Martin Woods Jessie James Vineyard Pinot Noir 2023 750ml

Product Info

98 - Jeb Dunnuck - August 2025:
"The 2023 Pinot Noir Jessie James Vineyard is exceptional and offers both finesse and power, reminiscent of Vosne-Romanée in style. Layered and complete with leather, ripe framboise, pressed herbs, mossy earth, and a mineral frame, it’s full-bodied, with refined tannins and stunning length. This is possibly the best wine I have tasted from Martin Woods to date. Drinking Window: 2027-2050” 

94pts – Eric Guido, Vinous Media -July 2025
The 2023 Pinot Noir Jessie James Vineyard evolves in the glass as crushed stone gives way to black cherries and a hint of wild blueberry, complicated by clove. Elegance defines the palate, with round textures and saline mineral tones up front as ripe red berry fruit and a hint of chalk settle on the senses. It finishes with outstanding length, leaving liquid lavender tones and a staining of fine tannins that resonate. 

92pts Wine Advocate
The 2023 Pinot Noir Jessie James Vineyard comes from dry-farmed, high-density vines planted in Nekia soils in 1996. Matured for 19 months, it has slowly unfurling scents of raspberry, blueberry, pomegranate, rooibos tea leaves, lavender and mossy bark. The medium-bodied palate offers concentrated red berry flavors framed by taut, chalky tannins and juicy acidity, and it has a long, perfumed finish.  Published: Nov 06, 2025 Reviewed by: Erin Brooks

The Terroir:
The Eola-Amity Hills is situated to the immediate east of the Van Duzer Corridor, where cool, salty marine air from the Pacific Ocean blows through the Coast Range mountains into the western Willamette Valley. The marine air lowers the growing season temperatures in this neighborhood and elevates the presence of acidity and salinity in the wines. The vineyard takes its name from Jessica and James Lee, now deceased but whose legacy lives on in the vines. The four-acre planting of high-density spacing (2,400 vines/acre) at Jessie James goes back to 1996, with the wine now exhibiting the extra complexity that comes with maturity of vine age. The vineyard sits at upper elevation in the far north of the AVA and faces east towards the rising morning sun. Harvest is usually the first or second week of October when the early Fall weather has cooled off significantly and perfect ripeness is achieved patiently, with full flavor development occurring at lower potential alcohol levels. The Nekia soil (shallow, rocky volcanic basalt) provides balanced stress to the plants, resulting in sparser canopies and looser clusters with small berries and thick skins, and consequently the wines show exceptional depth and complexity of aroma and structure. We have leased the vineyard for ten years and our farming accords to organic principles, always with an eye towards the future.

Growing Season:
A significant frost in mid-April 2022 caused some bud damage at vineyards throughout the Willamette Valley, especially the moderate to low elevations. This frost was followed by the coldest and wettest May in 80 years of record-keeping, which meant that the vines did not flower until mid-July, fully 3-4 weeks behind normal schedule. We did not make up much time over the Summer, which was seasonally dry and warm. As we got into the early Fall, a very real sense of concern emerged that we would need an unusually dry and warm late-September and October if we were going to pick grapes at all. If rain and cool temps had returned as normal in early October, the grapes simply would not have reached proper maturity of flavor and sugar. Thankfully the conditions remained dry and warm until October 22 (in fact it was one of the warmest Octobers ever recorded in Oregon). Ripening rapidly accelerated starting in early-October and the grapes reached a beautiful balance of fruit, acidity and ripe tannin structure. We ended up having the most compressed harvest ever (we picked a large majority of our fruit within a single week, Oct. 16-21) prior to the season coming to a rapid close on Oct. 22 with persistent rain storms. It was a roller-coaster of a growing season that thankfully (and somewhat surprisingly) ended with remarkably classic, elegant wines. We love the wines across the range and we believe that the 2022s are amongst the very best wines we've ever produced.

Notes on Winemaking:
Picked Oct. 19, 2022.10% whole bunches (middle layer) in1.5 ton open top fermenters. 25 days total on skins. Once daily punchdowns starting on day 10. Peak fermentation temps low 80s F. Aged without sulfur for 6 months through ML.18 months total on lees in 228L french oak (10% new). bottled without fining on May 6 + 8, 2024. 710 cases of 750ml (with Diam 10 corks) + 96 cases of 1.5L (with Diam 30 corks). TA 5.2 g/l – pH 3.47 — RS 0.0 g/l — 13.7% Alc. — 64 mg/l total SO2

Tasting notes:
lifted perfume of red & black cherries, forest floor & tree bark spice—broad, palate-filling, supple texture with fine-grained tannins, acidity and minerals bringing energy and tension to the fruit and leading to a long, resonant finish—many years ahead in the cellar—this is 'grand cru' pinot noir terroir expressing its truth in the glass

About Martin Woods:
Martin Woods sits amidst the oak-forested foothills that frame the Willammette Valley's western border, where the climate is influenced by the ingress of cool ocean air. Martin Woods is both a winery and a home for owner/winemaker Evan Martin, who has been driven since 2009 by a passion for discovering the most compelling wine terroirs of Oregon. Evan’s small team farms according to sustainable, wholistic principles and the growers he partner's with are of the same mindset. The winemaking methods are delicate and natural, but of greatest importance is that a Martin Woods wine promotes the notions of quiet power, nuanced complexity and ethereal expressiveness.These rare qualities result from great vineyard terroir combined with meticulous care in the cellar.