The nucleus of this miniscule Pinot Noir-only project is the winemaking prowess of one Jean-Nicolas Meo, the winemaker at, and owner of the iconic Meo-Camuzet domaine in Vosne-Romanee.  Burgundy lovers swoon at the very sound of this domaine’s name and their Grand Crus like Clos Vougeot, when you can find them at all, can cost in the high triple- or even low-four digits.  In fact, it was in the pursuit of Meo-Camuzet’s wines that put Nicolas in touch with the renowned music and media entrepreneur Jay Boberg.  Boberg, a Burgundy aficionado, came to Vosne on a pilgrimage to meet Meo and not only earned himself an allocation of prized Meo-Camuzet, but also a lifelong friend.  It was apparently over a few glasses of said Burgundy that Boberg planted the seed of a mutual project in Oregon that would take advantage of both their talents.  The idea was originally to comb the Willamette Valley’s best vineyards to create an Oregon Pinot Noir with a definite Meo-esque point of view.  This was, of course, nothing revolutionary.  Joseph Drouhin’s winery in the Dundee Hills may have been the first, but Burgundy’s winemakers have been exploring the Willamette Valley for decades in the hopes of expansion since their own territory back home in France isn’t going to get any larger any time soon.  One of the sites the new Nicolas-Jay partnership initially contracted with to make the debut 2013 they produced was, among several other very well-known sites scattered around the valley, the Bishop Creek Vineyard in Yamhill-Carlton.  This spot had a long track record of producing great fruit with just the qualities and personality they were looking for.  When the vineyard suddenly came up for sale, the paradigm for Nicolas-Jay shifted from a negociant sort of project to that of an estate with a negoce arm.  The 2014 vintage, the first commercially available Nicolas-Jay, contained a good portion of the old vine Pinot fruit from Bishop Creek along with smatterings from the likes of Maresh, Shea, Montazi, Zenith and Nysa- true Oregon aristocracy, and that dynamic combination defines the newly released 2018 L’Ensemble cuvee.  This, according to Meo, is the winery’s first ‘Super Blend,’ a reserve-level offering to show their ‘Best of the Best,’ a cuvée comprised of the most expressive barrels from each vineyard assembled for extraordinary depth, complexity, ageability, and finesse. Harvested in small cherry bins, fermented on its native yeast and bottled unfined and unfiltered, this cuvee received an extra six months in barrel. This blend is comprised of either bio-dynamic, organic or LIVE certified vineyards only.  It is, in short, a stunning bottle of Oregon Pinot Noir!  2019 was a classic sort of vintage that fit exactly into what Nicolas-Jay was trying to achieve; a wine of sophistication, polish and panache.  Though a third of the wine was aged in new oak, it seems to just melt into all that deep, dark, lustrous fruit.  Full for a Willamette Valley Pinot, the palate is plush and generous but finishes with that only-in-Oregon verve, structure and zip that combines the best attributes of Pinot Noir from California and, dare I say, Burgundy.  This dynamic project truly has, we think, the wherewithal to change the way we think about Oregon Pinot!  Drink now as the perfect Pinot for some lamb chops off the grill, and feel free to see what it’s like in about five or six years too.