Columbia Gorge Pinot Noir

Earthy, brambley, stemmy wine. Decomposing wood chip mulch, wet leaf litter, the smell of overripe grapes in the vineyard, and the green northwest. Orange rind, cardamom, clove, VA and fermenting berries on the tart finish that lingers. Not perfect by any means but this is wild and beautiful.

Smockshop Band is a side project from Nate Reddy and the Hiyu team intended to showcase all that Columbia Gorge has to offer. Unlike literally everything else from Hiyu, this is a terrific value. It’s a rustic mix of red fruits and perfumed acetone - plenty of VA but the far reaching aromatic type that registers deep like a perfume. Unfiltered, robust, tannic, and full of deep cherry, dried strawberry, and sour blackberry.

Crunchy, high-toned red fruit delivered on an elegant sled.

Beautiful. Wild Strawberry, herbs, forest, well balanced, some flowers, tart cherry juice. A pretty good Oregon Pinot value.

This continues to impress. Violets, cherries, forest, tons of spice some in the baking realm but more like cardamom or star anise. There’s a wild fruit and forest component that I just adore. So good and probably will be for years.

Basic Pinot at the beautiful Hiyu Farm in the Columbia Gorge.

Decanted for 2 hours - wow. Full mouth feel, red currant, interesting banana after taste.

This is outstanding! Nose of flowers, violets in particular, a bit of jasmine, dried fruits. Palate is amazing. Definite VA, but a perfect earth, forest component with dried rose, some pepper, early plum, bit of cherry and good tannin. It’s kind of all over the place but this is at different times over the couple of hours it was opened. It went really fast with food. Pretty decent value from a place not known for value.

Really enjoyed this unique Pinot. Tart and a little earthy. Local from Hood River

Deep, intense, intoxicating perfume. Unlike any other domestic pinot. Can’t recommend this enough, even without the attractive qpr.