Winemaker Notes
The Jessie Vineyard, named for winegrower-owner Tom Gerrie’s great-grandmother Jessie Summers, was established in 1994 after the Gerrie family saw great potential in planting a steep, east-facing hillside. Ranging in elevation from 320 ft to 550 ft (98 m to 168 m), this 11.53 acre (4.67 hectare) site is one of the steepest in Oregon, and the most challenging to farm on the Cristom Estate.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A very distinctive nose with a wild array of red berries and cherries and a thread of blue fruit, too. There’s a dried wild-rose perfume and a violet-like thread with subtle, herbal-based notes. It’s a moving target in the glass with incredible complexity. This has a gift of revelation. The palate has a very assertive edge with a powerful core of intense tannins that carry a spicy thread of rich dark cherries and dark plums in a defined, savory and athletic stance. A star of the vintage. Drink over the next decade or more.
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Wine Spectator
Spirited yet elegantly layered, with polished raspberry, orange peel and violet accents that dance on a long finish toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2025.
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Decanter
Nuanced and fine raspberry, redcurrant and cherry fruit with some cherry blossom finesse. Black liquorice and earthy tobacco characters. Very classy.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Pinot Noir Jessie Vineyard was made with 51% whole clusters and aged 18 months in 53% new French oak. It has a medium ruby color with scents of tar, crushed black cherries, black currants, cured meats, peppercorn, licorice, earth and potpourri. The palate is medium-bodied, silky, intense and layered with a long, nuanced finish. This is a more serious style and will benefit from another couple of years in bottle. Rating: 92+
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Wine & Spirits
Like a Highland single malt, this leads with scents of peat and pepper. The flavors fall deftly between plum, black cherry and savor, with a suave texture that belies a granular intensity, succulent and energetic for veal marsala.
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Wine Enthusiast
A tangle of raspberry, cherry and orange fruit flavors, this young wine may benefit from another year or two of bottle age. Roughly half was whole-cluster fermented, and the wine spent 18 months in half new French oak. A sharply astringent finish wraps it up.
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.