2017 Cristom Vineyards Pinot Noir Mt. Jefferson Cuvee Willamette Valley Half Bottle (375 mL) Half-Bottle

We mean it when we say that the best thing about a great wine is sharing it. But if any wine could tempt us to keep it to ourselves, it’s the 2017 Cristom Vineyards Mt. Jefferson Cuvée Willamette Valley in half-bottle. It’s two ruby-hued glasses, 375 delicious lip-smacking milliliters of the first Cristom Pinot to land on the Wine Spectator Top 100, where it claimed the #73 spot—three ahead of the $72 Penner-Ash Pinot from Oregon’s legendary Shea Vineyard. 

When word got out that the 2017 Mt. Jefferson Cuvée made the Spectator list, the 750-ml. bottles sold out immediately, so we claimed as many half-bottles as we could. Sourced mainly from Cristom’s spectacular estate vineyards—Eileen, Jessie, Louise, Marjorie, and Paul Gerrie—Mt. Jefferson is the very first wine Cristom winemaker Steve Doerner crafts every year, sampling and blending the perfect lots even before making the pricier vineyard-designate wines, which go for $65 and up.

No wonder the first Cristom Pinot to make the Top 100 is the 2017 Mt. Jefferson Cuvée. It’s a superb value, and its high-toned black cherries and cranberries, notes of cardamom and cinnamon stick, supple mouthfeel and bright backbone of acidic verve make it everything we love about Oregon Pinot. 

Restaurants always devour Cristom in half-bottle, and commercial accounts are clamoring for the 2017 Mt. Jefferson in any format they can get. That’s why we encourage you to take yours now at our outstanding value price.

Their historic first Spectator Top 100 aside, the plaudits Cristom has earned in a quarter-century could fill a book. Decanter has crowned them “Top Oregon Pinot.” Wine & Spirits magazine found that Cristom was the “#1 Pinot Noir on restaurant wine lists in America,” and also named them a Top 100 winery five times in the last decade. Demand is off the charts for wines from what many consider to be Oregon’s all-time greatest Pinot house, which makes this offer, a historic showing in one of their most popular formats, even more special.

Cristom owes its success to deep experience and special terroir. Second-generation winegrower-owner Tom Gerrie, who grew up on the property, has made wine in Meursault, Alsace, and Australia with Decanter’s Man of the Year Brian Croser. His talents are combined with those of winemaker Steve Doerner, who worked at Calera and Burgundy’s Domaine Dujac before joining Cristom more than two decades ago. 

For the Mount Jefferson Cuvée, 60% of the fruit comes from Cristom’s estate, which is a study in moderation: Warm days are balanced by cool nights, and gusting 25 mph Pacific Ocean winds help even out summer temperatures, resulting in fruit with bright acidity and superb structure and length. The result is a Pinot that would impress even at the single-vineyard price of $65+. 

We recommend clearing some space for the Pinot that finally claimed a Spectator Top 100 finish for a winery that’s won just about every other honor out there.