Winemaker Notes
The 2024 Cumberland Reserve Pinot Noir, the 24th vintage of this proprietary blend of select estate vineyard barrels, shimmers a gorgeous ruby red with youthful pink hues. Lovely floral aromas of roses and peonies burst from the glass, framing succulent red fruit notes of raspberry, strawberry, red currant, rhubarb, and cherry. The palate is vibrant and spicy, with hints of cinnamon, cardamom, sandalwood, pepper, and a subtle herbal savoriness from whole-cluster inclusion, a hallmark of Bergström Pinot Noirs. Juicy and silky, with an exceptionally smooth texture and a long, fruit-and-spice finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Delicious aromas and flavors of just-ripe cherries, strawberries, spices and pine forest. Structured and fresh, with nice concentration and weight on the mid-palate. Sumptuous, with fine tannins and mouthwatering acidity. Complete and mouthwatering with a long, satisfying finish. Medium-bodied. A blend of all this producer’s single-vineyard wines. Drink or hold.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The first of the reds, the 2024 Pinot Noir Cumberland Reserve pours a jeweled ruby hue and immediately impresses with aromas of incense, toasted spice, fresh black cherries, red berries, and dried rose and hibiscus potpourri. Medium-bodied, it has bright acidity, excellent tension, refined tannins, and terrific definition. It drinks far above its appellation today yet clearly has the structure to age for decades.
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Vinous
The 2024 Chardonnay Cumberland Reserve blossoms in the glass with a mineral-inflected bouquet of lemon zest, wet stones, wild herbs and nuances of raw almond. The palate is elegant with lovely weight, silken textures, crisp orchard fruits and an air of vanilla custard. It finishes long, fresh and focused with a resonance of citrus and Asian pear. The Cumberland Reserve is a fantastic Chardonnay that represents tremendous value.
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Wine Spectator
Precise and well-structured, with handsome flavors of raspberry and guava framed by black tea and rose petal accents. Finishes with refined tannins. Drink now through 2034.
Bergstrom Wines is a family-owned and operated artisan producer of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay which was started in 1999 by Dr. John and Karen Bergstrom, with the help of their son Josh Bergstrom and his wife Caroline. Josh is general manager, vineyard manager and winemaker and pulls his expertise from his education in Burgundy, France and his 14 years experience making wines in Oregon's Northern Willamette Valley. Bergstrom focuses on hand-crafting small lots of wines from their fice estate vineyards carefully chosen from fice of Oregon's six wine-growing appellations. All estate acreage is farmed biodynamically and all wines express the wonderful diversity of Oregon's many great terroirs.
Bergström Wines consists of five estate vineyards totaling 84 acres that span across four of the Willamette Valley’s best appellations: The Bergström Vineyard, Silice Vineyard, Winery Block, Gregory Ranch and Le Pré du Col. Each estate vineyard is farmed without the use of harsh chemicals, systemic or fertilizers, and the winery produces approximately 10,000 cases of ultra-premium and extremely sought-after wine each year, including two Chardonnays and nine different Pinot Noirs.
Home of some of the planet’s most amazingly elegant and expressive Pinot noir, the Willamette Valley is a pastoral, mixed landscape of green, bucolic rolling hills, dramatic forestlands and small, independent, friendly wine growers. As a leader in environmental stewardship, the valley has some of the nation’s most protective land use policies, with two-thirds of its vineyards farmed sustainably and over half, organically. While the valley claims a cool, continental climate, and is heavily influenced by the cold, moist winds of the Pacific Ocean, its warm and dry summers allow for the steady, even ripening of Pinot noir.
The potential of Willamette Valley Pinot noir continues to attract the investment of serious growers and winemakers both locally and from abroad, as naturally the finished wines bring accolades from professionals and enthusiasts. With a range of styles from delicate dried cherry, raspberry and hibiscus to stronger notes of truffle, mocha, plum and spice, a fine Willamette Valley Pinot noir is a perfect expression of both character and grace.