Wine & Spirits - Winter 2016 - 39

Cristom

XXXXXXXX
A RTISAN

TOP 100 WINERIES 2016

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A RTISAN

Deovlet
Founded: 1992
XXXX
Winemaker:
Steve Doerner
Owner/winemaker/viticulturist:
Viticulturist:
Mark Feltz
XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXX
Owner:
Tom Gerrie
Acres owned:
XXX
Acres
79 XXXXXX
Cases owned:
produced:
Annual
production:
Estate grown:
100%15,500 cases
Estate
grown:
Importer:
Xxxxx85%
Xxxxx, Xxxxx, XX
Location:
Salem, OR
Website: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Website: cristomwines.com

Xxxxxxx
Steve Doerner
Xxxxxx
Most of Cristom's fruit came in after the heavy rains in 2013, but Steve
Doerner managed the deluge with modest adjustments in the cellar, and
patience. The wines are altered but unbowed, as savory and classical as ever.
The Flood: When you're a winemaker and eight inches of rain falls
over ten days in the middle of harvest-as happened in the Willamette Valley in 2013-there's very little you can do but wait it out.
That was especially true at Cristom's estate in the Eola-Amity Hills,
where a later ripening curve divided harvest into pre-rain and postrain picks, yielding dramatically different results. "It was a question
of reacting, but not overreacting," says Steve Doerner, who's been in
Oregon (by way of Calera, in California) for 25 vintages, and has seen
his share of raindrops. His adjustments were measured, not drastic-
fermenting 30 percent rather than the usual 50 percent of the crop as
whole clusters, for example, to avoid less-than-ideal whole bunches.
Before and After: The rains fell mid-harvest, and each of Cristom's four
vineyard designates-Eileen, Marjorie, Jessie and Louise, all at different elevations and with markedly different soils-fared differently.
The warmer sites, Marjorie and Louise, came in earlier; Marjorie was
partly in, and Louise was picked entirely before the rains. At our tastings, these were the most robust in the vintage, the Marjorie suave
and suede-like, the Louise more austere, quiet, possibly
more ageworthy. (A recent tasting of Eileen, harvested after
the rains, confirmed that Doerner had no issues post-deluge either; the wine was lighter than in other vintages, but
no less expressive for it.)
Syrah Weathers the Storms: Cristom's syrah was nowhere
near full ripeness when the rains came, and it weathered the wetness without incident. "It was so far behind
the pinot at that point," says Doerner. "The fruit was
still firm, it had thicker skins, loose clusters-it just
shrugged off the rain-and then we had a beautiful,
sunny, dry October." The 2013 is thrilling cool-climate
syrah, exotic and even more intense than some presumably easier vintages. -P.J.C.

TOP-SCORING WINES

XXXX
Founded: 2008
Owner/winemaker/viticulturist:
Owner/winemaker:
Ryan Deovlet
XXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Acres
owned:
N/A
Acres owned:
XXX 2,000 cases
Annual
production:
Cases produced:
Estate
Grown: N/AXXXXXX
Estate grown:
100%
Location:
San Luis
Obispo, CA
Importer:deovletwines.com
Xxxxx Xxxxx, Xxxxx, XX
Website:
Website: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx

Xxxxxxx
Ryan Deovlet
Xxxxxx
Ryan Deovlet is only in his mid-30s, but his Santa Barbara pinot noirs and
chardonnays show the confident hand of a mature vigneron.
A New Paradigm: Until around eight years ago, Santa Rita Hills wines
tended to be ripe, intense and alcoholic. In that windswept coastal
region in Santa Barbara County, winemakers often felt they had to
allow for high potential alcohol in order to ripen out Santa Rita's
unusually fierce acidity. But around 2008 and 2009, a new generation
of producers, like Deovlet, Chanin and Sandhi (all Top 100 Wineries
this year), started making trim versions of Santa Rita Hills wines, and
the results have been stunning: racy, crystalline chardonnays that
suggest sea-spray rather than butter and vanilla, and pinot noirs that
are often surprisingly dark in color yet firm, energetic and savory.
Young Hands, Old Vines: Ryan Deovlet was in his mid-20s when he
returned to California from a winemaking internship in Australia's
Mornington Peninsula. That region's coastal, cool-climate chardonnay and pinot noir vineyards led him to believe that Santa Maria Valley and the Santa Rita Hills would be the place to launch his own winery. He started out with an acre of La Encantada pinot noir in 2008.
In 2010, he gained access to Sanford & Benedict Vineyard, just east of
La Encantada, where he began to work with the region's oldest chardonnay vines-part of a block of own-rooted chardonnay planted by Richard Sanford and Michael Benedict
in 1971. His 2014 Sanford & Benedict Chardonnay is stunning: bracing in its acidity yet exotic and substantial in its
rich flavor, more Santa Rita Hills than chardonnay.
In the Dunes: "It's another planet from other things I've
seen in the area," says Deovlet of the Zotovich Vineyard, planted on sandy soil north of Sanford & Benedict. "When you see soils at Zotovich that are so magnificently different, there's this instinct to say: What
can I do with it?" His 2014 chardonnay from Zotovich
feels lean and savory, the flavors earthen more than
directly fruity, yet crisp and refreshing. And his 2014
Zotovich Pinot Noir is direct and delicious, with a
snappy red-cherry flavor that lifts toward a clean floral
aroma. -L.S.

TOP-SCORING WINES

XX '13
93
'XX Eola-Amity
Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxx
Hills Estate
XxxxxSyrah
$XX (XX/XX)
$50 (10/16)

XX '14
93
'XX Sta.
Xxxxxxxx
Rita Hills
Xxxxxxx
Sanford
Xxxxx
& Benedict
$XX (XX/XX)
Vyd. Chard. $40 (10/16)

XX '13
92
'XX Eola-Amity
Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxx
Hills Marjorie
Xxxxx $XX
Vineyard
(XX/XX)
Pinot Noir $65 (4/16)

XX '14
92
'XX Sta.
Xxxxxxxx
Rita Hills
Xxxxxxx
Zotovich
XxxxxFamily
$XX (XX/XX)
Vyd. Chardonnay $40 (10/16)

XX '13
91
'XX Eola-Amity
Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxx
Hills Louise
XxxxxVineyard
$XX (XX/XX)
Pinot Noir $58 (6/16)

XX '14
90
'XX Sta.
Xxxxxxxx
Rita Hills
Xxxxxxx
Zotovich
XxxxxFamily
$XX (XX/XX)
Vyd. Pinot Noir $48 (10/16)
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http://www.deovletwines.com http://www.cristomwines.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - Winter 2016