Patricia Green Cellars What's New

By Josh Raynolds

2006 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Reserve Willamette Valley

Bright red. Fresh strawberry and raspberry aromas are perked up by dusty minerals. Brisk and sharply focused, offering tangy red fruit flavors, light body and gentle citrus bite on the back. A racy, clean style that should work well with lighter foods. 89

2006 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Eason Vineyard Dundee Hills

Light red. Intensely floral, complex bouquet of raspberry, fresh and dried flowers, cinnamon and mocha. Fleshy and sweet, with medium body to the intense red berry flavors. Dusty tannins gain strength with air and add grip to the long, sappy finish. I'd bet on this gaining complexity with a few years in the cellar. 90(+?)

2006 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Four Winds Yamhill County

Medium red. Wild, pungent bouquet displays smoky cherry, cured meat and dried floral qualities underscored by minerals and cracked pepper; reminded me of syrah. Deep and chewy, with dark cherry-cola and berry skin flavors, dusty tannins and good lift. Finishes with sweet blackberry and kirsch This benefited greatly from aeration, so give it cellar or decanter time. 90

2006 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Croft Vineyard Willamette Valley

Deep red with a bright rim. Pungent cherry and anise scents become deeper and gamier with air, picking up cured meat and musky underbrush nuances. Supple in texture and distinctly wild, with deep dark fruit flavors and a refreshing bitter chocolate bite. Gains sweetness and lift on the finish, which leaves behind a tangy note of cherry skin. 90

2006 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Balcombe Vineyard Dundee Hills

Medium red color. Seductive bouquet of black raspberry, dark cherry, incense and fresh rose. Luscious red and dark berry flavors possess compote-like sweetness but are given lift and cut by zesty minerality. Fine-grained tannins add focus to the long, juicy finish. A very pretty wine that's leading with its fruit today. 91

2006 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Estate Ribbon Ridge

Dark red. Deep kirsch and dark berry aromas, with pungent herbs and incense gaining power with air. Rich, fleshy and expansive, with sweet, spicy dark fruit flavors dominating. This benefited from aeration, becoming fresher and livelier on the long, sappy finish. 90(+?)

2006 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Estate Old Vine Ribbon Ridge

Medium red color. Strongly perfumed bouquet of strawberry, raspberry, candied cherry and Asian spices, with a floral element emerging with air and carrying through on the palate. The wine's vivid red berry and rose pastille flavors are nicely framed by fine-grained tannins. Graceful, understated, spicy wine with a long finish and no rough edges whatsoever. 91

2006 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Whistling Ridge Vineyard Ribbon Ridge

Dark red. Spicy strawberry and cherry on the nose, with complicating mineral and floral qualities building with air. Racy wild strawberry and bitter cherry flavors are light in weight but pack good punch, gaining depth and sweetness on the back end. The long, sappy finish features strong mineral and floral pastille flavors. While I suspect that this will reward patience, it offers excellent up-front appeal, too. 91

2006 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Anden Vineyard Polk County

Ruby-red color. Seductive, hugely aromatic bouquet of black raspberry, blueberry, Asian spices and smoky minerals. Juicy red and dark berry flavors stain the palate but are lithe and sharply focused, with no excess fat. Expands and gains sweetness on the sappy finish, which hangs on impressively. This is the last vintage in which Green and Anderson were able to buy fruit from this vineyard. 92

2006 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Ana Vineyard Dundee Hills

Light, bright red. Vibrant redcurrant and strawberry aromas are enlivened by fresh rose, baking spices and zesty minerality. Impressively bright red fruit flavors are framed by silky tannins and given lift by tangy blood orange. Finishes juicy, fresh and long. These vines were planted in 1978. 90

2006 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Bonshaw Vineyard Ribbon Ridge

Bright red. Black raspberry, cherry-cola, sassafras and Asian spices on the pungent nose, with a zesty note of white pepper adding energy. Spicy dark berry flavors stain the palate but betray no excess fat or rough edges. This seamless, elegant wine finishes with superb sweetness, lift and persistence. 91

2006 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Balcombe Vineyard Block 1B Dundee Hills

Dark red. Suave raspberry, floral and Asian spice aromas are expansive and strikingly pure. Sappy red berry and cherry-cola flavors are brightened by tangy blood orange and minerals. Gains an exotic candied floral quality on the impressively bright, long finish. 92

2006 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Goldschmidt Vineyard Dundee Hills

Brilliant red color. Pungent red berry and cherry aromas are complicated by fresh rose, violet and zesty minerals. Deeper blackcurrant and kirsch on the palate, picking up seductive spiciness with air. Dark fruit flavors linger impressively on the sappy finish. There's underlying power here that suggests that this wine will repay cellaring. 91(+?)

