Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Pinot Noir Sommers Reserve will be released near the end of 2015. It offer lively red berry fruit with redcurrant and wild raspberry scents, fine delineation with cheeky hints of marmalade and orange rind. The palate is medium-bodied and almost feral on the entry, as it seems to shoot off in a different direction. Then the acidity begins to bind it all together to form a cohesive, sorbet-fresh, bay-leaf finish that is long in the mouth. It needs to develop a little more persistence on the balsamic-tinged aftertaste, but otherwise this has good potential.
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Wine & Spirits
Cristom’s reserve pinot noir is a monolith at the moment, with plenty of dark oak flavors to contain the ripe fruit and a little whole-cluster spice. It’s dense, powerful and built for the cellar.
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.