On Wednesday, July 17, 2024, we interviewed Daniel Estrin. Daniel is the winemaker for Cristom Vineyards. We covered six new-release 2022 Pinot Noirs and two new-release 2022 Chardonnays during our interview. Check out what we learned about the Cristom winery and Daniel.
Before we get to the wines, I thought I would share some tidbits that Daniel shared.
- Cristom Vineyards was established in 1992 by the Gerrie family to grow and craft distinguished wines of place that honor individual sites and traditional techniques.
- Bringing together biodynamic and organic farming methods, they farm the land with the next 100-years in mind. Their philosophy is to achieve the greatest expression of terroir, while producing their fine wines.
- The cornerstone of our winemaking is rooted in traditional methods – site selection, low yields, whole-cluster fermentation, and native yeasts – to produce balanced, dynamic wines of intensity, structure and length.
- In 1992, Paul Gerrie, founder of Cristom, was looking for a winemaker.
- He was taken with the wines of Calera, noting them to be the greatest examples of Pinot Noir in the New World, and a reflection of Domaine Dujac wines.
- So, Paul convinced Calera winemaker Steve Doerner to head north to Oregon and start the story of Cristom Vineyards.
- Steve graduated from U.C. Davis. He serendipitously connected with Josh Jensen, proprietor of Calera Wine Company (a California Pinot Noir producer) who was looking for a winemaking protégé that was comfortable with a minimalist and natural approach to winemaking.
- Steve was hired to help make Calera’s first Pinot Noir vintage in 1978.
- After several years, Steve took over the winemaking duties, and ultimately, spent 14 years honing his craft at Calera.
- Steve has been lauded for his minimalist winemaking style over his 40-plus year career, focused on whole clusters and native fermentations.
- Cristom started with the Marjorie Vineyard. It needed lots of work. Then came the Louise, Jesse, and Eileen vineyards. In 2014, Tom Gerrie, Paul’s son planted a new vineyard and named it after his dad.
- The estate is now 240 acres. 87 acres are planted. 50+ acres are still available to plant.
- In 2019, Steve turned over the winemaking and vineyard management to Daniel Estrin.
- So, who is Daniel Estrin? Despite growing up in the Salem, Oregon, Daniel had no early exposure to wine until 2000, when his car broke down in LA, and he took a job stocking shelves at The Wine House.
- Through Daniel’s Uncle Mark (founder of Red Car Wines) he developed a passion for the craft.
- After a couple of harvests at Red Car, Matt Dees connected him to with Craggy Range in New Zealand.
- Daniel graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 2012 with a B.S. in Viticulture and minors in Soil Science and Plant Protection.
- From there he accepted a highly coveted internship at Littorai Wines.
- For 6 years, Daniel worked under Proprietor/Winemaker Ted Lemon. Rising through the ranks, Daniel became an Associate Winemaker and helped push forward Littorai’s progressive farming program featuring biodynamics.
- In addition to Littorai, Daniel has also worked at Mount Langi Ghiran, planted a vineyard at Domaine de la Cote with Raj Parr, worked with Pinot Noir at Bodega Chacra in Patagonia, Argentina and did some consulting for Burn Cottage in New Zealand. So, he has been a round around.
- In July 2019, Daniel returned to his Oregon roots with his wife and two pups to work for Cristom.
- Daniel continues to use whole-cluster fermentation. These days the average is about 50%. He is also doing unfined and unfiltered approaches.
- Their Mt. Jefferson Cuvee is more than ½ of their production. 73% of the fruit is from the Estate. 100% of the fruit is from the Eola-Amity AVA. More than 20% new oak is used on this wine.
Below is a summary of the wine offerings from Cristom that we covered with Daniel. The links below are to our full reviews. If you are interested in ordering and trying these wines, you will find some of these wines via your favorite fine wine shop or on top quality wines lists. You can also find a few online. For example, you can purchase these wines on the Cristom website.
1. Cristom 2022 Pinot Noir “Mt. Jefferson Cuvée” (Eola-Amity Hills, OR) $50 (KWGTP 92.5)
2. Cristom 2022 Pinot Noir “Jessie Vineyard” (Eola-Amity Hills, OR) $80 (KWGTP 93.5)
3. Cristom 2022 Pinot Noir “Louise Vineyard” (Eola-Amity Hills, OR) $80 (KWGTP 94)
4. Cristom 2022 Pinot Noir “Marjorie Vineyard” (Eola-Amity Hills, OR) $80 (KWGTP 94)
5. Cristom 2022 Pinot Noir “Eileen Vineyard” (Eola-Amity Hills, OR) $80 (KWGTP 94.5)
6. Cristom 2022 Pinot Noir “Paul Gerrie Vineyard” (Eola-Amity Hills, OR) $80 (KWGTP 93)
7. Cristom 2022 Chardonnay “Eola-Amity Hills” (Eola-Amity Hills, OR) $50 (KWGTP 93)
8. Cristom 2022 Chardonnay “Louise Vineyard” (Eola-Amity Hills, OR) $60 (KWGTP 93)
You can find reviews of past and future Cristom wines that we cover on the Cristom KWG winery page on our website. We hope you enjoy these terrific wines as much as we did. Cheers! – Ken