2023 Panama White Estate Sauvignon Blanc
2023 Panama White, Estate Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc: Few wines exist in the lore of Patricia Green Cellars like this one time bottling done back in 2006. We have made some of the greatest Pinots in Oregon, received a 100 point score, worked with an outrageous number of historically significant sites, made insane wine from 2 different highly regarded California vineyards and generally trotted out a lineup of Pinots that only a handful of the largest negociant producers in Burgundy can match in terms of the breadth of the offerings. And yet, this one wine has been the single most requested “can you do that again, please” wine we have ever produced.
Born from a set of circumstances that delayed the harvest of our Estate Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc, a naïve view on adding water to the pressed juice of white grapes and extended vacation by Patty on the high seas around Panama led to one of the most unique bottlings of (non-flawed) wine you could hope to find. It ended up as a nearly year-long barrel-aged Sauvignon Blanc with an ABV of 16.3% that somehow showed no obvious heat while possessing the viscosity of olive oil (almost). A bottle consumed just last summer was still in amazing condition and had a distinct dessert pineapple thing that was nearly Sauturne-like in quality despite the fact that it’s residual sugar level was zero. We put a label on it that was nearly impossible to read, never mentioned on it that it was Sauvignon Blanc, and put it in a ridiculous bottle. Ah, the good old days.
There has never been an opportunity to attempt to re-do this seat-of-our-pants operation. Many requests every year. You know who you are!
And then 2023 came along. What we needed was a vintage where the fruit got ripe to the point we wanted to pick it at but there were many days of excellent weather still to come. That is what happened in 2006 and that is what we got in 2023. Now, over the years our regular Estate Sauvignon Blanc has, rightly, become extremely popular. We certainly were not risking losing that to an attempt at something that seemed like a shot in the dark. So, we picked all the Estate Sauvignon Blanc except for 1 row. And we left that for another 8 days before picking it on basically the last day that it was still going to be in fine condition. Needless to say, these grapes were RIPE.
We only harvested a little under three-tenths of a ton and pressed out a little less than 50 gallons. The fermentation was done in a once-used extremely fancy Damy barrel that we use for our Chardonnay. After fermentation we had to find a home for the 45-ish gallons since it could not stay in a ¾ full barrel for a year. We happened to have 15-gallon glass balloon carboys (and some random large format bottles) and that is where this wine stayed until the 2024 harvest rolled around. It was in tank for 3 months and was bottled on December 11th. There are 17 cases of it. It comes in a normal bottle and, if you like the white wine labels we have transitioned to over the past 2-3 years, has an amazing label on a perfectly normal bottle.
Will this wine tickle that Panama White itch you have had? I don’t know. This is a more-sophisticated and polished version of that original wine which, let’s be honest, only exists in your memories. The 2023 vintage is going to be a legendary vintage in Oregon. No, it certainly does not hurt that we have a lot more experience making Sauvignon Blanc at this point. Yes, this comes in at what seems an unholy 15.9% ABV. It does not taste like it at all. It is rich like Scrooge McDuck. It will put the lyrics to the Harry Nilsson song “Coconut” in your head from the first sip (“You put the lime in the coconut, you drink ‘em both together…”) and you will roll through the full slate of flavors indicated on the label. It is a wild ride with a crazy wine. You asked for it, you got it.
This is the single smallest quantity commercial wine we have ever produced. We assume there are takers from back in the day and new folks that just want to see what madness this is all about. We are going to have to limit sales of this wine to 2 bottles per person.
There it is. Panama White. If there is a wine that has “Patty Green!!!!” written all over it, man alive, it is this one.
