Domaine Serene Beats Top Burgundies for Decanter Magazine’s Highest 2016 DWWA Medal

08 July 2016 --- Perhaps fitting in a year that marks the 40th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris wine tasting, the UK’s leading wine publication, Decanter Magazine, has announced that Domaine Serene Winery’s 2012 Winery Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir garnered a 95-point score and one of only thirty-one Platinum “Best in Show” medals at its 2016 Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA). An elite international panel of judges, including 69 of the world’s 300 Masters of Wine and 26 Master Sommeliers, based their decision on a series of blind tastings in April of top Pinot Noirs from around the globe.

Commenting on the news, winery owner and co-founder, Grace Evenstad, noted the progress Oregon has made since she established Domaine Serene with her husband Ken in 1989. “Oregon Pinots have come a very long way,” she said. “When we started, we were told we wouldn’t be able to sell our wine outside of the state. We went to New York in 1992 with a little of our 1990 vintage, and people were asking: what’s Pinot Noir? And where’s Oregon? We knew Burgundy so well. When we started with our wines, we knew we had something special.”

Out of more than 16,500 wines entered in the 2016 DWWA, only 31 received “best in show” honors for their respective categories. Less than 2% of all international medal winners were from the United States; and only five out of the total 539 DWWA gold and platinum medal-winners were American. Domaine Serene took home a total of eight medals from the London-based contest, including one platinum “best in show,” one silver medal and six bronze medal honors, the most of any American winery. The winery’s 2012 Yamhill Cuvée Pinot Noir had also recently been honored by Decanter Magazine in an international tasting event late last year, earning a 95-point score at the Decanter Fine Wine Encounter in November 2015.

Domaine Serene Winery’s achievement is another major accolade for Oregon, which has risen to acclaim among international wine critics in the last two decades. “This Platinum, Best in Show honor from Decanter magazine is another vivid example of Oregon fulfilling its extraordinary winegrowing potential, and further confirmation of the exceptional skills possessed by our winemakers,” said Michelle Kaufmann, communications manager at the Oregon Wine Board. She added, “this is a massive win for Domaine Serene and our industry as a whole.”

Decanter Magazine is not the first major publication to recognize Domaine Serene as one of the world’s top wine producers. In 2013, the Domaine Serene 2010 Evenstad Reserve Pinot Noir was the Wine Spectator’s top-ranked Pinot Noir in the World, and #3 in their Top-100 ranking of all wines that year. Renowned wine critic James Suckling has included Domaine Serene Winery in his prestigious list of Great Wines of the World for the past three years, an honor shared by only two other wineries in North America. Additionally, wine critic Anthony Dias Blue has described Domaine Serene as “The Château Lafite of Oregon”; and Robert Parker, Jr. of the Wine Advocate has designated Domaine Serene as one of only two wineries in the state that merit an “Outstanding” rating.