The Best Value in Oregon Pinot Noir is Back: Evesham Wood 2024
Every year we taste countless Pinot Noirs in search of bottles that deliver true character, authenticity, and value. And every year, one wine continues to stand above the crowd. The 2024 Evesham Wood Willamette Valley Pinot Noir has arrived.
For years, we've considered Evesham Wood the benchmark for affordable domestic Pinot Noir This is a wine that consistently punches far above its price point. In a market crowded with overripe, sweetened, and formulaic wines, Evesham Wood remains refreshingly different. This is real Pinot Noir. You can see through it, and it makes you think a bit. A wine crafted for adults.
At the heart of the winery is winemaker Erin Nuccio, whose path into wine was anything but conventional. Before becoming one of Oregon's most respected Pinot Noir producers, Nuccio worked in fine wine retail, where he had the opportunity to taste many of the world's greatest wines alongside collectors, chefs, politicians, and industry insiders. Eventually, inspired by those experiences, he left retail behind, studied viticulture and enology, and made his way to Oregon's Willamette Valley. There, he met Evesham Wood founders Russ and Mary Raney. Sharing a deep appreciation for traditional, Old-World winemaking, Nuccio apprenticed under Russ before eventually being entrusted with carrying the Evesham Wood legacy forward. A decade later, it's clear that legacy is thriving.
When reflecting on the vintage, Nuccio's first words were simply: "What a vintage!"The story of 2024 is balance. Even in Evesham Wood's entry-level Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, there is a remarkable harmony between ripe fruit and vibrant freshness. The wine bursts with black cherry, plum, and raspberry flavors, accented by subtle notes of Italian herbs and purple flowers. Silky and energetic, it remains cool, lifted, and beautifully composed from start to finish.
In fact, after tasting the wine blind, the owner of one of Evesham Wood's distribution partners guessed it was an expensive bottle of Burgundy. I will not name them, out of professional courtesy, so to speak. But, yes, this wine is delicious, and quite Burgundian in style.
Though this is Evesham Wood's largest production Pinot Noir and most affordable offering, the same care and attention given to the estate's top wines goes into every bottle. The blend draws from many of the winery's premier vineyard sources, including Mahonia, Sojeau, Koosah, Cortell Rose, Illahe, Prophet, Jubilee, Keeler, and Torres Hill. Fermented in small lots and aged for a full year in French oak barrels, the 2024 release shows extraordinary refinement and cohesion.
Evesham Wood has often been called America's best value Pinot Noir. I wholeheartedly agree.
94 Points, James Suckling
A lovely, drinkable, light- to medium-bodied wine. Pretty aromas of delicate red flowers, spices, wild berries and citrus. Fresh acidity, crunchy red fruit and orange peel flavors with structured but gentle tannins. A complete wine and a good value.