SOLD OUT! The Antica Terra Coriolis Pinot Noir is up there with the best of the best I’ve ever tasted from the Willamette Valley.
It’s a singular expression of the grape that showcases incredible terroir combined with immense winemaking talent.
2015 Antica Terra Coriolis Pinot Noir
Nearly Perfect, Thought Provoking Oregon Pinot Noir
SOLD OUT
Winemaker Maggie Harrison trained with Manfred and Elaine Frankel at the iconic Sine Qua Non Winery for nine years before joining Antica Terra. Let’s just say she learned a thing or two about crafting compelling, eye-opening wines.
There’s so much going on in this wine: it’s powerful and intense, yet beautifully textured and perfectly balanced, with ripe fruit contrasting with mineral and savory notes.
The Antica Terra story starts and ends with a discussion of terroir. Terroir is the notion that site, climate, terrain, and tradition impart unique characteristics into the grape and the finished wine. And Antica Terra is situated on a rare outcropping of sandstone and marine fossils with little top soil. Additionally, the winery has been certified organic since 2007.
These vines are stressed to the max, yielding small and highly concentrated grapes. And the harder the vines have to work, the more you can smell, taste, and sense the terroir.
This is the first vintage of this wine we’ve stocked and 2015 was an excellent year in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Wine Spectator rated the vintage 95 points overall, saying “large clusters helped to balance a hot vintage toward elegance.” And Vinous Media’s Josh Raynolds writes: “The 2015 vintage for Oregon Pinot Noir is an all-around winner in terms of quality and quantity.”
Maggie really knocked it out of the park with the 2015 Antica Terra Coriolis Pinot Noir. The wine that goes into Coriolis is a selection of barrels coming from the same fruit that goes into the other, much more expensive Antica Terra Pinot Noirs. Same fruit, same winemaking, and same time in barrel, but at a fraction of the price. Sign me up!
And there’s so much going on in this gorgeous wine. It’s a beautifully aromatic wine with potpourri-like spice, cedar, violet, forest floor, red and black berries and dried cranberries. Silky, sensual, supple and tasting of dark raspberry, cherry and strawberry, it’s elegant yet structured, with lifting acidity and a mind-bendingly long finish.
To learn more about Maggie Harrison and Antica Terra, I highly recommend you check out their website. And if you really want to get to know Maggie and the Antica Terra philosophy, check out this highly entertaining interview from the I’ll Drink to That! series.
Josh Spurling
Owner, Operator, Wine Monger
Table Wine Asheville