Winemaker Notes
The 2021 vintage may come to be defined by the near storybook ending to the growing season that allowed the vines to preserve fresh fruit characters in concentrated clusters and achieve greater balance in the wines in one of the driest years in company history. Overall, the 2021 vintage may reveal itself to be one of the greats of the last ten years.
Aromatically the wine is red and blackberry driven, perfumed with fine vanilla cake, damp forest floor, and violets. On the palate, the wine is juicy and full, with perfectly ripened berry fruits, well-integrated tannins, and mulling spices.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Pretty notes of mulberries, spiced cherries, cloves and tea leaves. Some mushroom. It’s so silky, supple and delicious with very fine tannins. I like the savory tightness and minerality. Some rusty hints, too. Tight finish. 43% whole cluster. Drink from 2024.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The flagship wine of the house, the jeweled rub-colored 2021 Pinot Noir Mt. Jefferson Cuvée is flush with pure primary fruit up front, including notes of ripe wild cherry, crushed flowers, and dusty earth. Medium to full-bodied, it displays good purity and ripeness on the palate, with mouth-filling fruit and a clean finish.
Rating: 92+
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Mt. Jefferson Cuvée Pinot Noir includes 52% estate fruit. It was fermented with 44% whole clusters. It opens slowly to reveal aromas of cranberry, red cherry and star anise, plus finer nuances of Earl Grey tea leaves, pipe tobacco and iron. The medium-bodied palate features delicately styled, juicy red fruit framed by softly chalky tannins, and it boasts expansive floral and spice character on the long finish. Rating: 92+
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Wine & Spirits
Warm and generous, Mt. Jeff is Cristom’s appellation wine, drawing largely from estate sources. This 2021 feels precocious, with scents of plum skin and foresty black cherries, a dark clove-like note, and flavors that feel lifted and succulent.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2021 Cristom Jefferson Cuvée Pinot Noir is bright and zesty on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine delivers aromas and flavors of red berries and faint earthy notes. Enjoy it with grilled wild salmon fillets. (Tasted: November 19, 2022, San Francisco, CA)
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.