Hyland Estates Old Vine Pinot Noir 2018

The Story

The Hyland Estates Old Vine Pinot Noir 2018 is sourced from the Hyland Vineyard that was planted in 1971. The Hyland Vineyard is situated in the foothills of Oregon’s Coast Range inside the McMinnville sub-AVA of the greater Willamette Valley AVA.

It is one of the oldest and finest vineyards in the Willamette Valley. The vineyard came first and then later the Hyland Estate Winery which was established to showcase the Hyland Vineyard.

Ok, you are thinking, “Hey this is Cheapwinefinder, why are you writing about a single vineyard Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, it must cost a small fortune?” Well, I found this wine for $17.99 (Binny’s if you are near Chicago), it lists for $45 and the average online price is $31, but it seems to go onside on a regular basis.

The Old Vine Pinot Noir is a blend of several clones (Coury, 95, 113, 667, Wandenswil, and 115, if you are wondering). Clones are extremely important with high-end Pinot Noir and individual clones or a combination of clones have their fans.

Often with wine, you will see the individual lots of grapes are fermented separately and then blended together. But here, all the various lots and clones were fermented together. The winemaker says this gives the grapes a headstart in mingling and mixing as one.

The Hyland Estates Old Vine Pinot Noir 2018 was aged in French oak barrels for 10 months, with 34% of the barrels new barrels. New oak barrels give off more oak influence than used oak barrels, barrels can be used 4 or 5 times before they are considered to be neutral. Getting the exact mix of new and used barrels is a fairly complicated math problem.

With inexpensive wines the technical notes will often say that the wine was aged “on” oak, whatever that means, is it aged “in” a barrel? What does “on” mean? With upscale wine, they go one better and tell you who the cooperage was (cooperage is the barrel maker). They have nothing to hide.

Most of the wines CWF write about are drink-it-now wines, meaning that these wines are their best the day you make your purchase. It is a style of winemaking, probably the most popular style of wine in terms of sales. The Hyland Estate is different, this is a Pinot Noir with a potential 20 years of aging. The alcohol content is 13.9%.

Hyland Estates Old Vine Pinot Noir 2018 Tasting Notes

The color is a garnet red, clear, and see-thru with some black highlights. The nose is sharp and focused, there is tart cherry, oak spice, cold coffee, lightly floral, soft herbs, a slap of exotic spice, and ripe, juicy plum. This is a Pinot that will engage your palate you will taste and feel it in all areas of your mouth.

It starts with tart, slightly sour cherry, a mix of dark chocolate and black pepper (sounds bad, but tastes good), a brush of herbs, orange zest, and sweet, but not jammy raspberry. The mid-palate shows a sensation from lightly dusty tannins, black cherry, a little bit of cream, and very tart cranberry.

You can tell this Pinot Noir can age for a decade or two by how the acidity engages your palate. With drink-it-now wines that acidity does not need to do a lot of work, give the flavors room to unfold and that is about it. With the Hyland Estates, the acidity is loud and proud, not over-bearing. They have twenty years in which to calm down.

The Summary

• The Hyland Estates Old Vine Pinot Noir 2018 is a very fine Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. Layered and complex with plenty of flavors.
• This Pinot Noir is a steal at $17.99. check out www.binnys.com. I am not sure how long the sale will last, but it is $19.99 on a regular basis.

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