Cameron 'Abbey Ridge' Pinot Noir 2023

Cameron winery was founded in 1984 by winemaker John Paul in Dundee, located within the Willamette Valley AVA in Oregon. John Paul has been committed to the old fashioned way of farming grapes choosing to dry farm, eschewing pesticides and herbicides. These wines are still a benchmark and considered some of the top wines in Oregon, sadly not always easy to find on the East Coast. I’ve had a few back vintages of Cameron’s Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and am consistently humbled by the masterful winemaking of John Paul. This vintage is no exception. In a note about the 2021 vintage John Paul elaborates that during the moment that the grape berries were developing Oregon was hit with a heat dome, causing the berries to arrest their growth for the season. This resulted in the ratio of the skins to juice to be about half the amount of juice than normal, which is a good thing, as the skins contain more pigments, tannin and flavor compounds. This means the flavor is concentrated and less diluted