Issuing from some of the estate’s oldest vines, the Hyland 2011 Pinot Noir Coury leads with scents of high-toned kirsch distillate and pistachio extract, nutmeg and toasted almond, which in turn inflect a fundamentally juicy, vibrant, silken palate of fresh cherry and red currant. Although this wine received nearly half new oak and the corresponding “regular” bottling of Hyland Pinot only a quarter, the wood element is not only better-integrated here; moreover, there is no dearth of primary juiciness all the way to a long finish tinged with cherry stone, leather, blond tobacco, and saliva-inducing salinity. (I did not taste a separate “Founder’s Selection” Hyland Pinot from this vintage, although such a bottling is typically rendered for members of the winery’s club.) The Hyland estate perched on high hills south of McMinnville – about which I wrote additionally in issue 202 –is one of Oregon’s oldest, dating back to 1971, and with extensive plantings of Pommard, Wadenswil and Coury selections of Pinot Noir that date to the late ‘70s. In 2007 – in partnership with John Niemeyer – the property was acquired by Danielle Andrus Montalieu and Laurent Montalieu, who also make wine under the Solena label and from their own Danielle Laurent Vineyard east of Yamhill, and who are estate-bottling a significant portion of the Hyland fruit. (Some is also bottled under the Solena label, and reviewed in this report where you can also read about a Hyland-dedicated Erath bottling and one from Winderlea in which the site shares double-bill.) Montalieu and his Solena right hand Bruno Corneaux routinely employ multiple modes of vinification and lengths of elevage for different component lots of Pinot. The 2011 fruit was chaptalized to reach finished alcohol percentages from the low to (surprisingly) upper 13s. (Note that these wines are now labeled with the McMinnville rather than the wider Willamette A.V.A .) Tel. (503) 554-4200