2023 Ken Wright Cellars Guadalupe Vineyard Pinot Noir Willamette Valley

If anyone earned the right to bottle a single Oregon vineyard on its own, it is Ken Wright. He more or less invented the idea here.

Wright came to the Willamette Valley in 1986, started Panther Creek, then founded Ken Wright Cellars in Carlton in 1994. From the start he was obsessed with one question: what does this exact piece of ground taste like? He now makes around thirteen single-vineyard Pinots, each from one site, each bottled separately. He also wrote the petition that created the Yamhill-Carlton AVA and served as the association's first president. When Ken Wright talks about Oregon dirt, people listen.

Guadalupe is one of his favorites. It sits at 350 feet in the Dundee Hills, planted back in 1989. The soil is Willakenzie over ancient marine sediment — old seabed, essentially. It is farmed certified organic. Here is the wrinkle. Ken thinks the wine drinks more like Yamhill-Carlton than Dundee Hills. So he hid a nod to Yamhill-Carlton on the label. The bottle comes with an argument built in.

The 2023 is 100% Pinot Noir, aged ten to eleven months in French oak, only 20% of it new. The fruit and the site lead, not the barrel. Just 1,852 cases were made. It runs 13% alcohol and keeps its acidity, which is the whole point of Oregon Pinot.

Decanter gave the 2023 vintage a 5/5 rating: “The wines that were made from the 2023 vintage in Oregon’s Willamette Valley are beautiful. There’s a grace and refinement stamped across them, from their aromatics to their polished finishes. And there’s a precocious nature to them, too: perfect for those without patience.”

This is a wine for someone who wants to taste a place, not just a grape. I would pour it for the person at the table who asks where the fruit is from.

Open it, give it twenty minutes, and let the vineyard talk.