2014 Purple Hands, Pinot Noir, Freedom Hill Vineyard, Willamette Valley, Oregon.
The Cody Wright Purple Hands Freedom Hill Pinot is a wonderfully complex and beautiful wine that showcases the purity of terroir and highlights the best of this vintage with it’s rich detail and layered silky texture. Cody, Ken Wright’s son, has stepped out of his famous father’s shadow and is crafting wines that are clearly in his own style and his 2014’s are a stunning bunch of wines that really put him into the Oregon spotlight. Freedom Hill is one of my favorite sites, it’s west of Salem near the southwest corner of the Eola-Amity AVA in the foothills of the coastal range set on Bellpine loam of ancient marine sediment, it’s a Wright Family farmed Cru planted with old clone Pommard and Wadenswil, this great cool climate terroir always shows an expressive character with firm tannins and a darker fruit profile with amazing aging potential that reminds me of Vosne-Romanee in many ways. The 2014 Purple Hands Freedom Hill Pinot Noir shines in the glass with a vivid garnet/ruby hue and brambly/spicy nose that unfolds with dark berries, violets, mineral, rose oil and peppery notes leading to a ripe and full plummy palate of black cherry, currant jelly, Asian/Indian spices, black raspberry, earthy tones, lively pomegranate as well as candied orange rind, light smoky hints and a trace of briar, vanilla and lingering strawberry. Cody Wright used native ferments, gentle punch downs in small open top vessels then aged in surprisingly subtle French oak, it seems as if he allowed some whole cluster, which if so has added to the vitality and spicy, almost stemmy like kick in this gorgeous and exotic Pinot Noir. The mouth feel is lush and satiny, but with firm structure underpinning this youthful wine, it’s a stand out and thrilling release from Purple Hands that impresses from start to finish, drink from 2018 to 2029.
($48 Est.) 94 Points, grapelive
