From New Orleans’ pulsing music scene to the pristine of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, fifth generation Louisianan Andy Reginald Young is now a proud Oregonian. Son of a Baptist preacher, a drummer and a former resident of St. Tammany Parish on New Orlean’s Northshore, Young landed in a Portland wine bar and caught the bug after tasting through a flush 2006 vintage of Willamette Pinots. His Saint Reginald Parish launched with the 2013 vintage, producing small-lot Pinot Noirs of purity, fermented native with three of the four wines coming from three single vineyards.
The 2014 Pilgrimage Pinot Noir Mason Ridge Vineyard is a singular focus of the Dijon 115 Pinot Noir clone, from the cool climate site in Helvetia, Oregon. The final product was one of the first to be released of this vintage, showing its youth but also its promise. Fruit aromas of marionberry and cranberry welcome into the glass, with savory scents of loose leaf black tea, sagebrush, mushroom and forest floor. The tart berries are the first to the palate as well, with vivacious acid and a squeeze of tannin that lingers amid the fruit.
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