2020 Cristom Vineyards Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 750 ml

Bern’s Steakhouse in Tampa has what’s widely considered America’s most revered and extensive wine list. Certain producers have won places of honor, with dozens of selections: Dominus, Ridge, and Château Margaux, among others. 

Then there’s Cristom, who spans multiple pages on this legendary list. No American winery can boast more Pinot Noir listings.

Cristom has some of the oldest and best vineyards in Eola-Amity Hills. Steve Doerner, their longtime winemaker, enjoys near-shamanic standing among his peers after 29 harvests in Oregon. The winery has landed on the Wine & Spirits Top 100 Wineries of the Year EIGHT times. 

Cristom’s 2020 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir contains more of their iconic Eola-Amity Hills estate vineyards—Eileen, Jessie, Marjorie, and Louise—than ever, and it shows. It’s the kind of wine that made James Suckling declare, “At the price point of $25 to $40, Oregon generally makes better Pinot and Chardonnay than Burgundy.”

Not only are these vineyards some of the most revered in Willamette Valley, but this wine also contains fruit from some other pretty sought-after sites like Meredith Mitchell, Ridgecrest, Arcus, and Hopewell.

In 2020, owner Tom Gerrie, Doerner, and winemaker and vineyard manager Daniel Estrin—a Littorai alum—applied their minimalist winemaking approach, which they sum up as “more about the land than the hand.” They took a light touch in 2020, employing an extremely gentle pressing to preserve the fruit’s elegance and lend focus to the finished wine. “Land-Stewardship-Craftsmanship” is the company motto, and this bottling exemplifies it perfectly.

An iconic winery in their 30th-anniversary year. Top estate vineyards. Winemaking chops that only come from working every harvest in SIX different decades. Cristom’s 2020 Pinot Noir is simply an unbeatable deal.