2021 Rose & Arrow Estate Riverline Chehalem Mountains Pinot Noir - 750ml

Rose & Arrow is the newest project from Mark Tarlov (one of the founders of Evening Land) with consulting winemaker Louis Michel Liger-Belair, winemaker Felipe Ramirez and Pedro Parra, who is from Chile and specializes in soils. After founding Chapter 24 wines in 2012 and its subsequent label, Fire and Flood, Tarlov wanted to continue the exploration of Oregon terroir with the Rose & Arrow project.

Liger-Belair brought in Pedro Parra, a terroir specialist. "The problem with volcanic soil is that it started as a liquid and rolled downhill in a very haphazard way," Tarlov explains. "You throw a stick in Burgundy and you hit limestone. If you throw a stick in Oregon, you hit soil that came from the Missoula floods. Louis Michel said great wine needs mother rock. So we started with these small ribbons of volcanic soil not covered by flood wash. We got rid of our flood wash soils. You can make a lot of pleasing wine on flood wash soils. But we don’t think you can make really good wines from flood wash soils."

"These wines speak specifically and intimately to this belief that we have that there is something that elevates the wines. It is our contention that wines that are memorable require an ignition, which happens at the point of contact between the roots and rock. It's easy to see. Go to La Tâche—you see the limestone. Pedro says Oregonians need to start believing more in their terroir and not themselves. You have to understand that grand cru sites are there. I like to say that Burgundy has the history, they have time on their side. What we have I think is intention, and a little bit of science. Our intention is to find these ignition points that lift the wines."