News & Reviews

2022 Bonnie Jean Vineyard Pinot Noir
Yamhill-Carlton AVA

Wine Spectator: 94 Points

Detailed in structure and expressive, with raspberry and pomegranate flavors accented by orange peel, rose petal and toasted spice notes. Finishes with refined tannins. Drink now through 2032. -T.F.

2022 Shea Vineyard Pinot Noir
Yamhill-Carlton AVA

Wine Spectator: 94 Points

Impeccably structured and supple in texture, gathering raspberry, pomegranate, forest floor and black tea flavors while building tension toward medium-grained tannins. Drink now through 2033. -T.F.

Wines Reviewed by Senior Editor and Wine Critic Aubrey Frick
Released August 7, 2024

2023 Willamette Valley Chardonnay
Rating: 94+
Maturity: 2024-2034
Review: Displaying a bright, youthful yellow hue in the glass, the 2023 Chardonnay Willamette Valley was aged in a mix of two-thirds stainless and the rest French oak. It has a lovely nose of flinty wet stone, lemon oils, poached apple, delicate sweet spice, and brothy, salty earth. It has a lovely, juicy feel on the palate, with a refined and elegant, supple, silky texture, as well as a beautifully long finish. Offering real depth and complexity without being heavy, it’s going to drink well over the next 10 years. Avery impressive Chardonnay from Ken, it’s showing a lot of promise.
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2023 Freedom Hill Vineyard Pinot Blanc
Rating: 93
Maturity: 2024-2034
Review: From a small one-acre plot that’s a special spot for Pinot Blanc, the 2023 Pinot Blanc Freedom Hill Vineyard pours a bright straw/yellow hue and offers a lot of depth on the nose, with ripe and crystalline aromas of preserved citrus, almond, salty earth, beeswax, and delicate spice. The palate is savory and takes on lovely complexity, with fantastic richness and a weightless feel through its long finish, with notes of yellow flowers and delicate salty earth throughout. It’s highly appealing now but is going to age slowly over the coming 10 years.
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2022 Canary Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir
Rating: 96
Maturity: After 2024
Review: The single vineyard 2022 Pinot Noir Canary Hill Vineyard really takes things up a notch, showing off aromas of licorice candies, Amarena cherries, pine needles, and peppery spice. It has outstanding purity and intensity on the palate, with weightless feel and is just a stunning offering, with a lot of clarity and depth as well as ripe, defined tannins and a seamless feel. It has a fantastic, mouthwatering, salty finish that lasts on the palate and undertones of fresh violets come through as well. This is a real beauty now, but it’s going to age with ease.
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2022 Eola-Amity Hills AVA Series Pinot Noir
Rating: 95
Maturity: 2025-2037
Review: From the volcanic soils Eola-Amity Hills, the 2022 Pinot Noir Eola-Amity Hills is a jewed ruby/magenta color and is expressive in the glass, with notes of raspberry preserve, crushed wildflowers, licorice, and sweet herbs, as well as a sanguine lift with great, ripe purity. Elegant and refined, it reveals fine, ripe tannins, a seamless feel, and more mouthwatering finish.
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2022 Freedom Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir
Rating: 96
Maturity: 2025-2040
Review: The 2022 Pinot Noir Freedom Hill Vineyard lifts with an enveloping perfume and spiced profile with notes of wild black raspberries, toasted incense, crushed gravelly stones, crushed pine needles, and spicy earth. Savory on the palate, with rich structure, a broader shouldered, expansive feel, and a hint of dark stones, it’s long on the palate, with notes of black tea and toasty spice on the finish. Give it another year or two and drink
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2022 Hirschy Vineyard Pinot Blanc
Rating: 96+
Maturity: 2024-2044
Review: The 2022 Pinot Noir Hirschy Vineyard is a deep, reflective ruby red color and is lifted with notes of thin mints, black cherries, wild herbs, and dark, stony earth. Medium to full-bodied, it’s very structured and savory throughout the palate, with salty, briny earth. It’s okay to let this one sit around a few years, since it’s going to soften and build in complexity and will hold on over the coming 20 years.
Release Date: September 1, 2024

