the benchland vineyard that comprises much of the estate. This is a wine that took several days to open, starting off slightly sleepy and simple, with scents of cocoa nibs and candied cherry. After two days open, it displays astonishing poise and seamless elegance, with a kind of mineral grip to the dark cherry flavors that suggests the fog from the nearby surf as it settles over the benchlands.

Powerfully dense and concentrated in black fruit, with considerable tannin and oak, this full-bodied wine impresses in its underlying hints of floral aromatics and bright acidity. Structured and ageworthy, it should find additional cohesion over time; enjoy best from 2028–2033.

Poached cherry and vanilla-cookie aromas are pleasantly plump on the spicy nose of this bottling. The palate zips with acidity out of the gates before weaving into blackraspberry and fresh herb flavors and finishing with a hint of smoke.

From a selection of vineyard blocks across the producer’s high-elevation estate, this red wine opens in a strong tannin framework and earthy tones of crushed rock and dust. The palate brings additional notes of dried herb, cedar and currant as it evolves, showing plenty of ageworthy structure. Enjoy 2027–2032.

Delicate nuances of clove, thyme, ripe red and black berries and hints of smoke. Vibrant and mineral, with grainy tannins. Lovely.

Fragrant aromatic of dried herbs, ripe black fruit, sweet liquorice, sage, rosemary and coffee. Sweet black fruit on the palate with firm fine-grained tannins.

Grown in California, most Dijon clones deliver fruit forward wines, making this savory bottling of Barbara’s, made with Clone 667, somewhat anomalous. Cambria’s Barbara’s doesn’t much behave like a Dijon clone, at least not at first; this wine’s smoky tobacco savor goes up against its cherry fruit, lingering with a sneaky persistence. The subtle plum fruit is weightless and lifted, ready for something with an umami feel, like a pork cutlet.

This estate wine is remarkably elegant, with scents of smoke, olive and cola all wrapped around a plum compote core. The sleek and soft texture, with tannins as suave as pipe-tobacco, suggest a pairing with braised beef, like Bourguignon.

It’s easy to anticipate the concentration of this wine just by looking at its dark purple color. It smells of pine and dark plum, then tastes of spiced cherry, rye and peppercorn, with terrific acidity that keeps the wine on point.

The Conifer designation is right on as there is a pine-tar accent streaking through the bright red-berry and cherry-fruit flavors here. The full body characterizes this excellent vintage, and the extra details of texture and length, along with highlights of truffle and toast, keep this wine interesting through the lengthy finish.

Sourced from specific blocks on the estate, this aromatic wine mixes potent blueberry and blackberry fruit with sharp lemony acids. It’s powerful and blocky, punching those flavors on through a long finish. More bottle age should help to fully integrate all components.

An aromatic mix of toasted hazelnuts, blackberry fruit spread, nutella and peanut butter opens into an inviting palate with generous fruit and well-tempered tannins. The moderately low alcohol in no way detracts from the flavor, and subtle details of spice and herb that higher alcohol often conceals are here to discover.

This is a smooth, medium-ripe wine that’s been fermented and aged in 20% new puncheons. The mouthfeel is firm—almost glossy—with tight apple and pear fruit. There are hints of honeysuckle, jicama and a bright pine-needle note shining through.