Cherry and red raspberry tinged with cinnamon, pit piquancy and invigorating crunch of berry seeds inform the Cristom 2010 Pinot Noir Eileen, whose interface of flavor and tactile intensity is such that you can’t tell where one leaves off and the other begins. Tartness of rhubarb and bite of white pepper enter on the palate and follow into a finish even more tart, gripping and tactilely incisive than the wine’s intensity of aromatics and point of palate entry had led me to anticipate. The Cristom team routinely refers to Eileen as the most forwardly fruity and precocious as well as “roundest,” “creamiest” and “l(fā)east mineral” of their Pinots. If you were discovering it through this vintage, you’d have to think that they need a reality check! This is one audacious and energetic Pinot; and I can’t wait to witness how it evolves over the next dozen or so years! 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! Tel. (503) 375-3068