Solena Estate Pinot Noir Grande Cuvee 2018 | Delicious & Versatile Foodie Wine
The Solena Estate Pinot Noir Grande Cuvee 2018 presents a deep ruby red core. While adding a tinge of magenta at the rim. Layers of red cherry, plum, and earth lead to lush and floral aromas of fresh red roses, violets, and bramble. Finally, it’s all rounded out by baking spice and a hint of vanilla, melding into a long and delicious finish. Drink now – 2028.
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So, winemakers Laurent and Danielle Montalieu putting out an over-delivering Pinot Noir isn’t news. However, their Solena Estate Pinot Noir Grande Cuvee 2018 has placed at #38 on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 wines in the world. Not to mention vintage after vintage, this bottling has few peers in the value department.
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When it comes to “quality, complexity, and price, there is no finer value in the world,” Laurent once told us. The ever-modest Laurent was talking about Willamette Pinot Noir in general, but we think his words describe the Grande Cuvée quite nicely—especially in the season that Vinous, in an article titled “Oregon: An Embarrassment of Riches and Richness,” noted is one of an “unprecedented chain of outstanding vintages in the Willamette Valley.
Sourcing from four vineyards in the beautiful 2018 vintage. Hyland and the biodynamically farmed Danielle Laurent, as well as the cool-climate Westmount Vineyard and Domaine Loubejac near the breezy Van Duzer Corridor—the grapes, are aged in 100% second- and third-fill French oak barrels, which impart a nice, gentle touch of oak baking spice and vanilla, a perfect accent for the Pinot’s lively red fruit.
Winemaker Laurent Montalieu and Danielle Andrus
After successful careers in the Oregon wine industry, the husband and wife team of Winemaker Laurent Montalieu and Danielle Andrus Montalieu purchased an 80-acre estate to commemorate their marriage in 2000. In May 2002, they launched Soléna by bottling their first vintage of Domaine Danielle Laurent Pinot Noir. And, shortly thereafter, opening a tasting room in Carlton. Soléna is the combination of the Spanish and French words Solana and Soleil. Notably celebrating the sun and the moon, and the name that Laurent and Danielle gave to their daughter.
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Rather, Laurent puts it succinctly on one of our recent visits to his pristine cellar in Yamhill. When it comes to “quality, complexity, and price, there is no finer value in the world. While the modest Montalieu was talking about the Pinot Noirs of Willamette Valley. Instead, by limiting himself to just this Solena Estate Pinot Noir Grande Cuvee 2018 and been just as accurate. Furthermore, Laurent Montalieu has been crafting Oregon Pinot Noirs with Burgundian elegance for three decades now. While watching as the Willamette Valley’s wineries going from hopeful startups to market-setting juggernauts. Of course, doing far more than watch.
