Andrew Rich Element Series Marine Sedimentar Pinot noir 2018

2015 vintage notes

93 points Vinous: Vivid magenta color. A highly complex bouquet displays mineral-laced red berry, cherry and rose oil scents, along with an exotic Asian spice flourish that expands with aeration. Juicy, energetic and sharply delineated raspberry and bitter cherry flavors show impressive depth and no excess fat. A zesty refreshingly bitter blood orange quality emerges on the gently tannic finish, which hangs on with outstanding, mineral- and spice-driven persistence.

2014 vintage notes

93 points Wine Spectator: "Polished and elegantly complex, with expressive raspberry and savory tea aromas and supple cherry, crushed stone and white pepper flavors. Drink now through 2024."

During the harvest of 2014, Oregon wine veteran Andrew Rich restructured his cellar to produce a line-up of wines which are all about soils. When put that way, it's perhaps not the flashiest of marketing decisions, but in the cellar it yielded excellent results. The Elements are made up of Volcanic, Glacial, Eola, and our feature wine, Marine Sedimentary. Sourced from stellar vineyards within the Willamette Valley, all of which share soil origins derived from ancient ocean bed, we were struck by both the polish and power of this Pinot noir. Quite showy already, it is an ideal companion for a wide variety of holiday dinners, boasting dark fruits, toasted spices, forest floor, and subtle smoky minerals.

After 20 vintages in Oregon, Andrew Rich is beginning to feel like a veteran. His passion for wine was nurtured not in the fertile soils of the Willamette Valley, however, but in the urban sprawl of New York City, where he once edited the wine column for a national magazine. When the pull of wine became stronger than that of publishing, he headed to Burgundy to study winemaking and viticulture, a move that lead to employment at the small but influential Bonny Doon Vineyard, in California, for nearly six years.

His skills honed, Andrew headed to Oregon in 1994 with the quixotic vision of making Rhône-style wines in the Willamette Valley from Columbia Valley grapes. Turns out he was a little ahead of the curve: it wasn't until 2000 – when Syrah, Roussanne, Grenache, and Mourvèdre grapes became available to him – that he was finally able to realize that vision. Meanwhile, he had discovered his love of Pinot Noir, which has since become the more dominant prong of his dual focus.