Brittan Gestalt Block Pinot Noir 2018
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Parker
Robert -
Enthusiast
Wine -
Suckling
James
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The 2018 Gestalt Block Pinot Noir showcases the essence of the 2018 vintage, with intense concentration, serious structure and chewy, drying tannins. You’ll find notes of graphite, pencil shavings, thyme, sage and a hint of vanilla on the nose, leading to elderberry, black currant, choke cherry and cacao on the palate. Decant if opening now or lay down for long-term development.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Pinot Noir Gestalt Block is powerful and fragrant. Bass tones of roasted coffee and cocoa give way to plums, orange peel, forest floor and violet. The palate is bursting with dark, spicy fruit, firmly structured and vibrant, with a very long, iron-and-violet finish. This will require another 3-5+ years in bottle to really unwind and will be long-lived in the cellar. Rating: 96+
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Wine Enthusiast
The Brittan wines are all estate grown and designated by the particular soils underlying the different blocks of vines. Here the underlying basalt reduces crop load to less than one ton of fruit an acre, a miniscule reward for the work involved. The strong Van Duzer winds thicken the skins, punching up tannins. This is an extreme example of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, yet brilliantly realized. Tight, tough and tannic, it's packed with mountain blackberry fruit, framed with sharp herbs and finished with residual flavors of black tea. Drink 2025–2035.
Cellar Selection -
James Suckling
Aromas of dark cherries, plums, cassis, dried herbs and baking spices. It’s medium-bodied with chalky tannins and crisp acidity. Concentrated blue and dark fruit here, with a chalky texture and a herbal, mineral finish.
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Robert Brittan left Stags’ Leap Winery in Napa after 16 years as Winemaker and Estate Manager to fulfill his dream of making Pinot Noir and Syrah from unique sites in cooler climates. His winemaking career began in his dorm room at Oregon State University, where he was a physics and philosophy major.
Being both geeky and broke, he soon realized that alcohol was an attractant to co-eds, so he began his career in fermentation sciences in order to get a date. He ultimately completed his education at UC Davis and moved to Napa Valley, where he made wines for Far Niente, Saint Andrews and Stags’ Leap Winery.
With over 40 years of experience growing grapes and making wine, he brings a significant amount of viticultural and winemaking knowledge to Brittan Vineyards. He has always had a passion for Pinot Noir, and hopes that with the fruit from the Brittan estate vineyard in the foothills of the Coastal Range, he can bring a new voice to the McMinnville AVA, and help form the style and definition of Pinot Noir from this recently designated winegrowing region.
In addition to his own wines, Robert is also the winemaker for several other brands, to include: Blakeslee, deLancellotti, Fairsing, Noble Pig, Winderlea and Youngberg Hill. As a result, Robert is now making wines from all six of the sub-AVA’s of the Willamette Valley and has learned first hand that Pinot Noir lends itself to many wonderful interpretations, depending on the soils and microclimates where it is grown.
Home of some of the planet’s most amazingly elegant and expressive Pinot noir, the Willamette Valley is a pastoral, mixed landscape of green, bucolic rolling hills, dramatic forestlands and small, independent, friendly wine growers. As a leader in environmental stewardship, the valley has some of the nation’s most protective land use policies, with two-thirds of its vineyards farmed sustainably and over half, organically. While the valley claims a cool, continental climate, and is heavily influenced by the cold, moist winds of the Pacific Ocean, its warm and dry summers allow for the steady, even ripening of Pinot noir.
The potential of Willamette Valley Pinot noir continues to attract the investment of serious growers and winemakers both locally and from abroad, as naturally the finished wines bring accolades from professionals and enthusiasts. With a range of styles from delicate dried cherry, raspberry and hibiscus to stronger notes of truffle, mocha, plum and spice, a fine Willamette Valley Pinot noir is a perfect expression of both character and grace.