NDA-Protected Pinot from $80–$125 Sites

We didnt go to Oregon with the intention of making a Yesterday Pinot Noirbut once some things get rolling...

We were tasting through the cellar with Laurent Montalieu, one of the most decorated winemakers in Oregon, when we came to a small cluster of barrels marked CHMT+++ ??? :(

We gleaned that it was from the Chehalem Mountains. What piqued our curiosity were the question marks.

We asked, and Laurent explained that hed run into an issue: Those barrels of Pinot were absolutely thrilling, but due to NDAs that came along with the grapes, he couldnt label them as single-vineyards. He didnt have enough to distribute as a separate cuve, and he couldnt bear the thought of blending them away into a lower-tier bottling.

Once we tasted them, we came up with a viable option.

The wineries that own these two vineyards in the Chehalem Mountains craft vineyard-designate bottles that go for $80-$125 each from those sites. Both sites sit on veins of the coveted Jory soils that made Oregon Pinot so famous. That red clay, which gets its color from fractured, iron-rich basalt that sits below the topsoil, features in the most famousand often the most expensiveland in the Willamette Valley.

Laurents custom cuves have fetched $200+ at the Willamette Valley Pinot Noir Auction, and the Yesterday Pinot he crafted lives up to the full potential of those sites.

Its beautifully expressive on the nose, with complex red fruit that sings with toasted cherries and ripe raspberries, complemented by floral undercurrents, a hint of vanilla bean, and baking spice from the perfectly judged 20% new French oak. On the palate, silky tannins frame layers of fruit, forest floor, and a hint of dried herbs. Its top-class stuff that stands with anything coming out of the statewhich is why we locked it down on the spot.

Now we get to present our first-ever Yesterday Pinot Noirexclusively for Wine Access members. This is going to go down as one of the best Willamette Pinots weve offered for under $30. A case-buy is practically mandatory.

Medium ruby to the eye, with a slightly denser core. With the first pour, exuberant aromas of bright red fruit, toasted cherries, fresh red and purple flowers, vanilla bean, baking spices, and rich forest floor emerge. This wine is lively and layered, with a palate that features juicy acidity backed by firm tannins and ripe flavors of fresh red cherries, mushrooms, fresh vanilla, thyme, rosehips, and ripe raspberry. Drink now2033.

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