Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A very spicy and fresh array of blueberries, ripe darker cherries and plums. Cassis aromas, too, as well as more savory notes of graphite and fragrant wood. The palate has very striking depth and presence with expansive, fleshy tannins carrying intense fruit flavors, in the darker spectrum of cherries and berries. Cocoa powder to close. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Mt. Jefferson Cuvée Pinot Noir is composed of 63% estate fruit. It was fermented with 46% whole clusters. Touches of flint on the nose give way to rhubarb, blueberry and orange peel, plus finer accents of tobacco, star anise, autumn leaves and Angostura bitters. The medium-bodied palate is still very youthful, bursting with layers of spicy berry fruit. It has powerful, grainy tannins, energetic acidity and a long, latent finish. Rating: 93+
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Cristom Mt. Jefferson Cuvée Pinot Noir is appealing and endearing. TASTING NOTES: This wine brings ripe red fruit aromas and flavors that stay long though the wine's finish. Enjoy it with grilled lamb. (Tasted: August 22, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine & Spirits
Dry and turfy, this feels angular and grippy, with a tight weave and mineral grip that gears it toward a meal, something like duck breast.
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.