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Travel Schedule: We are going to be hitting the road again in 2010 because we had so much fun in 2009. Both Patty and Jim will be cruising around the country glad handing, showing some wines, doing tastings and dinners. At the very least you can expect visits to New York City, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Arizona, DC, Florida and Southern California. We have just started the beginning processes of setting up events in these cities and states. As we start to get things laid out we will have updates on the website (events page) about tastings and dinners that are open to the public. We are also not opposed to throwing in a private tasting to two if there is the right forum and momentum for them. Input is always accepted on that front. Anyway, keep checking in or contact us and we hope to see you out there in America! Watch our blog for details as the events unfold.
Tasting notes on a handful of older Patricia Green bottlings:
2000 Eason Vineyard Pinot Noir: A friend of ours brought a bottle of this to a dinner at Alba Osteria in southwest Portland on the last weekend in January. Honestly, I was a little worried about the prospects for this wine. While this was one of my favorite wines of the vintage I seem to remember a couple of years ago thinking that this wine had hit its apex and was even in a bit of decline. Pinot Noir does sometimes have some non-linear aging that it goes through and some wines will show older at one stage and snap back into line later one. I guess that would be what went on here.
The wine was simply wonderful aromatically with rich, sweet red fruits and some mild earthy, herbal, spicy characteristics. On the palate the wine was youthful and so highly textured I could hardly believe it. The mid-palate was brimming with ripe, opulent red fruits that were sweet but really well composed. The texture gave the wine enormous presence and length and there were layers of secondary flavors that gave it great complexity. In short the wine was super-fantastic, youthful, punchy and flat out delicious. Tasted next to a very nice 2000 Vosne-Romanee from Mugneret-Gibourg. The Eason definitely stood out as the more complete wine. Nice. If you have it, it’s a treat but there appears to be no big hurry.
2000 Bonshaw Pinot Noir: I got to work on Monday after tasting the Eason and was dying to try another 2000 vintage wine. The week before I had taken a bottle of the 2000 Bonshaw out of the cold-storage that is the wine storage unit in the winery. Lunch time was a perfect opportunity to crack it open.
I knew this was going to be a lot different than the Eason since Bonshaw comes from a portion of our Estate Vineyard as opposed to the Dundee Hills. Since 2005 Bonshaw has been one of my 2 or 3 favorite bottling of each vintage (and the 2008 in barrel is spectacular by the way!). More reticent on the nose than the Eason with dark, plum and leather notes to the aromatic profile. Very rich and round on the palate with a little spike of acidity to give a point to the smooth nature of the wine. Still fairly present and full tannins on the back palate. Slaty/minerally notes fill in the back end. Very, very good if perhaps a touch less enrapturing than the Eason. Hardly surprising as the Estate Vineyard had a load of issues when we bought this place in 2000. Nice to see that this is still more than hanging in there and is a pretty sumptuous and highly enjoyable wine that should easily motor through the next 5 years as a yummy wine.
2001 Balcombe Vineyard, Block 1B: This wine we had about a month ago at Urban Farmer (new steak house in downtown Portland).
I personally love the 2001 wines right now. They are really dramatic and showing beautifully. They may be overshadowed by the wonderful 2002 wines but they are spectacular in their own right. This wine was tasted beside a 2001 Mugneret-Gibourg Nuits-St.-Georges Les Chaignots 1er Cru.
Much riper and sweeter in the nose than I would have expected. Dark berries, game, animal, pain grille and a touch of brown sugar swirl around in the glass and are fairly opulent. This is a big wine. Block 1B always tends toward the darker, gruffer, riper side than Balcombe but to see it in a vintage like 2001 as dramatically staged as this bottle is pretty amazing. This has lots of primary sweetness to it. This is domestic Pinot Noir lover Pinot. Lots of texture, lots of sweet fruit, long finish, nice tannins but still very approachable. This is extremely tasty and it married beautifully with the steaks we were having. I don’t know that this wine is going to get much better, perhaps it will shed a little of that primary sweetness and brown sugar aspect and become more composed, but it certainly isn’t looking at any downward spiral any time in the near future.
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2007 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Croft Vineyard Willamette Valley 90 Bright red. Musky red berry and cherry aromas are complemented by notes of violet and licorice. Firm, finely etched berry and cherry skin flavors are refreshingly bitter and nicely framed by silky tannins. The licorice and floral notes repeat on the long, mineral-driven, nervy finish.
2007 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Estate Ribbon Ridge 89(+?) Medium red. Cherry, flowers and earth on the nose. Youthfully subdued red berry and cherry flavors are firmed by dusty tannins and pick up a gentle spiciness with air. Bitter cherry skin and anise qualities define the finish, which is a touch clenched right now.
