We've spent two days wine tasting in the Willamette Valley with friends from out of state and Cristom Vineyards was by far out favorite stop. We enjoyed their selection of wines, their friendly service, and the gorgeous views from their patio. In fact, we ended up joining their wine club! Obviously, we plan on returning!
Great view and location. Knowledgeable server.
Delicious Pinot Noir and the Chardonnay was excellent! The atmosphere and staff are top notch!
Lovely setting, great wine
Great vineyard. The wine was fantastic. Love some of the unique varietals they have.
Great wine in an intimate setting with beautiful views.
Adore Cristom, both their wines and philosophy. Have been to visit several times, and the rotating flight list keeps things interesting! Tim is great, and we can't wait to visit again.
Way too high of a tasting fee at $25/person for not so great wine. Didn’t even offer a decent estate-grown Pinot Noir in their tasting flight. Would recommend spending time/$$$ at other wineries in area (like Bethel Heights).
Fantastic wine, great experience to meet this product.
On a recent trip to the Willamette Valley for wine tasting, my wife and I visited Cristom Vineyards on our second day of tastings, and found it to be a very nice, refreshing change of pace from the other wineries we were visiting on the trip. It seems like the majority of wineries to visit are in the Dundee Hills, which is where we spent most of our time. I’m really glad we added Cristom to our list, since it’s located further south in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA, which is simply a different area geographically and makes wine that was a bit different from what we were tasting in Dundee. In addition, Cristom offers a really nice, laid back experience that we enjoyed. We signed up for The Cristom Experience, which is a two-hour private tour and tasting for $75 per person. The Cristom Experience starts with a wine tasting flight, followed by a break to take a walking tour of the vineyards and learn more about their biodynamic farming practices, before returning for a second tasting flight. We really enjoyed the format of this, which had the perfect balance of drinking wine and getting education about the wine and winemaking process. Our host, Mitch, was also very nice and did an excellent job of explaining the Cristom philosophy to us. We learned a lot more about Oregon and the Willamette Valley as a whole from Mitch than we did anywhere else on our trip. The only thing I would recommend is that Cristom make it a little easier to book tastings, since there is no online booking option, meaning you have to call or email to set it up. I also didn’t love that the full cost of the tasting was charged far in advance when we first booked it, which was not common among the Willamette Valley wineries we visited. Most charged the tasting fee only a day or two ahead of time, if at all in advance. When we arrived at Cristom, we immediately noticed that the winery is in a beautiful location with vineyards dotting the steep hills around it. It’s generally a more remote, rural location than some other wineries we visited, and the winery itself reflects this. The winery has a more wild, less polished feel than many others that are more touristy. We ended up really liking Cristom because of this, since it had a very authentic feel that was carried out throughout the experience. When we first arrived, Mitch took us into a nice private room where we did our first tasting flight, which included a rosé of pinot noir, chardonnay, and two of their less expensive pinot noirs. Everything in this first tasting was perfectly fine, but none stood out nearly as much as the wines we tasted in the second flight later in the morning. During the first tasting, we learned a lot more about the geography of the area, which helped us understand what goes into making wine here and what makes their wine unique as compared to pinot noirs from other geographic areas, such as in California. The next part of the tour was really fun, with the chance to go out and walk around the vineyards. The winery uses biodynamic practices to grow their grapes, and we had a chance to meet and feed the flock of sheep that they use to maintain the grasses in the vineyards, something totally fun and unique. We also then got a tour of the tanks and barrel rooms to get a better feel for the various steps in the winemaking process. After that, we finished the experience with our second wine tasting, which was accompanied by some cheese and charcuterie that were included. This second tasting featured more of Cristom’s higher end wines, including four single-vineyard pinot noirs from vineyards in the hills immediately surrounding the winery. It was interesting to compare the four and see how with even just tiny changes in altitude or terrain, the wine can take on slightly different flavors. Although I can’t say that any particular wine within the tasting stood out in particular to us, they were all good and we took several different bottles home with us so that we can try the wine again in the future. I have only positive things to say about our morning at Cristom. We had a wonderful time ta