The Willamette Valley Pinot Noir is a collection of barrels from benchmark vineyards across the valley, including our own estate, declassified to make one compelling blend representing the finest expression of the vintage. Throughout history, particularly in Europe, iconic brands have chosen to declassify wines. Declissified wines can give consumers entry into some of the greatest terroirs in the world. The grapes in this wine are from across our estate and the benchmark vineyards we purchase from including Meredith Mitchell Vineyard in McMinnville, Ridgecrest Vineyard in Ribbon Ridge and Hopewell Vineyard and Holmes hill Vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills. Each barrel of this wine receives the same immaculate care and attention to detail as the wines chosen to go into our Mt. Jefferson Cuvée and single vineyard wines only crafted to represent the larger Willamette Valley AVA.

The 2020 Cristom Willamette Valley Pinot Noir is a fresh wine of precision and focus defined by crunchy acidity and bright red fruit that will be enjoyed in its youth.

Winemaking - Given the environmental factors we faced in the 2020 vintage, we had to rely on the experience and talent of our winemaking team to make deliberate stylistic decisions to make the highest quality wines possible. We chose to pick some blocks earlier, destem the fruit, inoculate with yeasts to shorten fermentation time and pressed even lighter to craft elegant, focused Pinot Noirs.