Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
The nose is very savory, earthy and botanical, with red roses, sandstone and minerals. The palate is dense and concentrated, with fresh, pure fruit flavors. Full-bodied and structured with a long finish.
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Decanter
This is the 30th Anniversary bottling of the wine known colloquially as Mt Jeff, with fruit from four of the five Cristom estate vineyards, with only Marjorie not playing a role in this bottling. Pure Willamette character on the nose, with forest floor, tart cranberries, and mint leaves, is balanced by a kiss of sea salt. The palate is a melange of juicy red berries, salty mineral glimpses, and savoury amaro herbals. A classic, after all these years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I tasted the 2024 Mt. Jefferson Cuvée Pinot Noir from tank a few days before it was due to be bottled. It has slowly opening aromas of blackberry and black cherry, earth and violets. The medium-bodied palate matches concentrated, floral fruit with well-integrated oak spice. It’s framed by silky tannins and fresh acidity and has a nuanced finish.
Barrel Sample: 90-92
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.