Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This has attractive red and blue-floral tones to the nose with fresh blueberry and cassis notes too. So much fragrance here. The palate holds a very plush and fleshy stance with ripe red cherry, dressed in sleek oak spice and tannin. Impressive clarity and depth here. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Pinot Noir Marjorie Vineyard is a lovely wine, opening slowly to rhubarb, blueberries and cured meats with earthy accents. The palate explodes with unexpected flavor, bowling me over with its concentrated layers of fruit, earth and spice. It has a silky, fresh frame and finishes long and layered. This was made with 48% whole clusters and aged 17 months in 67% new French oak and should age very well in the cellar. Rating : 94+
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Cristom Marjorie Vineyard Pinot Noir starts lively and continues with excellent persistence on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine exhibits aromas and flavors of savory earth, sandalwood, red fruits. Enjoy it with grilled dill-accented salmon fillets. (Tasted: October 28, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine & Spirits
Marjorie is one of Cristom’s oldest vineyards. Named for Paul Gerrie’s mother, this wine smells of bright cherry and cinnamon, the flavors full and firm, the whole-cluster elements and the oak combining for a guided, wood-driven finish.
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.