2018 Cristom Pinot Noir Mt. Jefferson Cuvée- USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Eola - Amity Hills (1/15/2022)
Day 1: Pop and pour. Cranberry, candied dried cherries, floral, spice, minerals and strawberry. Pleasant wine and medium finish. Look forward to the evolution over 3 days. (Natural cork) 90 points
Day 2: Wine is better. Not as intense which is why I love Oregon Pinot. Cranberry, sour strawberries, minerals, wafer, dried twigs and floral notes. This wine is young so decant two or three hours if you are consuming on day 1. 91 points
Day 2.5: For sure lost that candied dried fruit of day 1. Much more rustic now with forest floor, wafer, minerals, dried twigs along with some cranberry and strawberry notes. Quite a nice wine for under $30.00. 91+ points
Day 3: For sure holding up strong. Cranberry, forest floor, minerals, strawberry and earth. Very tasty. 91+ points
Recommendation: This is a great value and I got it on sale for under $30 so no hurry on drinking these and would recommend a 4 hour decant. (91 pts.)
Definitely no rush on opening. I was lucky enough to get 3x 375ml bottles of the 2000 and 2001 Mt. Jeff last year. Both have been phenomenal wines, and really drinking well.
Cristom only designates their estate fruit for single vineyard wines, so all of their purchased fruit used to go into the Reserve or the Mt. Jefferson. The vineyards they purchase from are like a who’s who of older great vineyards. So the source material for the Mt. Jefferson is extraordinary for an entry level wine.
While some of the estate fruit winds up in the Mt. Jefferson, the best of it is culled out for the vineyard designates. Regardless of how anyone views Eileen, the best is not in the Mt. Jeff.
But Cristom has also purchased fruit from the very beginning. Many of the vineyards they buy from are highly regarded, and most are among the older plantings in the Willamette Valley. I’m not naming names because I haven’t talked to anyone at Cristom recently about who they still purchase fruit from. And at least one of the vineyards had a similar nda for the fruit that Jim had with the vineyard that produced the PGC Mysterious bottling.
2018 Cristom Pinot Noir Mt. Jefferson Cuvée - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Eola - Amity Hills (2/5/2022)
Day 2: Much better than day one and this is a long term ager. Cranberry, ripe strawberries, floral, dust, minerals and spice. Very complex offering for the price point. Good acidity. (Diam type cork) 92 points
Day 3: This is even better. Truly exceptional value. Ripe strawberry, cranberry, minerals, spice, floral and and iron. Medium plus finish and good acidity. Really hard to find a better value at $25.00. 93 points
Recommendation: Buy and this will age nicely for five to ten years. Decant 4 hours if you are looking to consume on day 1. (93 points)
My wife, her sister, sister’s partner, and I walked by that corner post-drinks, one Sunday afternoon. So we started singing and dancing “Come On Eileen.” I thought we sounded ok, but an angry old lady sneered down at us from an upper floor window, before demonstratively slamming it.
I’m guessing that we didn’t sound as good as I thought, and that we weren’t the first ones.