Cristom’s 2010 Pinot Noir Summers Reserve – as usual, sourced diversely, but in only small part from the Cristom estate – is pungently – and sweetly-scented with blond tobacco; fresh cherry and red currant; smoked meat; brown spices and white pepper, all of which then inform a tight, tart-edged, firm palate. It finishes with sappy, gripping and energetic intensity; not the most refined Pinot to be sure, but bursting with flavor and, I suspect, bursting to leave the starting gate and show that it can cover at least a decade’s distance with aplomb.
Steve Doerner – for much more about whom, and about this estate, see my Issue 202 introduction – reported from 2011” the lowest brix in our estate’s (20 year) history, lower even the cool vintages from the ‘90s” and he chaptalized to the greatest extent, typically bringing the wines up by nearly a point in alcohol, to around 13%. Some wines were acid-adjusted (adding tartaric to compensate for the high malic that was going to turn lactic) and – unlike most other strong protagonists of this approach that in the Willamette is above all associated with him – Doerner backed off a bit on the share of whole clusters and stems that went into the fermenters. As a measure of the Cristom team’s confidence in the 2011 vintage, they not only rendered from this vintage a four-barrel “Signature Cuvee,” but also an “estate blend” utilizing a barrel from each of their vineyard sites. As usual, though, with one exception it is the Cristom Pinot Noirs of three calendar years prior that were presented to me to taste there this summer. It’s no wonder that the team here is keen on a 2010 vintage in which they managed to achieve power and structure, as well as in which flavors clearly developed superbly before must weights climbed significantly. Doerner refers to a certain “delicacy” in the wines; maybe, but tasting the 2010 vintage Pinot collection here left me not just exhilarated but pretty nearly wrung out!
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