Hope Well Eola-Amity Hills Pinot Noir 2023
Flash back to mid-May: I tasted a Pinot and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. The first tasting prompted the kind of reaction that makes me doubt myself–it made me ask, "was it really that good?" So I tasted it again. Then a third time. That's when I knew.
I had just come from the Willamette Valley Auction, where I tasted dozens of ultra-fancy 2023 Pinots from top wineries. This was better. I flashed-back to a heavy-hitter
Burgundy tasting in April, where the top wines were from Echezeaux and Richebourg. Those Grand Cru Burgs wished they were this good.
Hope Well 2023 is the best Pinot Noir I've tasted this year and I'm honestly not sure what will be able to beat it by year's end (as of early December, nothing has). If you've enjoyed my Pinot recommendations over the years, I urge you not to miss this.
It is perfect. So beautifully detailed with quiet intensity, it emanates brightness yet is achingly deep. It's not about flavors of this, that, and the others–it is about impact: supreme elegance yet haunting persistence, the kind that's kept my attention the entire year.
Mimi Casteel's Hope Well Pinot harnesses the interconnectedness with which she approaches farming—which seems too simple a term for how she nurtures the land above and below ground, the plants and micro-organisms that thrive under her watch.
Mimi's also an excellent writer and I love her notes on my perfect Pinot: "2023 was a perfect year to see what tantalizing potential we have found in our new home, with graceful long autumn days that welcomed dry and beautiful picking conditions under no pressure to rush. The 2023 Hope Well Pinot Noir reveals the power of the Eola Hills with an outline of graceful restraint. The curve of the fruit is defined by the cut of her bright tone, a dizzying mélange of juxtapositions that unveil a complete and harmonious whole."
