The ultime gift for your favorite wine connoisseur. The Cristom Collection offers a sampling of our classic cuvées, estate-grown white wines, and sought-after single vineyard Pinot Noirs.
The Mt. Jefferson Cuvée is named after the 2nd-tallest peak in all of Oregon; the mountain itself was named in honor of President Thomas Jefferson, a pesonal hero of both Cristom founder Paul Gerrie and winemaker Steve Doerner. Made with a blend of grapes from each of the estate vineyards, the Mt. Jefferson Cuvée wine conveys a rich diversity of place, deserving its reputation as one of the most expansive yet stylistically consistent Pinot Noirs in the world.
Louise Vineyard is typically the last single vineyard wine to be released. The wine is more heavily textured, dark-fruited and more concentrated in flavor than any of our other estate Pinot Noir. We often find creamy-mocha latte notes on the bouquet co-mingling with dark red fruits that are reminiscent of fresh mulberries, very ripe blackberries, plums and black cherries along with hints of chocolate. We recognize Louise by a delightful velvet texture and a full and persistent finish.
Eileen Vineyard tends to produce a wine that is the most precocious of our four estate vineyards and it’s often the first wine we release into the market. It is always the wine we show first in a line-up of Cristom Pinot Noir. We often find them softer, meaning rounder on the palate with less minerality. Typically, Eileen is textured, layered and creamy on the palate and often recognizable by its bouquet of sweet spices.
Jessie Vineyard tends to produce Pinot Noirs that we recognize by a savory aroma that often calls to mind rare-beef. It also tends to have a very fresh and appealing scent of minerality, along with some higher tone lavender—purple flower notes. On the palate, Jessie tends towards a full mouth-feel and a deeper—darker—rounder impression. We find a certain ‘nervosity’ in this wine that describes some part of the tension between the ripe fruit and the structure of the wine.
The Canary Hill wines typically possess aromas of black and blue fruits, black cherry, cola, plum and cassis, along with naturally higher acidity levels, contributing to structure and the ability to age.
The Carter Vineyard wines can be structured in their youth with firm tannins, densely packed fruit and a rich and expressive palate. The wines of Carter typically possess a complex fruit profile of black and blue fruits, black cherry, plum and cassis, with naturally high acidity levels contributing to the frame and the ability to age.
Wines from Hirschy are often concentrated and possess aromas of black and blue fruits, with added elements of cocoa, leather, anise, clove and fresh-turned earth. The acid in the fruit is often very ripe at harvest leading to a higher finished pH, and lower total acidity prompting these wines to be lush and agreeable in their youth.
After more than twenty vintages producing distinctive expressions of our single vineyards, we made the decision in 2013 to create a blend of some of the finest barrels from each of our four unique estate vineyards. It was with great excitement when we introduced the Cristom Vineyards Estate Pinot Noir bottling with the inaugural 2013 vintage to showcase our entire hillside. This wine combines barrels from all four of our estate Pinot Noir Vineyards — Eileen Vineyard, Jessie Vineyard, Louise Vineyard and Marjorie Vineyard —blended together to create our finest blend of Pinot Noir sites that we can produce as a winery in any year.
The Cristom Pinot Gris is fermented in stainless steel tanks and does not spend any time in oak barrels. It has a certain creaminess that comes from the several months that the wine spends on it lees. Typically, the wine has bright citrus-blossom aromas that range from tangerine zest to lime blossom. Apple, pear and melon are the fruit flavors that are often noted on the palate. This is a bright and lively wine that offers a broad flavor profile. It has a very natural affinity with food.
The Cristom Estate Viognier exhibits the pure, and nearly textbook, characteristics of this varietal, with aromas of orange blossoms, honeysuckle, clover, and anise as well as the ripe fruit aromas of peach, apricot, and lychee. Slightly viscous on the palate, with bright and mouth watering acidity that support the fruit structure of the wine, it is well integrated and perfectly balanced.
Since its very first release in 1996, our estate Chardonnay has been barrel fermented and gone through a full malolactic fermentation to achieve a lush and creamy texture. Only three barrels and just seventy-five cases of this wine are made annually, making it one of the most rare estate wines Cristom produces.
