Last Call on Willamette Powerhouse Icon
Wine Spectator's #19 Wine of the Year.

Dear Artisans,

When Wine Spectator crowns its Top 100, the wines vanish. We have poured through our Penner-Ash allocation since the announcement, and it's last call: 21 bottles remain of the #19 Wine of the Year.

Lynn Penner-Ash is Oregon royalty. After running some of Napa's premier cellars and then Rex Hill, she founded her own house in 1998 and helped define the modern Willamette style: small-lot native-yeast ferments, extended cold soaks, and a textural, fruit-focused polish that critics reach for the word "elegant" to describe. This 2022 draws from twelve sites across six sub-AVAs — the whole valley in one glass.

And real drinkers agree with the critics. On CellarTracker, one taster called it a "Showstopper... the biggest hit amongst many other Pinots with dinner"; another named it "one of the very finest Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs I've tasted" after it stole Thanksgiving. A third opened it blind against a field of American Pinots at much higher retail and scored it outstanding.

Small-lot, native-yeast ferments with extended cold soaks, then 10 months in 24% new French oak — the Penner-Ash signature of plush, polished texture over vibrant acidity. Raspberry and cherry laced with orange peel, floral tea, and spice, gliding to a vibrant finish. Drinking beautifully now and through 2032.

Straight from CellarTracker: "Showstopper"... "one of the very finest Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs I've tasted"... "Outstanding" in a blind tasting at a $60 retail.

The same family vines behind the cult Chardonnay we sold out of — old Dundee Hills plantings, double 95s, and Burgundian perfume at a price the Willamette elite stopped offering years ago.

From the legendary Seven Springs vineyard — own-rooted vines planted in 1982, raised in neutral oak for pure volcanic transparency. The bottle on every serious Oregon wine list, at its lowest price of the year.

Burgundy-trained Andrew Rich has, per Vinous, "an insider following among Pinot lovers who value balance and precision" — and this 555-case, marine-soil bottling is squarely in its drinking window right now.

The most complete expression of the Patton Valley site — a 93-point estate flagship with seven years of bottle age, drinking in its prime at a Tuesday-night price.

From Elk Cove's family: single-vineyard Zenith fruit with eight years of perfect bottle age — "rich dark plums and foresty, earthy notes with a wealth of flesh and smooth-grained tannins" (JS 93). The winery's own price is $55.

A Top 100 wine never waits.
Neither should you.

Wine Spectator's #19 wine on the planet, called a "Showstopper" and a "class act" by the people actually drinking it, at $49.97 against a $60 retail — down to our final 21 bottles. Behind it: double-95 Arterberry Maresh, own-rooted Seven Springs, a 555-case insider Pinot at peak, a 93-point aged estate flagship, and a $29.97 steal from Elk Cove's family.

This is the strongest Oregon Pinot wall we will field all year — and it is closing out. Last call.

Cheers,

— James Tran