2023 Walter Scott Freedom Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir

Walter Scott's 2023 Freedom Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir comes from one of the Willamette Valley's most celebrated sites, a steep south-facing slope in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA planted in 1982. Winemaker Ken Pahlow works exclusively with single-vineyard fruit, and this bottling showcases Freedom Hill's volcanic Jory soils and persistent ocean influence, which together produce Pinot Noir with pronounced acidity and a signature mineral tension. The 2023 vintage marks another chapter in Walter Scott's restrained, Burgundian approach to Oregon Pinot, where place speaks louder than winemaking intervention. Ken Pahlow founded Walter Scott in 2008 with the goal of making wines that reflect site and vintage rather than cellar technique. He works with a handful of grower partners in the Willamette Valley, vinifying each vineyard separately with native yeasts and minimal sulfur additions. Freedom Hill's basalt-derived soils and high-elevation exposure yield fruit with natural acidity and a taut structure, and Pahlow's hands-off fermentation and aging in neutral French oak preserve that tension. The result is Pinot Noir that drinks closer to the Côte de Beaune than to the riper, broader style common elsewhere in Oregon. The wine opens with ripe red raspberries, quickly followed by a savory grilled meat note and a touch of saline that hints at the vineyard's proximity to the Pacific. With time in the glass, an orange pekoe tea scent emerges. The palate is lighter-bodied with elevated acidity and flavors of raspberries, orange peel, and rhubarb tart, finishing smooth as spun silk. Pair it with roasted duck, grilled salmon, or a mushroom galette. This is a Pinot Noir for the table, not the tasting room—it wants food and benefits from a slight chill. Available for pickup at our Lincoln Park bottle shop at 1128 W Armitage Ave, local Chicago delivery, or nationwide shipping.