Winemaker Notes
Diversity and Complexity are the hallmarks of the J. Christopher Volcanique Pinot Noir. It is a blend of 5 of the finest vineyards in the Dundee Hills AVA: Baptista Maresh, La Colina, Bella Vida, Charlie’s and Abbey Ridge. Four different clones make us the source vine material: Pommard, Wadenswil, Coury and Dijon 777. This cuvée is comprised of the top tier of barrels from their numerous Dundee Hills sources. They feel the blend of vineyards and clone types leads to a complex wine with aromas of black tea, rhubarb, ripe raspberry and dusty earth notes. Medium bodied but serious on the palate, sneaky density in an elegant package that features, red fruits, Asian spices and lovely echoes of toasty oak.
This can stand up to rack of lamb or BBQ strip steak, but sophisticated enough for swordfish or scallops with a rich sauce.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Distilled from estate lots planted on volcanic soils, this really does smell like volcanic earth, in its smoky and mildly earthy notes. The cool red-fruit flavors seem plush at first but lengthen and become velvety after a day, spicy with hints of rooibos tea, cinnamon and tar. For tea-smoked duck.
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James Suckling
Floral notes with leaves and baking spices, as well as blueberries and a peppery edge. The palate has good concentration and fleshy fruit presence with finely cast tannins. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
Blending Pommard and Wadenswil clones from the La Colina Vineyard, this is a red fruited wine with a clean, clear focus. Bing cherries are the strength of the palate, with a minerally, dryly tannic finish.
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Wine Spectator
Lithe and expressive, this red builds structure and tension as it opens to raspberry, orange zest and black tea flavors, finishing with polished tannins.
Located in Oregon’s Northern Willamette Valley, J. Christopher Wines is a boutique winery that specializes in Pinot Noir made in the traditional style of Burgundy, and in Sauvignon Blanc modeled after the superlative wines of Sancerre. The winery is owned by world renowned Ernst Loosen, of Weingut Dr. Loosen in Germany. Erni’s lifetime passion for the wines of Burgundy has led to a philosophy to produce elegant, nuanced wines in a distinctly Old World style with an emphasis on lower alcohol and a modest amount of oak. The wines have garnered an international reputation for their purity, balance and food-friendly drinkability.
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.”
Home of the first Pinot noir vineyard of the Willamette Valley, planted by David Lett of Eyrie Vineyard in 1966, today the Dundee Hills AVA remains the most densely planted AVA in the valley (and state). To its north sits the Chehalem Valley and to its south, runs the Willamette River. Within the region’s 12,500 acres, about 1,700 are planted to vine on predominantly basalt-based, volcanic, Jory soil.