Winemaker Notes
Tasted with a year of bottle age, Jessie shows darker red fruits on the nose that mingle pleasantly with scents of tobacco leaf, plum and leather that reminded us of a new baseball glove. On the palate Jessie displays the classic Cristom texture that we would describe as ‘nervosity', meaning bright and lively with good structure. We tend to identify Jessie by the savory (towards rare beef), or floral notes (towards lavender), on the bouquet. More will be revealed with a few years in your cellar but don't be afraid to try a bottle the next time roast pork is on the menu.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2007 Pinot Noir Jessie Vineyard favors the darker fruit side of the spectrum. Cedar, earth notes, black cherry and black raspberry scents lead to a savory wine with emerging spice and mineral notes and a solid core of black fruit. It has enough ripe tannin to blossom for another 1-2 years. Drink it from 2011 to 2019. Continuity and consistency are the keys at Cristom; same family ownership, same winemaking team with Steve Doerner at the helm.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Running north to south, adjacent to the Willamette River, the Eola-Amity Hills AVA has shallow and well-drained soils created from ancient lava flows (called Jory), marine sediments, rocks and alluvial deposits. These soils force vine roots to dig deep, producing small grapes with great concentration.
Like in the McMinnville sub-AVA, cold Pacific air streams in via the Van Duzer Corridor and assists the maintenance of higher acidity in its grapes. This great concentration, combined with marked acidity, give the Eola-Amity Hills wines—namely Pinot noir—their distinct character. While the region covers 40,000 acres, no more than 1,400 acres are covered in vine.