2022 Cristom Willamette Valley Pinot Noir
When a winemaker leaves a career in biodynamic farming to take the reins at one of Oregon's most decorated estates and then proceeds to craft a Pinot Noir that Wine & Spirits has named to their Top 100 Restaurant Wines list eleven out of twelve years — meaning the best sommeliers in the country keep choosing it as the bottle worth ordering at dinner, which is the kind of endorsement that doesn’t come from a marketing budget — you don’t get “pleasant Oregon red” as a result. You get Pinot Noir that makes Burgundy fans nervously check flight prices to Portland. The Gerrie family built Cristom in 1992 on 240 acres of Eola-Amity Hills with a singular obsession: five single-vineyard estate wines named for the family matriarchs. What you have here is their flagship Mt. Jefferson Cuvée — the wine winemaker Daniel Estrin crafts first every vintage, before anything else, as the purest expression of what Cristom is. Which tells you everything.
The facts
100% Pinot Noir from the Eola-Amity Hills, Willamette Valley
52% whole-cluster fermentation with native yeast
Aged 10 months in 22% new French oak
Unfined and unfiltered
75% estate fruit, 25% sourced from neighboring Eola-Amity Hills vineyards
Best drinking window: now through 2030+
In the glass
Sour cherries, red currants, crushed roses, and mild spices on the nose, layered over a foundation of cranberry sauce, pomegranate, cardamom, and forest floor that makes the whole thing smell like an exceptionally well-dressed picnic in a Pacific Northwest old-growth forest. James Suckling handed it 94 points and called it “lively, precise and well-composed” with “succulent wild berries at the center and verve throughout,” which is the wine critic way of saying this thing has more energy than is reasonable. Vinous gave it 93 and described it as “wildly exotic” with “dried flowers, incense, rosemary and dried strawberries” that are “wonderfully fresh, nearly crunchy in feel” — crunchy being, apparently, the highest compliment you can pay a Pinot that still finishes with youthful tension and suggestions of tart raspberry that linger like a really good punchline. The medium body is structured by clay-textured tannins and vibrant acidity with a long, spicy finish that makes “elegant” and “crushable” the same word. Pair with duck breast, salmon en croûte, mushroom risotto, roast chicken, pinot-friendly charcuterie, or a Tuesday when you need Oregon to remind you why it exists.
2023 François et Julien Pinon Silex Noir, Vouvray
When a family has been making wine in Vouvray since 1786 — that’s before the French Revolution, before the United States had a functioning government, before basically anything you learned about in high school — and the 8th-generation winemaker decides to cold-ferment Chenin Blanc for two to three months with nothing but wild yeasts in a cellar tunneled into a tuffeau hillside, you don’t get “decent Loire white.” You get a demi-sec that makes the concept of residual sugar feel like a philosophical argument you’re going to lose. Julien Pinon farms 3.7 hectares of 45-year-old vines on rare black flint soils found almost exclusively in this one tiny corner of Vouvray — the Vallée de Cousse — and uses those soils’ name for this wine. The flint drains well, runs warm, and produces grapes that ripen earlier and carry minerality like a grudge.
The facts
100% Chenin Blanc, Vouvray AOC
45-year-old vines on south-southeast exposed silex noir (black flint) soils
Certified organic since 2007; hand-harvested, gravity-fed
Native yeast fermentation, 2–3 months, stops naturally in cold cellar
Aged on fine lees for 4–5 months in old oak demi-muids and large foudres
Demi-sec — off-dry, with a razor-sharp mineral backbone
In the glass
Mango, quince paste, ripe pear, and candied peach on the nose give way to a palate that is simultaneously lush and taut — rich fruit with a vibrating mineral tension underneath that keeps everything honest. There’s lemon zest, greengage plum, and an almost electric flinty quality that tastes like the terroir is introducing itself with a firm handshake. The residual sugar doesn’t linger so much as it provides scaffolding for the acid, which is the kind of intelligent winemaking that makes you feel smarter for noticing it. The fermentation stops entirely on its own because the cellar is simply too cold to let the yeast continue — which is either brilliant winemaking or the most elegant natural process in the Loire, and the answer is very much both. Pair with foie gras, spicy Asian cuisine, pan-seared scallops, washed-rind cheese, roast pork with stone fruit, or anywhere you need something that makes “sweet” and “electric” the same sensation.
2024 Franck Balthazar Côtes du Rhône
When a man walks away from a textile factory job in 2002 to take over his family’s steep granite vineyards in Cornas — an appellation so small it has just 110 hectares total — plows them with horses, ages his wines in century-old demi-muids inherited from a legendary retired neighbor, and bottles everything unfiltered with almost no sulfur, you don’t get “entry-level Rhône red.” You get one of the most traditionally-minded, critically revered names in the entire Northern Rhône charging you Côtes du Rhône prices because he picked up 3 hectares of organically farmed land near Vinsobres and decided the world needed a way in. Franck Balthazar’s Cornas wines are things of obsessive devotion. This is what he makes when he wants to make something you can drink on a Wednesday.
The facts
60% Syrah, 40% Grenache from organically farmed vineyards near Vinsobres, la Drôme
Indigenous yeast fermentation; partial destemming depending on the batch
Manual harvest; unfined, unfiltered, minimal SO₂
Aged in vats and old neutral containers — enough to polish texture without leaving a fingerprint
Based in Cornas, making Northern Rhône wines the way his grandfather Casimir Balthazar did in 1931
In the glass
Fresh and pure with a solid core of raspberry and plum, framed by white pepper, rosemary, savory herbs, and violet notes that make the whole thing smell like a Provençal hillside on a warm afternoon. The palate delivers red berry concentration with powdery, fine-grained tannins and a long, slate-inflected finish that has the kind of pristine clarity you only get when a winemaker refuses to cut corners at any price point. The Syrah brings Northern Rhône backbone and that characteristic floral-and-pepper snap; the Grenache softens the edges and adds roundness without removing the point. The neutral vessel aging polishes the texture without leaving any calling card — no oak flavor to decode here, just terroir doing its thing. The partial whole-cluster fermentation brings subtle herbal lift that makes this the most versatile red in your arsenal. It drinks beautifully now but has the structure to develop if you can leave it alone — though you won’t. Pair with grilled lamb chops, herb-roasted chicken, steak frites, a good ratatouille, anything with olives and capers, or any dinner that needs a serious wine at a price that feels like you got away with something.