WINE & SPIRITS MAGAZINE, APRIL 2013

Bethel Heights 2010 Eola-Amity Hills Casteel Reserve Pinot Noir – 94The wine marries place and vintage with effortless grace. Its generous dark cherry and plum scents flow into a seamless, to-the-rim fullness of flavor, grounded by a dark basalt minerality, which seems to give the wine energy and propulsion. The tension between fruit and structure, between grip and give, makes this wine the sort to age–or
enjoy now with grilled salmon.

Bethel Heights 2010 Eola-Amity Hills Southeast Block Pinot Noir – 93From a site planted in 1979 with the Pommard clone on its own roots, this wine is structured, dense and full of potential energy. Its dark plum scents balance a note of tar, the savory and the sweet in a fine tension. The flavors are dark and earthy, marked by minerality that seems to command the palate without overwhelming it.