90 RWP; 92 WS; Winetex 90; $36

I took another Cristom hit for the team and opened this Pinot last night. It turned out to be the best of the 2000 Cristom wines IMHO.

It was decanted about 30 minutes. It wasn't interesting right out of the bottle but after the decant it revealed a spicy nose of cherries. Instead of more cherries as I was expecting in the middle there was intense black cherry and currants. Lots of dark fruit but still varietally correct. The finish was more of the same with a bit of vanilla (some oak). It was excellent with the food - a risotto with portabello mushrooms.

Great job by the Cristom winemaker. This wine has great style and elegance (!) and may be stunning in 1-2 years.

Random rant - To think I opened it because the bottle is so large and misshapen that it was a pain in the cooler. I would buy more of their wines if they wouldn't use those horrible bottles.

Thanks Winetex,

I had a bottle of the '99 with Copper River Salmon in Seattle last year and it was very good. And yes, the bottles are very big and heavy, but not as bad as Ken Wright's.

I didn't think bottles came much worse than Cristom's but there are some oddly shaped ones such as Chat. Gardine that are also tough on the cooler.

Are Ken Wright's as heavy?

It's not that they are really heavy, just very wide and curvaceous - similar in shape to a bottle of Dom Perignon, with a really deep punt. I feel your pain about the cooler - It does improve your spatial relations though, doesn't it?

Very encouraged to see your notes Winetex. I now have some to compare to the Eileen, which, as you know, knocked my socks off.

Dick

Dick - FYI - The Reserve is blended from the various Cristom vineyards. It may account for some the complexity in the wine. It was also more ready to drink than the Majorie.

I'm glad you have some to try.

i have a couple of bottles. should i drink now or hold? if hold, how long? your best guess is fine, if you aren't sure .

I would try one now and another in a year to see its progression. It doesn't have the acidity to keep too much longer. The reviews say to drink before '09. No problem!

Winetex.....tonight I had the Reserve and find both your notes and rating right on target. This is an excellent wine and I believe it will improve. I have now had 2 of my supply of the Eileen and I definitely stand by my higher rating than the reserve. Wouldn't it be nice to have a tasting of all of the individual vineyard wines and the Reserve simultaneously?

Dick

The Eileen must be really good. It would be a fun tasting because the wines are truly unique and good quality. I give them credit for this.

Had this last week at a restaurant in Hollywood and was very impressed as well. It was a notch below the '01 BC Rozak Ranch, but a small notch. Nicely concentrated and ripe, but not over the top. A nice elegant bruiser . I'll follow Winetex's lead and go 90 points as well.

Good notes Winetex. And I couldn't agree with you and Jaimetown more about the size of Oregon Pinot Noir bottles in general. Half of the auxilliary storage in my cooling unit (whch isn't that much to begin with...) is taken up by fat Oregon bottles that I can't fit into the individual cubbies.

I have been laying these evilly contrived bottles in the diamond shaped racks and on top of the rack structure.

Dick

They are evil. We drank another bottle of the Cristom Marjorie last week because it was in the way. A mediocre showing so I didn't update my original TN.

i finally got around to trying one of these tonight & it was very good. winetex, your notes are right on & i'll split the difference & give it 91 points. i got a lot of cherries, but it probably didn't help that i had a bowl of fresh ripe cherries on the table with dinner . oh yeah, dinner was our first attempt at a brined chicken .

Had a half bottle of this last nite. Only my second foray into PN. Very enjoyable.

My brief tasting notes from the winery on July 31st (I don't know how long the bottle had been open.):

Rough, tannic, will improve 87

Maybe the half has improved more quickly. Couldn't say it was tannic at all.

It's possible the bottle at the winery had just been opened. That's one of the major variables in tasting at a winery. I usually ask when a bottle has been opened, but sometimes the employee isn't sure. They may have the date on the bottle, but not the time.

It sounds like maybe that was the issue (i.e. bottle open too long). There were light tannins in our bottle.