2022 Shea Vineyard Pinot Noir
Rating: 97
Maturity: 2026-2046
Review: The 2022 Pinot Noir Shea Vineyard pours a bright ruby color and is focused and peppery with lifted spice and notes of bright red cherries, pie spices, vibrant pressed roses, and fresh piney herbs. It’s linear and focused on the palate, with finely coiled tannins, a ripe feel, and an even and mouthwatering spine of acidity. Long a persistent, it has more nervous energy, with savory undertones, and is a lovely wine all the way through. It’s going to benefit from at least another year of cellaring.
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2022 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir
Rating: 93
Maturity: 2024-2031
Review: A bright ruby color, the 2022 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley is very pretty on the nose, with notes of ripe raspberries, crushed wildflowers, sweet spices, and forest earth. Approachable, pure, and elegant, it has a delicate earthy undertone on the finish but a very pure, clean feel. It’s a great lens into the wines of this estate with its lovely and elegant feel. A fantastic value and a darn tasty wine, there’s no need to race to open it. It’s going to drink well over the coming 5-7 years.
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2022 Yamhill-Carlton AVA Series Pinot Noir
Rating: 95+
Maturity: 2025-2037
Review:An old Marine ocean bed dominates the terrain of Yamhill-Carlton, and the jeweled ruby-colored 2022 Pinot Noir Yamhill-Carlton offers a more savory side, with generous aromas of sea spray and a light umami feel, along with notes of black raspberries, grenadine, and mossy earth. Medium to full-bodied, it has a chiseled structure and a ripe feel, with hints of tea leaf and crushed stony earth.
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July 3, 2024

Today we share one of the greats from the Willamette Valley. The story of Ken Wright dates back to the 1980s as Ken worked as a waiter in Kentucky. At the restaurant Ken was exposed to the great wines of the world. After spending eight years winemaking in California for Ventana Vineyards and Talbott Vineyards, Ken was finally convinced to move to the Willamette Valley in 1986. He then started Panther Creek cellars and then founded his namesake winery in 1994. In 2001 he added Tyrus Evan, a Syrah based winery, to his portfolio.

The wines have been consistently great over the past ten years. I love the new 2023 Ken Wright Cellars ‘Willamette Valley’ Chardonnay (OB, 92) which is glorious for an entry level wine and shows loads of texture and tension. Even better is the 2022 Ken Wright ‘Carter Vineyard’ Pinot Noir (OB, 95) which is deep and concentrated, with some serious aging potential. Learn more about these fantastic wines at http://www.kenwrightcellars.com Here are the awesome new wines by Ken Wright.

