2021 Cristom Pinot Noir Whole Cluster Experience 3 pack Willamette Valley

One of the greatest Pinot Noir wineries in the world has—at considerable expense and effort—crafted a three-bottle set to illustrate the effect of whole-cluster fermentation on finished Pinot Noirs. And they did it in one of the finest vintages in Oregon in the last 30 years. 

This three-bottle set of Cristom Vineyards’ 0%, 50%, and 100% whole-cluster 2021 Pinots Noirs are all made from their Louise Vineyard, whose wines typically retail for $80. Tasting and comparing these wines is simply exhilarating, with the cause and effect being so clearly and transparently expressed, from the vine to the glass! 

Prior to the 1970s, nearly all Pinot Noir was whole-cluster fermented (the wine was made with the stems still attached). With the success of producers like Burgundy’s Henri Jayer, who favored destemmed fruit, the fruit-forward, softer profile of destemmed-berry wines came into fashion, as it remains today. Only a few mavericks longed for that extra, “fourth dimension” of flavor and tannin structure that whole clusters provide.

One of them was Cristom’s Steve Doerner, who arrived at Cristom from Calera in 1992, then led the way for whole-cluster winemaking in Oregon. Doerner, also an alum of Burgundy’s Domaine Dujac, spent another 30 vintages refining the art—and today, using 40%-50% whole clusters is a part of Cristom’s “lifeblood,” in the words of Winegrower-Owner Tom Gerrie.

For this series, Winemaker Daniel Elstrin—who joined Cristom from Sonoma icon Littorai in 2019—took pains to minimize any other variable in each lot’s production, using the same rootstocks and clones, punchdowns, pumpovers, and barrels. He wanted the only differences in the wines to be the result of different percentages of whole clusters in the vat.