ROCO 2006 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir

The Soles prefer not to tell the consumer how the wine tastes, but instead ask the consumer to discover the full essence of the wine on his or her own. THAT, they believe is the true mystery and delight of the wine. Thus, you won't find any tasting notes on the ROCO label. Still, many people request descriptors of the wine for a variety of reasons and can find tasting notes on the ROCO Website.

2006 ROCO Tasting Notes

He says, "Pretty frickin good! The 06 Willamette Valley Pinot is translucent ruby red in color with a concentrated black cherry nose that has a lively touch of rhubarb pie and a spice rack that includes black pepper and cinnamon. It is very rich in the mouth yet has a tangy, jazzy, cherry fruit, with back pepper and hits of blueberry in the finish. The tangy mouth leads to a creamy texture when sampled with rich foods; even anchovies!"

She says, "The color is a lovely dark red garnet. At first there is a hint of rose petals in the nose, spice, cinnamon, a bit of cobblestone earthiness. There are nice full dark berry flavors in the front of the mouth with a red spicy center, and a long creamy finish. I love the wonderfully balanced acids and tannin in this wine and can’t wait to drink it with a variety of foods. In the mouth I get deep black cherry, cinnamon and hints of vanilla with a drop of rich earthiness to round it off. This wine has an edginess to it that says “this is special” which is partly because 06 vintage was spectacular in general."

$40.00 per bottle. 15% discount for 12+ bottles.
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The Winemaker's 2006 Vintage Notes

We're riding on the wave of a sun drenched 2006 vintage. We've not experienced such a great growing season in Oregon since 1992. As early as May the temperatures crept up into the 90's and remained in the 80's and 90's through much of September. Phenomenal! Of course at ROCO we're lucky to catch the cool evening ocean breezes that flow into the valley and offer relief from the days' heat. Great weather tricked the vines into setting a big crop. Not to be fooled, we removed 50% of the crop in early August to further concentrate the finished wine.

While there was a short week of rain and drizzle in early September that threatened to ruin a perfect crop – we were fortunate enough to harvest the grapes at their perfection the day before the rains fell. ROCO was picked on September 26 at peak flavor ripeness and in bright sunshine conditions.

In the Cellar

The grapes are hand harvested and chilled to 35 F degrees before they are destemmed and placed in small open topped fermenters. Whole berries are cold macerated prior to vigorous fermentation and post ferment maceration. Wine is pressed into French oak barrels for malo-lactic fermentation. Eighteen months of barrel age later, the wine is bottled, packaged and sent off to light up your palate.