Hundred Suns Old Eight Cut Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2024
We have 9 in stock (Inventory is live and accurate)
The Land
A Willamette Valley appellation wine is often read as a step down from a single vineyard, but Old Eight Cut is built the other way around: it is a deliberate blend of six sites across three sub-AVAs, chosen so each fills a gap in the others. Carson Phillips brings the iron-rich Jory volcanic soils of the Dundee Hills, farmed organically and without irrigation. Lone Feather and Dupee Valley sit in the McMinnville AVA, where Lone Feather's steep hillside rows grow in rocky Jory-Bellpine and Gellatly-Dixonville soils. Golden Hillside, Holmes Hill, and Big Cheese come from the Eola-Amity Hills, where afternoon winds through the Van Duzer Corridor cool the vines and thicken skins. The result is a map of the northern valley in one bottle.
The Wine
The Hundred Suns Old Eight Cut Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2024 ferments with native yeast and 25 percent whole clusters, which adds lift, spice, and a firmer frame. It then ages 11 months in French oak, only 10 percent new, and is bottled unfined and unfiltered at 13.9 percent alcohol. The winery's notes describe ripe cherry, hibiscus, crimson cassis, damp earth, and fleshy strawberry, with a juicy core of acidity carrying the finish. Hundred Suns describes 2024 as a year of ample rain and a mild spring, with warmth lasting through September before cooler weather allowed slow, patient picking. Across the valley the vintage leaned toward bright, cool-toned fruit and floral aromatics after a July heat spike past 100°F and a cool August.
The People
Grant Coulter spent roughly a decade at Beaux Frères, rising from assistant to head winemaker, after starting out as assistant winemaker at Hamacher Wines. In 2015 he left to run vineyards and winemaking for Flâneur Wines, and that same year he and his wife Renée Saint-Amour sold their Portland house for a fixer-upper in wine country to build Hundred Suns. Renée, a former high school teacher, runs the cellar and the business. The two still do much of the work by hand, from label design to dipping bottles in wax. In 2018 they bought a 4.5-acre site in the Eola-Amity Hills, pulled the diseased historic vines in 2020, and replanted in spring 2022. Old Eight Cut is where Coulter's years of grower relationships show most clearly.
Food Pairing
Whole clusters and bright acidity make this Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley a natural with smoke and spice. Grill a pork shoulder steak brushed with gochujang and honey; the fruit softens the heat while the acidity resets the palate. Cedar-plank steelhead with a brown-sugar and dill rub plays off the hibiscus and earth. Turkey and black bean enchiladas in a mild ancho sauce work with the cherry fruit, and a plate of charred Brussels sprouts with balsamic and pancetta matches the wine's savory edge. Keep a bottle around for Tuesday nights when takeout sounds tempting and cooking sounds better.
We ship wine to most states with a $100 minimum order for shipping. We don't ship spirits nor beer.
Weather shipping advisory: Orders placed during times of extreme heat or extreme cold will be held for no charge until more favorable weather returns.
The Willamette Valley, nestled in Oregon, is a region renowned for its cool-climate wines, particularly its Pinot Noir. While Pinot Noir is its most celebrated variety, the valley is also home to other cool climate varieties like Chardonnay and Riesling. The region's unique terroir, characterized by rolling hills, volcanic and sedimentary soils, and a maritime climate influence, contributes to the elegance and complexity of its wines. The wines of the Willamette Valley offer a delicate balance between fruit, acidity, and earthiness. Its increasingly growing reputation places it among the world’s top regions for Pinot Noir.
Oregon - Willamette Valley
Pinot Noir is a thin-skinned, notoriously difficult-to-grow, low-yielding grape that finds its ancestral home in Burgundy, France, where it produces some of the world's most elegant and nuanced wines. While Burgundy remains its spiritual heartland, Pinot Noir has since traveled the globe, finding success in other cooler climates, notably in California, Oregon, New Zealand, and Germany. This grape is a challenge for any grower, as it requires specific conditions to show its best, and yet the wines it produces are capable of such a captivating and singular character.
