2007 Cloudline Willamette Valley Pinot Noir

This is a wine produced under the auspices of the big importer, Dreyfus Ashby. They have a long-standing relationship with Maison Joseph Drouin of Beaune, having imported their wines for decades. So, when they decided to produce Willamette Valley wines under their own label (there's also a pinot gris), it was only natural that they utilize their existing relationship and contract with Veronique Drouhin-Boss, the winemaker at Domaine Drouhin Oregon to be their consulting winemaker.  In other words, she gets to make the decisions while someone else does the heavy lifting.

Veronique has a well-earned reputation for producing wines in an elegant style that reflects her family's long history in Burgundy, and this wine doesn't disappoint.  I don't know specifically where the fruit comes from because the label doesn't say and neither does the Dreyfus-Ashby website, which just says it's from "some of the finest vineyards in Oregon".  Big help, huh?

If I had to guess, I'd say that a big slug of the fruit comes from the Dundee Hills because the wine practically screams, "Red Hills of Dundee!"  It's loaded with red fruits - cherries, raspberries and strawberries, and it shows a little dusty note that many wines from Dundee show.  It's really a pleasant wine and a bargain at around $20.

Pick one up and see how you like it.  You won't be able to miss it, because it has a label that, while pretty and well-designed in a minimalist kind of way, was printed in an unfortunate blue - a color that doesn't occur naturally in food and one that I find unappetizing in a wine label, something that will probably hurt sales with the shopper who buys wine based on the attractiveness of the label.  That said, it certainly stands out on the shelf.