2023 Ken Wright Cellars ‘Willamette Valley’ Chardonnay- The really good 2023 Ken Wright Cellars ‘Willamette Valley’ Chardonnay offers juicy nectarine on the palate, alongside salty orange peel, baked apple and brioche tones. Medium bodied and beautifully textured, enjoy now and over the next eight years. This is a steal at under 30 bucks retail. Drink 2024-2032- 92
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2022 Ken Wright Cellars ‘Willamette Valley’ Pinot Noir- Translucent in the glass, the medium-bodied 2022 Ken Wright Cellars ‘Willamette Valley’ Pinot Noir offers tart red currants and wild strawberry flavors alongside salty soils on the palate. Soft and neatly textured, enjoy now and over the next eight years to come. Drink 2024-2032- 91
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2022 Ken Wright ‘Eola-Amity Hills’ Pinot Noir- The delicious 2022 Ken Wright ‘Eola-Amity Hills’ Pinot Noir shows a pretty core of red fruits on the plate, with stony minerals, red rose water, ash and shades of orange peel. Drink 2024-2032- 92
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2022 Ken Wright Cellars ‘Yamhill-Carlton’ Pinot Noir- The outstanding 2022 Ken Wright Cellars ‘Yamhill-Carlton’ Pinot Noir comes from a range of sites from this AVA which was established back in 2004. This is juicy and generous Pinot Noir, offering ripe red cherry and red raspberry notes with cloves, lavender and hints of salty soils. Drink 2024-2032- 93
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2022 Ken Wright Cellars ‘Canary Hill Vineyard’ Pinot Noir- The Canary Hill Vineyard is set 9.5 miles west of Salem, as this site was first planted back in 1983. Deeply colored in the glass, this delivers rich black raspberry and black cherry notes on the nose with baking spices, black truffle and shades of pie crust. The palate is deep and concentrated with good underlying verve and plenty of mouth-watering acidity. Really good to savor now, enjoy over the next ten plus years to come. Drink 2024-2036- 94
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2022 Ken Wright Cellars ‘Bonnie Jean Vineyard’ Pinot Noir- The gorgeous 2022 Ken Wright Cellars ‘Bonnie Jean Vineyard’ Pinot Noir is sourced from this 18 acre site location that is planted on ancient marine sedimentary soils. This displays a wonderful core of salty red fruits on the palate, with kumquat rind, menthol, and shades of volcanic ash. Medium to full-bodied, with beautiful structure, this is drinking beautifully already — and has a long way to go. Drink 2024-2039- 94
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2022 Ken Wright Cellars ‘Savoya Vineyard’ Pinot Noir- The Savoya Vineyard is located 3.5 miles north of the town of Carlton, Oregon. The vineyard is set on marine sedimentary soils, as there is a wonderfully salty essence to this wine. Tart pomegranate seed and red currant flavors mingle well with diatomaceous earth and its refined texture, with umami accents. Full-bodied and rich, enjoy now and over the next ten to fifteen years. Drink 2024-2036- 94
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2022 Ken Wright Cellars ‘Carter Vineyard’ Pinot Noir- The 2022 ‘Carter Vineyard’ Pinot Noir comes from this Eola-Amity Hills location that dates all the way back to 1983. Mainly Pommard selection Pinot Noir, this opens with a beautiful bouquet of potpourri, red raspberry, tobacco leaf and shades of bergamot on the nose. The palate is soft and refined with a silky texture, exotic spices and great sense of weight and length. Rich and dense, with a soft mouthfeel, enjoy now and over the next fifteen years to come. Drink 2024-2039- 95
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2022 Ken Wright Cellars ‘Shea Vineyard’ Pinot Noir- The 2022 Shea Vineyard Pinot Noir, comes from this acclaimed site which was planted by Dick Shea in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA. Richly colored, this shows a seamless texture on the palate, offering a gorgeous array of bright red fruits to mingle well with tobacco, blood orange zest, red rose water and shades of wet stone. Finishing long with bright red fruits and copious minerals, enjoy this beautiful wine now and over the next fifteen years to come. Drink 2024-2039- 95
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Episode 465 of I’ll Drink to That! was released recently, and it features Ken Wright, the founder and winemaker of Ken Wright Cellars, located in Carlton, Oregon.

Ken Wright moved to Oregon in 1986, and over that period of time a lot has happened for wine in the state. Single vineyard bottlings have proliferated, additional AVAs have been introduced, significant land investments have been made, and winemaking techniques have been adjusted. Ken witnessed and participated in a lot of that change firsthand, and this interview reveals a lot of his thinking about how today is different than yesterday in Oregon, and why. It is also notable how he goes about the discussion, because Ken has a vocabularly that is fluent in the chemistry of wine as well as the biology of vines. He makes links in this interview between, for instance, the geologic setting of a vineyard, the soil health of that site, the impact of those on the wine’s fermentation, and the taste markers of the total combination in the finished glass of wine. And he further addresses aspects like climate and exposure, making clear how those affect the process before the grapes are picked, as well as what the consumer finds in the wine in the end. It is rare that someone explicitly makes the links between, for instance, oxygen in vineyard soil and a taste later in the wine, but Ken does so here. If you would like to better understand the diversity of Oregon in its different areas, the mindset changes that have happened there over time, and how those play out in the actual wines you see available on a retailer’s shelf, this is a great summary.

Listen to this episode:

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Google Podcasts

I’ll Drink to That is the world’s most listened-to wine podcast, hosted by Levi Dalton. Levi has had a long career working as a sommelier in some of the most distinguished and acclaimed dining rooms in America. He has served wine to guests of Restaurant Daniel, Masa, and Alto, all in Manhattan. Levi has also contributed articles on wine themes to publications such as The Art of Eating, Wine & Spirits magazine, Bon Appetit online, and Eater NY. Check out his pictures on Instagram and follow him on Twitter: @leviopenswine

—foodie fun creating memorable flavor harmony

Eveline Chartier, June 4, 2024

Photo by Eric Malcolm

The perfect food pairing can make a wine sing!

The goal is to have the wine and food taste better together than on their own. In other words, the sum is better than its parts. A great food pairing will bring out favorable elements in your wine and vice-versa!

Today I will guide you through this part art, part science process.

We will discuss three of the most common approaches to pairing. Keep in mind that preferred pairings will depend on the person experiencing it – this is very subjective and personal.

