Domaine Drouhin Pinot Noir Laurene Oregon 2012 750ml

When the Drouhin family of Beaune founded Domaine Drouhin Oregon in the Dundee Hills in 1987, they helped put Oregon Pinot Noir on the world stage. Cuvée Laurène, named for Véronique Drouhin's eldest daughter, is the estate's flagship Pinot Noir, a selection of its finest barrels. 2012 was a superb, warm and dry vintage in the Willamette Valley, and critics across the board rated this release highly. John Gilman found plums, black cherries, raw cocoa, dark soil and graphite on a deep, pure, full-bodied palate with ripe, suave tannins, while others noted candied rose, spice and woodsmoke. Now showing secondary complexity, it should drink well for another decade.