100% Pinot Noir

Food pairings: Roast duck, wild mushroom dishes, or grilled salmon.

Scores:

• 96 points, James Suckling
• 96 points, Decanter
• 96 points, Jeb Dunnuck

Winemaking: The 2022 Jessie Vineyard Pinot Noir was hand-harvested, fermented with 49% whole clusters and native yeasts, and aged 17 months on its lees in 30% new French oak barrels. It is unfined and unfiltered. The winemaking team is Daniel Estrin, winemaker and vineyard manager; Chris Butler, assistant winemaker; and Tom Gerrie, winegrower and owner.

Vineyards and terroir: Jessie Vineyard, established in 1994 and named for founder Paul Gerrie's paternal grandmother, Jessie Sommers Gerrie, is a steep mid-slope site on the east-facing Cristom hillside in the Eola-Amity Hills. It is the only estate vineyard planted entirely with east-west rows that follow the slope, which helps shelter the fruit from afternoon sun. The soils are Columbia River basalts, including Jory, Saum, Nekia, Gelderman, Ritner, and Witzel, and the site is cooled by Pacific air that enters the Willamette Valley through the Van Duzer Corridor. The 2022 vintage began cool and wet, with a rare mid-April cold snap that spared the Cristom estate from frost but lengthened the season; a generous fruit set and a long, warm summer carried ripening into October, with harvest from September 23 to October 12. Clones are Pommard and Dijon 667, 777, 114, and 115.

Family and history: Cristom Vineyards was established in 1992 in the Eola-Amity Hills. The Jessie Vineyard Pinot Noir was first bottled in 1998, and the estate remains in the Gerrie family, with Tom Gerrie as winegrower and owner.