We’re all incredibly fortunate to be living in the midst of Willamette Valley’s revolution, a world-class region that’s producing the purest, terroir-driven Pinot values one can find. It’s a blue-chip stock that has no foreseeable ceiling and no planned price hikes, yet it’s matching the superb quality of time-honored Burgundy. Honestly, Willamette Valley has become one of the most confounding developments on the global wine scene—how does it make sense for wines of this pedigree and flawless quality to remain so fairly priced? It doesn’t, which makes today’s insane value nearly incomprehensible.
While Evesham Wood has already found a massive (and constantly expanding) audience on SommSelect, Erin Nuccio’s “Eola-Amity Hills Cuvée” takes it to unprecedented levels: For an outrageously low $28, handcrafted Pinot Noir doesn’t get more elegant, refined, or expressive than this. And yet, Erin’s somehow managed to achieve this without sacrificing sustainable farming, a manual wine upbringing, and a lengthy aging regimen in mostly neutral French barrels. High-toned perfumed, astounding depth, and perfect harmony...this is as good as value Pinot Noir gets. Break out your best Burgundy stems for this one.
Erin Nuccio’s backstory is by now well-known to SommSelect subscribers: East Coast retail wine guy starts to feel the pull towards actual vineyards and winemaking, wanting to put his passion into practice. He and his wife make their way out west, where he attends viticulture/enology school and working at vineyards in California. Then he scores an apprenticeship in Oregon’s Willamette Valley under Russ Raney, whose Evesham Wood property, first planted in 1986, a model of sustainability and small-scale perfectionism (it was Certified Organic in 2000). Over the years, Nuccio becomes winemaker at Evesham Wood, while also launching a brand called Haden Fig, and in 2010 Nuccio and his wife, Jordan, purchase Evesham Wood. They are always among the finest domestic Pinot Noir values we find each year.
While Erin focuses heavily on bottling Pinot Noir from sustainably farmed single vineyards, today’s value-driven gem takes one step back by expressing an entire appellation, one he knows extremely well: Eola-Amity Hills. He says this doesn’t “just signify that the wine was grown exclusively within the AVA, but that it is a select blend of barrels chosen to highlight the growing region,” and that this singular wine is “worthy of distinct recognition.” He’s absolutely right: This is sourced from five respected vineyards, each with their own unique soils, situated throughout the entirety of Eola-Amity Hills.
With the passion and dedication of their predecessors to fuel them, Erin and Jordan strive to maintain the consistency of quality in the same manner of Russ Raney by successfully allowing the terroir to speak for itself. As with all the Evesham Wood wines, this small-production Pinot Noir was made entirely by hand: It’s farmed, harvested, and “punched down” (pushing the cap of skins into the juice during fermentation) manually. The wine was then funneled into barrels, only 10% new, for 18 months of maturation. Today’s batch still rests in Oregon as we speak.
Nuccio’s ‘17 Eola-Amity Hills Pinot displays a vibrant ruby core with even brighter hues of pink and magenta on the rim. Per usual, it doesn’t take long before alluring, high-toned aromas come pouring out: Crushed raspberry, black cherry, red plums, black tea, wild purple flowers, rose stem, underbrush, fresh herbs, finely crushed rock, and a subtle hint of baking spices. Drinking Evesham Wood is an amazing experience, one that is always boosted for those who are Burgundy aficionados. Why? Because each age-worthy bottle perfectly evokes soil character, mineral tension, and compacted layers of energetic forest fruits. There’s an underlying fruity crunchiness to this ‘17 that triggers a chewing sensation and a desire for a quick follow-up sip. But I urge you to be patient: This develops immensely over the course of a couple of hours, becoming more supple, savory, and spice-driven. The best course of action would be to decant for 15-30 minutes, serve in large Burgundy stems, and savor slowly (while stowing away a bottle or two for the years to come). Cheers!
