Cristom’s 2010 Pinot Noir Marjorie offers a particularly clear performance, with pure red raspberry and strawberry more confitured than in the other Pinots of this collection; wreathed in high-toned freesia, sassafras and licorice-like floral and herbal essences; mingled with almond and pistachio extract; as well as tinged with the brown spices that run like a vintage marker through this collection. Many of these characteristics are of course known to be reinforced by the proper use of stems and whole clusters with which Doerner is associated. Yet the refinement of texture – already almost silken – belies most wine observers’ as well as vintners’ conceptions of vendange entier. The billowing inner-mouth floral and nut extract essences and sweet, sappy red berry fruit that practically erupt on an expansive, tactilely invigorating and buoyant finish strike me as though the wine were saying: “I don’t need to strain like my siblings in order to convince you than I am on the way to becoming great wine!” Give this at least a dozen years to strut its stuff – not that you should wait that long to begin opening bottles, on the contrary. 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