Spectator: “All Oregon Pinot Noirs are Measured Against the Ponzi Yardstick”
- 95 pts Wine Advocate95 pts RPWA
- 95 pts Jeb Dunnuck95 pts Jeb Dunnuck
- 95 pts James Suckling95 pts JS
- Curated by unrivaled experts
- Choose your delivery date
- Temperature controlled shipping options
- Get credited back if a wine fails to impress
2019 Ponzi Vineyards Pinot Noir Reserve Willamette Valley 750 ml
- Curated by unrivaled experts
- Choose your delivery date
- Temperature controlled shipping options
- Get credited back if a wine fails to impress
Roumier Training and a 50-Year Track Record
In the mid-1980s, a Maryland lawyer with a crack palate and big dreams had the chance to invest in a Newberg, Oregon pig farm with his brother in law—for the purpose of raising wine, not swine. Of course now it seems like a no-brainer, buying land and planting Pinot Noir in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. But back then, the wine biz was still nascent in the area. Success, then as now, was far from a foregone conclusion.
It was a tough decision, but after tasting an absolutely striking Pinot—one from the Willamette Valley—the lawyer was convinced. He decided to take the plunge.
The lawyer was titanic critic Robert Parker. The wine was Ponzi’s Reserve Pinot Noir.
Our last trip to the Willamette Valley took us to Ponzi’s breathtaking modern tasting room, where we swirled and sipped this sleek and serious 2019 while overlooking the gently sloping Avellana Vineyard, one of the sources of the Reserve.
The Burgundian elegance Luisa coaxes from Pinot Noir is explained by her training: She apprenticed in Beaune at the legendary Domaine Georges Roumier. Armed with that experience, Luisa has continued to elevate the estate founded by her pioneering parents Dick and Nancy Ponzi, who started with a small 20-acre farm that has now flourished into one of the Willamette Valley’s marquee estates.
Ponzi sourced the 2019 Reserve from the very best barrels of estate vineyards Aurora, Abetina, Madrona and Avellana vineyards. The concentrated core of the wine comes from own-rooted vines planted in the 1970s and 1980s. Luisa was so thrilled with the quality of the fruit that came in the cool, “throwback year” of 2019 that she raised this wine in 40% new French oak.