Lemelson Vineyards Thea’s Selection Pinot Noir 2016 | 93 Points of Organic Farmed Splendor
Lemelson Vineyards Thea’s Selection Pinot Noir 2016 presents Vibrant and generous, with expressive raspberry, orange zest, and tarragon flavors that take on complexity toward polished tannins. Drink now through 2026.
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93JS | Dark cherries and toasted spices make for a captivating nose with plenty of immediate interest. The deeply rich dark-cherries on the palate are cast along fluid, long and sturdy tannin lines. Strong finish.
93WE | Lemelson Vineyards Thea’s Selection Pinot Noir 2016 bangs a home run in this vintage. From its lush, lightly musky nose to its rich pie-worthy mix of blueberries, blackberries, and cherries, this is simply irresistible. Well-woven Asian spices and light seams of chocolate, coffee, and black tea all combine in a thoroughly satisfying, beautifully integrated wine with another half-decade of life ahead. Editors’ Choice.
Lemelson Vineyards
Lemelson Vineyards began as a dream — a dream to create a winery that celebrates innovation in technology, sustainability in agriculture, and tradition in winemaking. Eric Lemelson started Lemelson Vineyards with the intention of building something that would not only serve our consumers, but also the longevity of the pristine state that he calls home. Utilizing organic farming methods and gravity flow production, we craft estate-grown Pinot noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, and Riesling from some of the finest vineyards in the Willamette Valley.
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Since the inaugural release of the 1999 vintage in October 2001, Lemelson Vineyards is dedicated to producing some of the world’s finest Pinot noir. So, Eric Lemelson fell in love with Pinot noir’s subtle flavors and distinct textures early in the 1990s. He planted his first vineyard in 1995, five years after moving to a Yamhill County farm. Two years later, realizing that he loved the work involved in growing wine grapes, he planted an additional 30 acres of Pinot noir and began planning for the construction of a sophisticated, gravity-flow winery.
Winemaker Matt Wengel
While graduating with honors from the UC Davis Viticulture and Enology program was just the start for Matt. After completing several harvests in Sonoma County, he journeyed to South Africa. Once there, swimming with Great White sharks off the coast while making wine in Stellenbosch at Warwick Estate. Later he learned Spanish in the Bio-Bio Valley in Chile, while getting to know Chilean winemakers and the wonderful local culture.
Matt next came home to the U.S. to work in upstate New York and Hunt County. While aspiring to almost freeze to death making ice wine and delicious, crisp dry Rieslings. He then returned to California to a position at Stags Leap Winery in Napa Valley. However, before moving to Oregon, he most recently worked at Clos Pegase. There, for a few more years as an associate winemaker, and made various other Sonoma County brands on the side. Matt has always wanted to come to Oregon and is loving making beautiful wines at Lemelson Vineyards. Lemelson’s commitment to terroir-driven, minimalist intervention winemaking from organically farmed estate vineyards is his dream-come-true job.
