Winemaker Notes
Planted in 1993, Louise Vineyard was named for Cristom winegrower &owner Tom Gerrie’s great-grandmother, Louise Dinkelspiel. The lowest elevation Pinot Noir planting on the Cristom estate, Louise Vineyard can be distinctly separated into an “upper” and “lower” section, divided by a 150 ft. (45.7 m) slope. Because of this unique topography, Louise typically has both some of the earliest and latest fruit harvested each year.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very attractively vivid raspberry, strawberry and red-cherry aromas on offer here. This is really bathed in ripe fruit and expressed in a very pure mode. The palate has intensity of flavor and piercing depth. The red cherries and plums run so deep and crescendo into an explosive, upbeat finish. Wow factor is high. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Pinot Noir Louise Vineyard comes from vines planted in 1993-1995. This iteration was made with 49% whole clusters and was aged 17 months in 55% new French oak. The nose offers concentrated cranberries and rhubarb, blood orange and violet with accents of tobacco and prosciutto. Medium-bodied, the palate is powerful, concentrated, firmly framed and fresh, and it finishes very long and flavorful. It's enjoyable now if you love a fully fruited Pinot, or it will age well in the cellar over the next 3-5+ years.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Cristom Louise Vineyard Pinot Noir comes right at you with focused intensity. TASTING NOTES: This wine shows up with aromas and flavors of ripe berries, black fruits, and a slight accent of oak. Enjoy it with well-seasoned pork kebabs. (Tasted: October 28, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine & Spirits
From blocks mostly planted on Jory soils in 1993, this has a subtly smoky whole-cluster scent, along with a fair bit of oak, but the fruit has rhubarb lift, tart, pretty and suave, with fine mineral tannins. For cumin-spiced pork.
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Wine Spectator
A bit taut right now, with youthful tannins that frame dark plum, tarragon and crushed rock accents that build tension on a long finish. Hands off for now.
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.