Belle Pente Murto Vineyard Pinot Noir 2018

Belle Pente's wildly popular Murto has earned its fan club, thanks to Murto's signature riff of red fruits and savory spices and its ability to leap out of the bottle at release and delight all kinds of Pinot noir palates. 2018s beautiful forward fruit—succulent black cherry and red plum up front—meets Murto spice and subtle Dundee Hills earth notes. Fantastic flavor persistence and like the Estate Reserve '18, this is cloaked in such a flowing robe of fruit that the structure melts into the wine. Yes, wildly tasty. -Marcus

2016 vintage notes

95 points Vinous, Josh Raynolds: "A highly complex bouquet evokes ripe raspberry and boysenberry, exotic spices, incense and smoky minerals, and a sexy floral note gains strength as the wine opens up. Conveys a compelling blend of richness and finesse, showing seamless texture and intense red and blue fruit, floral pastille and spicecake qualities on the palate. Finishes extremely long and smooth, with discreet tannins framing lingering floral and berry notes."

Brian and Jill: "We’ve been making single vineyard Pinot Noir from Mike and Robin Murto's outstanding old vines (planted in 1978) for over 20 years. Although this mature vineyard delivers the goods every year, its high elevation Dundee Hills location makes it really shine in warm vintages, and this 2016 rendition is a classic “case in point”!

The 2016 growing season started out looking a lot like 2015. It had an early start, with flowering beginning at the end of May. But unlike 2015, the cooler, damper conditions during bloom resulted in a 30% smaller crop than the bountiful harvest of 2015. The warm summer that followed resulted in the earliest harvest ever for this vineyard, beginning on September 19th and wrapping on the 20th. The Murto vineyard generally gets harvested in October, so we were done before we would even start in a “normal” year!

The signature Murto profile includes red fruit and spice. This 2016 version reflects it’s warm growing season with intense ripe raspberry flavors and aromas, complemented by baking and exotic spices wafting above the fruit. It is a rich, concentrated wine that also retains freshness and balance due to the high elevation of the vineyard.

Delicious now, it will also reward 10-12 years of cellaring. Enjoy with grilled salmon, mid-eastern accented dishes, and anything with small birds!

2012 vintage notes

Brian O’Donnell, winemaker: “Every once in a while in this over-hyped, superlative-laced world of wine (and other things), there appear individual bottles that actually live up to (or even surpass) our inflated expectations. I am happy to report that the 2012 editions of our single vineyard Pinots from Murto and Belle Pente Vineyards are two of them.

Two thousand twelve has been heralded as "the greatest vintage ever for Oregon Pinot Noir,” "the vintage of a lifetime,”, etc, etc... I am generally allergic to these grandiose proclamations, preferring to see how the wines stand the test of time. But these young wines are so drop dead delicious today that on one level I don't even care how they will age (although I'm beginning to suspect that they will do exceedingly well with a dozen years in the cellar!).

The growing season got off to a bit of a late start, and sketchy weather during flowering kept the crop small. The summer was glorious with almost 3 months of warm days and cool coastal nights with little if any measurable precipitation. Two brief heat-spikes during the season caused some sunburn, which reduced the crop by another 5-10%. Our Pinot noir harvest commenced under ideal conditions on October 1st and was finished by the 11th. When everything was in barrel right after Halloween, we had just shy of 100 barrels of Pinot, only 2/3 of a normal years production.

The story here is very simple: extraordinary quality but excruciatingly low yields. We were just slightly over half of our normal target crop level for this vineyard. The grapes were harvested over 2 days on October 5th and 11th; the fruit was perfectly ripe, clean, and very tasty! From the very beginning, the young wines were quite compelling.

Mike and Robin Murto's Dundee Hills vineyard is a high elevation site that really shines in warmer vintages. Our oldest blocks there were planted in 1978, and produce interesting wine every year. But the combination of the very low yields and the terrific growing season created something very special in 2012. The wine has ripe red fruit flavors and aromas backed up by fresh acidity and silky tannins. For those of you who are interested in the "numbers", the wine has 13.9% alcohol, a pH of 3.46, and TA of 6.4 grams per liter. Berlitz translation: even though it is fruit forward, it should last forever!

As an aside, this summer we sat down with a small group of people "in the business" and tasted through 18 vintages of our Murto Pinot, from a pre-commercial wine made in 1994 through this 2012 edition. The "sweet spot" for the group was the 1999 through 2003 vintages, 10 to 15 years old. I'm sure that this 2012 will be stellar in 2025, but the good news is that you absolutely do not have to wait that long to enjoy it.

In classic Dundee Hills fashion, this wine displays ripe red fruit flavors and aromas reminiscent of cherry compote and raspberry eau d'vie, overlaid with the signature Murto baking spice, Asian spice, and pepper (white, black, and Sichuan!) aromatics. The palate is dense and concentrated, but also vibrant and fresh. It screams for traditional Pinot parings like roast duck or stuffed quail. Enjoy this delightful young Pinot today and over the next 20-30 years! 441 cases produced.”