The key elements in food and wine that I want to discuss for pairings are:

• flavor profile
• flavor intensity
• wine’s body/food’s weight

PAUSE! I don’t understand flavor intensity in wine.

Think of a wine’s intensity as its sound volume on the nose or palate – how loudly it speaks to you! Just like food, some wines have more subtle flavors and aromas (mild cheddar cheese) while others have strong flavors (blue cheese).

Lastly, remember you can start with the food and find a wine to pair with it or vice versa.

Complementary pairings

This approach attempts to match one or more of the food and wine elements discussed above. For instance, if the wine has an anise/fennel flavor, it may pair nicely with food flavored with dried fennel. This would be a flavor profile pairing. A full-bodied wine with high intensity flavors would make a good pairing for a heavier meal with strong flavors. This would be both a flavor intensity and a body/weight pairing.

Contrasting pairings

In certain circumstances, opposites attract! Offsetting key food and wine elements results in greater overall balance. In other words, instead of matching we use opposing food and wine elements.

A good example is spicy (aka hot), bitter, or salty food pairing well with wines with sweetness. The higher the spice, the sweeter the wine should be! A spicy dish could also pair well with a low intensity wine, as the wine doesn’t compete with the food and provides a respite from the food intensity. Lastly, high acidity wines pair well with rich foods. The acidity in the wine cuts through the richness (aka fat or starch), acting as a palate cleanser or a reset after every sip.

Regional pairings

“What grows together goes together.” Pizza or lasagna pairs well with an Chianti. It is a way of saying that wines from a certain region pair very well with regional food. I learned in Austria that a Grüner Veltliner complements a Schnitzel or Goulash swimmingly! These pairings work because they either complement or contrast the key elements!

Can we walk through a specific wine?

Pairing the featured wine

Ken Wright Cellars Pinot Noir 2022 from Willamette Valley, Oregon is fresh and bright, yet it has an enticing earthiness – a contrast in itself! It also has flavors of red fresh cherry, blueberry, and blackberry, with the added complexity of earth and an especially attractive mushroom note ending with a hint of ‘fresh leather’. It has a medium flavor intensity.

Fresh leather, huh?

(Yes, that note was to get a reaction out of you!)

In this case I would zone in on the most alluring note: the mushroom!

This led me to mushroom based dishes (complementary). Since this wine has high acidity, it can hold up to rich foods (contrasting). My mind goes to mushroom risotto, mushroom soup, stuffed portobello mushrooms. Since the wine doesn’t have pronounced intensity, I would not stuff the pepper with a strong flavored cheese such as feta or chèvre nor strong flavored foods or spices. I think those would clash with the wine’s elegance.

Now my mouth is salivating.

Mine too.

Okay, but you would never pair this with fish for example?

Actually, my favorite pairing with salmon is Pinot Noir.

This Pinot Noir is medium body, matching the weight and texture of the salmon (complementary). Salmon is also an oily fish, so the wine’s high acidity would cleanse the palate after every sip producing a refreshing effect (contrasting).

What could backfire here?

If you glazed the salmon with teriyaki or hoisin sauce. As this is a dry wine, these sauces are sweeter than the wine, ergo breaking the rule that the wine needs to be sweeter than the food.

Okay, I am starting to understand this!

I will leave you with this: don’t be afraid to play around with pairings. Consider it a fun exploration! I have definitely flubbed the odd pairing. It can be tricky, particularly if you don’t know the wine. Luckily it IS just wine! Worst case scenario you choose another wine, or you finish the food then have the wine with cheese for dessert! No stress! Yay!

Ken Wright Cellars Pinot Noir 2022 from Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA

Style: New World Medium Body Red

Varieties: 100% Pinot Noir

This wine’s fresh and bright elements are beautifully contrasted by its earthy elements. It has fresh red cherry, blueberry, and blackberry, with the added complexity of earth and an especially attractive mushroom note ending with a hint of ‘fresh leather’. The tannins provide just enough grip to enhance the body without offsetting the elegance of the wine.

Best pairings: Mushroom Risotto, Mushroom Soup, Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms, Cedar-Plank Salmon, Pork Tenderloin, Soft or Semi-soft Cheeses: Brie, Havarti, or Gouda.

Serving Temperature: 14 degrees Celsius

Price: ~$37 (including 5% tax and shades of grape discount – for subscribers)

Serving Tips: Just enjoy!

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