$37.99 on 6+ bottles (use code: 6saves2)

92+ pts Vinous
Drinking Window: 2024 - 2032
Dark and brooding, the 2021 Pinot Noir Polk County Cuvée mixes flowery underbrush with autumnal spices and dried black cherries to form its bouquet. This blends savory and sweet, with wild berry fruits and inner rose tones elevated by a tinge of sour citrus and exotic spice. The 2021 firms up nicely through the finish as hints of blackberry and an air of lavender linger atop a bed of edgy tannins.

The 2022s from Will Hamilton at Violin show just how special this vintage can be from the right sources and in the right hands. In this case, fruit sourced from vineyards that avoided any damage from the spring frost. Together with lower yields and picking earlier for freshness, 2022 resulted in a savory set of well-structured and complex wines. Hamilton didn’t have to contend with secondary buds due to frost, or the issue of overabundance that plagued some wineries; he had all of his fruit in before the threat of rain during harvest. This was a truly satisfying portfolio to taste through. The use of new oak is minimal. Balance and purity are front and center, while alcohol levels hover in the 12.5-13% range for Chardonnay and the low 13% range for Pinot Noir. “Wine should be delicious, first and foremost. I want to find purity, and I’m not a fan of new oak,” Hamilton explains. He points out that “Two thousand twenty-two wasn’t a frost year for us. It was just a really late vintage. Late budding, late flowering and late harvest.” Personally, I can’t recommend Violin highly enough. The single-vineyard wines are fantastic, but don’t pass up the chance to taste the Polk County Cuvée, a Pinot Noir that blends fruit from Temperance Hill, Witness Tree, Justice and Sojeau Vineyards with vines that average 25 years old.  - By Eric Guido on May 2024, Vinous Media

Our tasting note:
Med/med+ ruby. The nose is med+, with savory notes to the red fruits, pencil lead, reductive, spice.  Very complex, very much the most "Burgundian" wine.  The palate is med body, med and fine grain silky tannins, perfectly integrated acidity, the med+ palate is persistent, long and savory, fruity and spicy.

Mature vines bringing depth and persistence for our most compelling blend yet. From Temperance Hill, Witness Tree, Justice and Sojeau Vineyards in the Southern Eola-Amity Hills.

’21 PCC has two new players in the blend; mature vines from Temperance Hill (the NE corner of the site includes these “Twelve Rows” of low density, early 90s planting adjacent to Cristom’s Eileen Vineyard), and the late 90s planting of Pommard near the top of Witness Tree (about 300 feet away from the Temperance Block). These build the base with three barrels each, supplemented by two barrels each of Justice and Sojeau, for a ten barrel selection. Always aiming to find the more savory and classic side in this Eola-Amity blend, we are so pleased to have more of it come from the “Spring Valley” zone this year. All barrels from this selection were assembled in tank in mid February after 16 months on lees, where they came together for a further four weeks before bottling on March 23rd, 2023.

Immediate complexity in the nose, from dark cherry and berry compote to savory dried hazelnut, oyster juice and cedar. Floral and funky, with cassis, turned earth and spicy understory competing in the glass. Mouth-coating attack, good pull and energy across the palate despite initial firmness from the tannic frame. Maraschino cherries, graphite, some grime to the grip but all wound up in a very elegantly weighted package. The persistence and savoriness surround a nervy skeleton that drives the wine toward a hauntingly long but very fine finish. The pieces have molded together for a gorgeous Eola mix; Sojeau and Justice bring more complete, powerful fruit cores, while Witness Tree and Temperance focus the wine towards earthier and more classic elements, ethereal fruit and floral tones, and spiraling tannins leading to a pleasantly sneaky sense of depth.

13% alcohol
240 CASES MADE