Lingua Franca Pinot Noir The Plow 2021 (750ML)

98 JD / 96 VP / 95 VM / 95 DE

#2 Vinepair Best Red Wines Under $100 2024
#46 Jeb Dunnuck's Top 100 2023

Refreshing and long on the palate, the 2021 Pinot Noir The Plow pours a medium ruby hue and is expressive but needs time. It has a touch of reduction and would benefit from a decant if opening young. It opens to reveal a beautiful, elegant perfume of rosewater, tangerine, grenadine, and graphite, followed by a pure, medium-bodied red with outstanding energy and a weightless feel while retaining a wonderful tannin structure that will feel angular at first to some. It’s long on the palate and is deceiving, as it’s such a pleasure to taste now. Drink 2024-2040.-Audrey Frick, Jeb Dunnuck

Lingua Franca makes elegant, terroir-driven wines in Oregon's Willamette Valley. The fruit for this particular bottling is sourced from some of the estate's best sites, lending to an incredibly intriguing and complex wine. It’s bright and beautiful on the nose with some cherries and a hint of cinnamon layered under a waft of earthy soil. The palate is extremely balanced with just the right amount of everything. Good acidity supports the palate's fleshy fruit with a lithe tannic edge. An Oregon Pinot to fall in love with. - Vinepair

The 2021 The Plow Pinot Noir opens with a beguiling bouquet as an array of exotic florals and spices give way to nuances of mint and dried wild blueberries. It opens with cooling acidity and tactile mineral tones that add a crunchy sensation as depths of dark red fruit swirl over textural waves of pure silk. This is intense and sapid, leaving the palate drenched in primary concentration and a web of fine tannins, creating a structured yet truly harmonious sensation as hints of licorice slowly fade. The Plow is a gorgeous and well-rounded Pinot that will appeal to a large variety of collectors from both the New World and the Old. -- Eric Guido, Vinous Media

A well-knit-together wine that shows polish and elegance. Fruit for The Plow 2021 comes from the three upper estate blocks with a unique massale selection of clone 777. Depth and sensuality come to the fore in the aromatics. Alluring notes of violet and rose petals, along with soy-scented umami. There is ample depth from the sous bois and dark fruit. The palate is so put together. Clove and cinnamon give way to mushroom-driven umami and elegantly placed black and red fruits. Savoury character abounds, but this wine's structure provides us with a sense that it will become far more showy in eight or so years.—Clive Pursehouse, Decanter

Widely respected as one of the top winemakers in Burgundy, Dominique Lafon took notice of this exceptional vineyard site and joined Larry Stone, alongside winemaking protégé Thomas Savre, to craft uniquely expressive wines harnessing the unique terroir of Oregon. Thomas Savre has worked at some of Burgundy’s most highly regarded properties including Dujac, Triennes, Domaine de la Romanee Conti, Roche de Bellene, and Nicolas Potel.