Cristom Jessie Vineyard Pinot Noir 2021
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Jeb
Dunnuck - Vinous
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James
Suckling -
Wine
Enthusiast
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Aromatically the wine has notes of red berry fruits, Chinese five-spice, dried flowers, and damp topsoil. On the palate, it is juicy with a combination of ripened of black and red fruits, warm spices, rose petals, and youthful tannins.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Lush with notes of dusty earth, the deep ruby-colored 2021 Pinot Noir Jessie Vineyard is rosy and pure, with wild raspberry liqueur, anise, and orange. Medium-bodied with a focused feel, while retaining ripe red fruit, it offers fine tannins and fresh acidity throughout. It has a bit of texture that I think comes from stem tannins, but they’re ripe and well-integrated. It’s going to benefit from a few more years of bottle age.
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Vinous
The 2021 Pinot Noir Jessie Vineyard opens with a dusty bouquet of rich autumnal spices, hints of ginger and crushed raspberry. This sweeps across the palate with a wave of ripe wild berries guided by zesty acidity, taking on a distinct savoriness toward the close. Hints of blood orange and bitter dark chocolate linger long as the 2021 tapers off with youthful tension and a layer of grippy tannins that frame the experience beautifully. The Jessie is the most wildly appealing of the Cristom single vineyards, presenting a little of something for everyone.
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James Suckling
Scented nose with wild strawberries, spiced cherries, dried herbs, baking spices and a touch of leather. Medium-bodied with bright acidity. Vivid red currant and succulent sour cherry character on the mid-palate. Juicy and focused with harmonious structure and a long, intense finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aged 18 months on lees in French oak, 38% new, is yet another great, aciddriven wine from Cristom’s 2021 vintage. Black cherries and violets are the dominant aromas, with a trace of polished hardwood floors. Flavors like raspberry, saline and mint frolic on a crisp, taut texture.
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Cristom Vineyards is a family-owned and operated winery that has established itself as a top producer of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in the Eola-Amity Hills district of Oregon's Willamette Valley. Second-generation proprietor Tom Gerrie leads the production team, which includes long time winemaker Steve Doerner and recently arrived vineyard manager & winemaker Daniel Estrin. Each bring experience from working at top Pinot/Chardonnay producers in California: Doerner from Calera and Estrin from Littorai. Tom’s parents, Paul and Eileen Gerrie, founded the winery in 1992.
The estate is divided into five single vineyards: Jessie, Eileen, Marjorie, and Louise (all named for Matriarchs in the Gerrie family); and the newly added Paul Gerrie vineyard, acquired in 2012. There are 95 acres on vine throughout the 240-acre property. The majority vineyards are planted at a high density of around 2,300 vines per acre and heavily cropped to produce about 2 tons of fruit per acre.
Cristom farms its estate vineyards according to the biodynamic practices originated by Rudolph Steiner. In 2017 Tom began to implement biodynamic principles to bring the true expression of the vineyard into its wines. Cristom has been a leader in natural winemaking practices, including native yeast and an early pioneer of whole-cluster fermentation in the US. The vineyards and winery are Certified Sustainable by the Oregon LIVE program (Low Input Viticulture and Enology).
Vintage after vintage, Cristom produces top-quality wines, no matter how easy or challenging the elements make it. This consistency is a testament to the deep knowledge of the vineyard, the respect for the land, and a light touch in the cellar. Recognized globally as a leading producer in the beloved Willamette Valley, their wines continue to be a unique blend of tradition, modernity and finesse.
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.