Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Drawn from five blocks on the Cristom property, this complex pinot has savory scents of olive and dried leaves, Christmas spice and black cherry. There's a definite fleshiness to the strawberry flavors, the earth and herb notes contrasting bright fruit, suggesting a pairing with roast salmon.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
While it may not be the biggest or most muscular of Christom's line-up of Pinots, this wine earns our nod as the most complete of the bunch. Its very solid, nicely concentrated, ripe-cherry fruit is enriched by a careful complement of sweet oak, and, while quite well extracted, it has the balance to seem always light on its feet. Its bias to firmness makes us believers in its future, yet it is eminently tasty right now and is never so stiff as to dissuade early drinking.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2007 Pinot Noir Sommers Reserve is a barrel selection aged in 60% new oak. It exhibits an expressive nose of cinnamon, allspice, smoke, black cherry and black raspberry. On the palate it has plenty of succulent fruit, good depth and concentration, and enough structure to evolve for 2-3 years. It will be at its best from 2011 to 2019.
Home of some of the planet’s most amazingly elegant and expressive Pinot noir, the Willamette Valley is a pastoral, mixed landscape of green, bucolic rolling hills, dramatic forestlands and small, independent, friendly wine growers. As a leader in environmental stewardship, the valley has some of the nation’s most protective land use policies, with two-thirds of its vineyards farmed sustainably and over half, organically. While the valley claims a cool, continental climate, and is heavily influenced by the cold, moist winds of the Pacific Ocean, its warm and dry summers allow for the steady, even ripening of Pinot noir.
The potential of Willamette Valley Pinot noir continues to attract the investment of serious growers and winemakers both locally and from abroad, as naturally the finished wines bring accolades from professionals and enthusiasts. With a range of styles from delicate dried cherry, raspberry and hibiscus to stronger notes of truffle, mocha, plum and spice, a fine Willamette Valley Pinot noir is a perfect expression of both character and grace.