2006 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Estate Etzel Block Ribbon Ridge

Bright red. Highly nuanced nose offers vibrant raspberry, candied cherry, rose, lavender and smoky minerals. Juicy red and dark berry flavors stain the palate, picking up sexy Asian spices with air. Turned deeper and sweeter on the finish but retained its outstanding focus and purity. A real stunner, with the balance to age. 92

2006 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Notorious Yamhill County

Bright red. Intensely perfumed bouquet of fresh red berries, cherry, patchouli and Asian spices. Sweet red berries and gingerbread on the palate, with silky tannins adding focus. This gained in sweetness and intensity with air, taking on juicy black raspberry and kirsch character but maintaining superb clarity. This doesn't want to let up! The combination of power, finesse and tension here reminded me of a Griotte-Chambertin. 92

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.

We make an effort to keep wines here at the winery (and on our web site) for as long as possible. This pattern has usually allowed us to go into the spring before we have depleted our inventory with the exception of wines committed to local area restaurants and wine bars. Take a look in our store section and see what we have left from the 18 Pinot Noirs we bottled from the 2006 vintage.

The 2007 Vintage

This, quite frankly, is a fascinating vintage. What does that mean? Well after a run of mostly warm, dry and relatively early vintages (2000-2006) along came the 2007 vintage. Basically there are two questions that every winery and grape grower needed to answer as October, 2007 marched on: Did we do the best possible job to take care of our vineyard(s) all season long so that the fruit can make it through the showers? And: Do we have the cahones to wait for our fruit to get ripe on the vine while weather conditions are less than ideal? To answer the first in the affirmative a winegrape grower must have dedication to managing the site on a nearly daily basis and committing to labor-intensive and often-times expensive vineyard management practices. To answer in the affirmative to the second takes experience, patience and the ability to turn a blind-eye when other people around you are picking. While this may not make good copy for one paragraph summations of “the vintage” in nationally known wine publications (in fairness The Wine Spectator has given the Oregon harvest a preliminary grade of “B”) it is a truth that wineries that stay in business for a few years all must face at some point.

We saw everything from some very clean fruit that required little effort and time to sort all the way to fruit that required the full complement of sorters we had working for us during harvest. We saw very little in the way of under-ripe clusters so the sorting was oriented toward pulling out clusters infected with botrytis. This is, frankly, not a fun task but also not as difficult as pulling out slightly under-ripe clusters from fully-ripe clusters. At the end of the harvest we had bins that had nice, clean, stable fermentations going on. The aromatics in the winery were fruit cake-y in nature (sort of like a fresh raspberry muffin) which is always a good sign. What you may be surprised to read is that we did no saignier (the pulling off of juice from the must to lower the juice to solid ratio and thus make for more concentrated wine). We felt that there was excellent concentration of fruit, nice density of must (literally the way the de-stemmed fruit in the fermenters feels to the touch) and more than enough tannic structure. We, of course, do not use any sort of machine to concentrate our fermentations.

At this point the wines are still very raw (January, 2008). We have a passive cellar in the winter and it is has been unusually cold for the past month so our secondary fermentations have not or only-just started. The wines have clarified at this point and they range from bright red to inky purple in color. The aromatics are starting to develop and there are very pure, floral and high-toned fruit notes starting to appear out of the 45 degree temperature wines. Since the secondary fermentation has been kept at bay the acids are still fairly high and the tannins quite strong. We think this bodes well for how the wines will develop during their elevage. Certainly it is still very early but there is much to be extremely optimistic about at this juncture. Updates will come as things move along.