One of Oregon Wine Country's best-kept secrets.

You'll be amazed (and delighted) by what a small, little-known vineyard can produce. Carlton Hill Estate Pinot Noir wines show incredible consistency of structure, complexity and spice from vintage to vintage—which must be why they earn accolades and nods from reviewers and wine award panels from year to year.

As the name implies, the Carlton Hill Vineyard is located in Carlton, Oregon, up on a hill (between 420 and 480 feet, to be exact). We don't have an official tasting room, however, and we're mostly self-distributed, so Northwest Wines to You is actually quite a smart way to get your hands on our distinctive, award-winning Oregon Pinot Noir.

Burgundian in style, our wines have beautiful aromas of rose and berries, flavors of both spice and fruit, with good acidity—making them ideal for serving with cheese, red meat, pork, game and salmon. Most age-worthy, we don't even release our wines until they've been in bottle for more than a year. It's 2013 now, and we're not even showing our 2011 yet. Why? The complex structures of our wines take time to fully integrate and open up after bottling. But when they do...wow!

Our winemaking philosophy behind Carlton Hill wines is simple: "let the vintage speak for itself." I intervene as little as possible when it comes to both the grape-growing (we're a certified sustainable vineyard and do not irrigate) and wine making.

We hand pick the grapes at harvest, use water from our Carlton Hill well to cold-soak the grapes, and rely on the indigenous yeast present on the skins of our grapes to be the primary source of all our fermentations. Wines are in oak for 11 months (Estate) or 18 months (Estate Reserve), with about 20-25% new French oak.

All this results in pure, vintage-driven, sustainable Pinot Noirs from one of the finest vineyards in Oregon—we just can't make a lot of it. Annual production is about 550 cases.

Owner: David Polite
Winemaker: David Polite
Phone: 503-852-7060
Email: david@carltonhillwines.com
Website: www.carltonhillwines.com

2008 Pinot Noir Estate

90 points from Tanzer and Gold Medal from Oregon Wine Awards

$40.00 / Bottle

2008 Pinot Noir Estate Reserve

92 Points from Tanzer and Gold Medal from Oregon Wine Awards.

$50.00 / Bottle

2009 Pinot Noir Estate

88 Points from Tanzer and Silver Medal at the Oregon Wine Awards.

$40.00 / Bottle

2010 Pinot Noir Estate

Pure red fruit and spice show from the first sip through the lingering finish.

$40.00 / Bottle

Vino Vertical 3-Pack

Sip in sequence with this Vino Vertical 3-Pack featuring Pinot Noir from...

$140.00   $119.00 /3-Pack