2007 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Balcombe Dundee Hills 90 Vivid red. Full-blown red fruit and floral aromas are complicated by smoky Asian spices and flowers. Pliant, gently sweet strawberry and raspberry flavors pick up gentle spice and herb notes on the back end. This is very appealing now, and I'd drink it over the next couple of years for its open-knit, juicy qualities.
2007 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Estate Old Vine Ribbon Ridge 91 Bright red. Dark berries, cherry, rose and graphite on the nose. Mineral-laced cherry and black raspberry flavors are impressively precise, gaining a pleasant edge of bitter cherry skin with air. The minerality lingers on the persistent finish, adding cut to the cherry and dried rose flavors. This is balanced to age.
2007 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Ana Vineyard Dundee Hills 91 Medium red. Sexy aromas of raspberry and blackberry preserves, cherry-cola and Asian spices, along with a floral topnote. The cherry-cola quality repeats on the palate, which also offers rose pastille and clove flavors. Becomes sweeter on the persistent finish, with no loss of energy or clarity. This is drinking very well right now.
2007 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Balcombe Vineyard Block 1B Dundee Hills 90 Deep red. Youthful raspberry and cherry aromas are complemented by notes of anise and rose. Deep red fruit flavors gain depth and richness with air, picking up cherry skin and plum qualities. The finish hangs on nicely and leaves spice and berry skin notes behind. Serve this with a peppery, grilled steak.
2007 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Bonshaw Ribbon Ridge 91 Deep red. Highly aromatic bouquet evokes dark cherry, blackberry, Asian spices and musky underbrush. Nervy, finely etched cherry and spice flavors are braced by a tangy mineral quality and framed by silky tannins. Finishes brisk, with echoes of red berries and baking spices and excellent persistence.
2007 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Estate Etzel Block Ribbon Ridge 91(+?) Full red. Fresh strawberry, raspberry and floral aromas are complicated by hints of smoky minerals and Asian spices. Silky in texture, with sweet red berry and tangy mineral flavors gaining depth and sweetness with air. The mineral quality adds cut to the long, gently spicy finish. This will age on balance, not power.
2007 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Notorious Yamhill County 92 Vivid red. Exotically scented bouquet of red and dark berries, five-spice powder, rose and suave vanillin oak. Plush raspberry and blackberry flavors are deepened by sweet cola and floral pastille notes, with supple tannins lending support. The finish strongly echoes the dark fruit and floral notes and lingers impressively. This is extremely seductive now but is balanced to age. Incidentally, the Notorious is the only Patricia Green wine that ever gets 100% new oak.
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A Detailed Account of the 2006 Vintage
The 2006 vintage happened at a very rapid rate. A week of cooler, drizzly weather was sandwiched between two periods of hot, sunny days at the beginning and toward the end of September. We began picking Pinot Noir in earnest on the 26th of September and, atypically, picked every single day through the 6th of October. In that time period we picked all of our Pinot Noir except for 1 acre from Goldschmidt (now Winderlea) Vineyard that we waited another 5 days on. Contrast that to 2005 where we began on the 26th of September and finished on the 19th of October! Even more radically, in 1999 we were still picking Pinot Noir on November 8th!
This pattern may remind folks of the 2003 harvest which was one of the most unusual wine harvests ever, not just in Oregon but around the world. 2006 should not be confused with 2003 in terms of the type of wine that we produced. While 2006 has ripeness to it there is a considerable amount of grace and delicacy wrapped up in these wines as well. Aromatically they remind us a lot of the 2001 wines which were perfumed and highly fruity. The 2006 wines have those aromatic qualities along with a darker fruit profile and, in many cases, a good deal of spice as well. While they have density, depth and weight they are not heavy, monolithic or even close to being over-the-top. While 2003 may have been the Cabernet lover’s Pinot Noir vintage 2006 is truly a vintage that will have hardcore Pinot fans thrilled as well as tempting those with palates more tuned to some of the bigger wines in the world. From our fairly wide selection of Pinots you will find a broad range of textures, densities, flavors and nuances. There is plenty to choose from here.
Now that the 2006s are in bottle they are beginning to hint at the wonderful nature of the fruit we brought in over a year ago. These are deep wines that possess great fruit intensity, excellent acidity levels and finely grained tannins that pull the wines together at the end. We are fortunate in Oregon to have had a great run of wonderful vintages going all the way back to 1998. While it will take some time to tell it is likely that 2006 will be seen as one of the 2 or 3 best of that streak of vintages.
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