Purple Hands Freedom Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir 2021
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Freedom Hill Vineyard is located in the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range, toward the western edge of the Willamette Valley near the Eola-Amity AVA. The grapes from Freedom Hill make their way into the wine portfolios of some of the most esteemed, artistic wineries in the Willamette Valley.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Pinot Noir Freedom Hill Vineyard comes from Coury and Wadenswil clone vines in the recently approved Mount Pisgah appellation. It's aromatically intense and expressive with layers of raspberry jam, blood orange, aniseed, bergamot and cracked pepper. Light-bodied and finely chalky, the palate is bursting with juicy, floral fruit, and it offers a long finish with a flourish of detailed, spicy accents.
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James Suckling
A spicy and flavorful pinot with aromas of sour cherries, wild strawberries, oyster shells and spice box. Medium-bodied with tight-grained tannins. Sleek and vibrant finish.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2021 Purple Hands Winery Freedom Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir offers a bit of both the Old and New Worlds. TASTING NOTES: This wine dazzles with aromas and flavors of dried spices, wild strawberries, and chalkiness. Enjoy it with an authentic Irish stew. (Tasted: December 7, 2022, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Spectator
Keenly structured and precise, with a core of mineral-tinged tannins embraced by rich blueberry and raspberry flavors, which are laced with savory and dusky spices that linger on a gutsy finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromatically, this Pinot Noir is a wonderful combination of really ripe blackcap raspberry fruit, lemon citrus and a trace of loam. Dried red cherries and black tea flavors grace a silky smooth texture, supported by a balanced selection of slightly elevated acidity and supple tannins.
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2022-
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Purple Hands Vineyards celebrates site-specific pinot noir and chardonnay that unearth the Willamette Valley’s long evolutionary history. Using traditional winemaking techniques, they strive to produce wines that convey an honest expression of each of their vineyards—its grapevines and cultivation, soil and stone, sunshine and rain. All of their wines undergo native fermentation and remain unfined and unfiltered at bottling to preserve their natural, wild character. Achieving elegance in this pursuit is the passion and art of their craft.
Over the past 40 years, Cody’s family has created a legacy of quality in the Oregon wine industry. Their winemaking styles and techniques helped Oregon’s Willamette Valley become the premium Pinot noir producing region in the world. At Purple Hands, Cody continues to build on the standard of excellence initiated by the previous generation.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Running north to south, adjacent to the Willamette River, the Eola-Amity Hills AVA has shallow and well-drained soils created from ancient lava flows (called Jory), marine sediments, rocks and alluvial deposits. These soils force vine roots to dig deep, producing small grapes with great concentration.
Like in the McMinnville sub-AVA, cold Pacific air streams in via the Van Duzer Corridor and assists the maintenance of higher acidity in its grapes. This great concentration, combined with marked acidity, give the Eola-Amity Hills wines—namely Pinot noir—their distinct character. While the region covers 40,000 acres, no more than 1,400 acres are covered in vine.