Burgundian Pinot from a Willamette Visionary

Introducing the Patron Saint Edit, a weekly curated offer on bottles we can’t stop thinking about, difficult to source cuvées, and unusual gems that belong in your cellar.

I think a lot about vision. The idea that if you can see where you're going and if you can express this sightline with clarity, the world will recognize it and see you too. Eyrie is a producer that has had unflinching vision since its founding in 1965 in the Willamette Valley, its path now chiseled into the geography of American wine-growing and -making as singular. At Eyrie's nascence, there was no proof of concept that Oregon was a site for growing exceptional Pinot noir or Chardonnay. It was simply David Lett's crystalline vision and 3000 grape cuttings that forged the path to the Willamette Valley becoming the highest value earth in in the state. Today, Eyrie's wines are hailed as some of the best bottlings outside of Burgundy.

We always have Eyrie at the shop if it's available, their spicy and textural Chasselas to the beguiling, garnet-red Trousseau. We also happened to invest in a significant tranche of their "Sisters" Pinot noir bottling from 2022, a cuvée named for Eyrie's experimental vineyard in the volcanic soils of the Dundee Hills planted with eight grape varieties and hazelnuts, and named for the Pinot sisters: noir, blanc, and gris. Like all of Eyrie's pinots, it is fermented with indigenous yeast, aged in new and neutral oak. The last time I drank this wine, I did so next to a Benoit Cantin Irancy, and the two were in such intense conversation, I'm not sure I'd have blinded the Eyrie as Oregon. The 2022 has shadowy minerality, pencil graphite savor, and woodland berry structure. It's something to age for sure, is delicious now, and will be very fun to check in on next year, the following, and ten years beyond. Invest in three or more for a decade-long journey through Eyrie's intense and last vision.