Pearce Predhomme Première Cuvée Pinot Noir 2023
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The Land
The red volcanic Jory soil of the Dundee Hills gets all the attention, but much of the Willamette Valley's vineyard land sits on uplifted marine sedimentary rock, sandstone and mudstone lifted out of an ancient seabed. That matters for a wine labeled at the valley level, since a blend drawn across appellations pulls from both. The Coast Range shelters the valley from Pacific storms, and gaps in that range let cool marine air through in the afternoons, which is why a region at Burgundy's latitude can run long dry summers and still hold acidity in Pinot Noir. Nights drop hard, and harvest races the autumn rain. The Willamette Valley is a cool climate that only looks warm in August, and that tension is the whole appeal of Oregon Pinot Noir.
The Wine
Pearce Predhomme Premiere Cuvee Pinot Noir 2023 is a Willamette Valley Pinot Noir made at Northwest Wine Company by Laurent Montalieu. The 2023 season started cool and slow, then a warm May with temperatures into the upper 80s pushed the vines hard and put it back on schedule. July and August stayed stable and dry with very little disease pressure, and picking began around mid-September. Yields came in slightly smaller than average and the fruit ripened further than in 2022. In the glass that reads as ripe cherry, wild raspberry and cranberry, with violet, baking spice, cedar and forest floor behind. Tannins are fine and silky rather than grippy, acidity stays fresh, and a thread of spice and oak carries the finish. This is the kind of Oregon Pinot Noir that justifies its price by tasting like the appellation rather than like a technique.
The People
This project was conceived in Toronto, not Oregon. Nicholas Pearce is an Ontario importer schooled in the garagiste movement in Bordeaux in the early 2000s, who then built his own wine company. Will Predhomme is a Toronto sommelier. They started making wine together with the 2013 vintage, chasing wines from appellations they loved at a quality-to-price ratio nobody else was offering. Pearce has since had a hand in more than 10 wines across two hemispheres, three countries and five appellations, working with Radford Dale in South Africa and Northwest Wine Company in Oregon. Montalieu spent eight years as partner and winemaker at WillaKenzie Estate before leaving in 2003, launched Solena in Carlton with Danielle Andrus Montalieu in 2002, and in May 2007 added Hyland Vineyard in the McMinnville AVA, planted in 1971.
Food Pairing
At this price the wine belongs in rotation, not in the cellar. Roast a pork tenderloin with fennel seed and serve it with apples cooked down in the pan drippings, where the wine's red fruit and spice meet the sweetness. A mushroom and fontina pizza with a lot of thyme leans into the forest floor side. Seared duck breast with a quick cranberry pan sauce is the straightforward move. Or grilled salmon with olive oil and lemon, the acidity handling the fat. Buy it by the case and stop thinking about what to open on a Wednesday.
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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.
