2023 Reserve Pinot Noir
2023 Vintage Story: 2023 was a year of a very dry summer. Endless sunny days. Maybe one of the easier years to take care of vineyards in recent times as it wasn’t as humid as 2019 and 2022, not as hot as 2021 and 2018 and, thank goodness, there were no wildfires like 2020. This translated into perfectly manicured vineyards with excellent yields of gorgeously and perfectly ripe fruit. Winemaking conditions were nearly ideal and the winery itself oft times smelled more like a bakery making fruit muffins than it did a place fermenting grapes into wine! This was simply a vintage that seemed to exist in the romantic nature of vintages rather than in the “reality of farming” nature of actual vintages. The wines were a pleasure to work with from beginning to end and the results are wines that reflect to a tee where they came from. This is, seemingly, a rare vintage so, act accordingly.
Why is the entry-level wine called Reserve: Patricia Green Cellars has been around long enough that when we began our winery in 2000 there was still concern that the AVA “Willamette Valley” was not particularly well known around the country. Yes, those were different times. So, this bottling was actually labeled as “Oregon” from 2000-2005. However, in 2002 we had 10 barrels from various vineyards that were very good, but not quite in line with what we were doing with the single vineyards the barrels came from, however we felt like they made a special wine above and beyond the Oregon bottling. We bottled them and called it “Reserve”. By 2006 it was clear that the Willamette Valley had made an indelible and lasting mark at a national and even international level and that it was time for us to ditch the Oregon moniker. However, the way our labels were set up back then we needed to have something in the stripe at the bottom of the label to identify the wine. To make this even more ponderous of a story, the issues in getting label approval back then were quite real as the ATF (at the time) did not have an online way to submit so approvals could take months. We decided to use the already approved “Reserve” label as we felt that this wine was more than some basic “Willamette Valley” bottling that had become a catchall for larger wineries cheapest Pinot Noir. And a decade and a half later it has all worked out. The wine is still an excellent quality Pinot Noir with vineyard sources that are quite astonishing given the wine’s place in our long lineup.
What are those astonishing vineyards:
CHEHALEM MOUNTAIN VINEYARD
19
6.94%
CORRINE VINEYARD
1
5.56%
COULEE VINEYARD
26
11.11%
ESTATE VINEYARD
45
19.44%
FREEDOM HILL VINEYARD
12
25.69%
HYLAND VINEYARD
11
22.22%
LA BELLE PROMENADE VINEYARD
9
3.47%
SHAFER VINEYARD
17
0.69%
All of these sites produce at least one vineyard designated Pinot Noir. Three vineyards have vines represented here that were planted in the 1970s. The point is that this wine is not some casual dumping ground of young vine stuff from unheralded sites. This is a wonderful assemblage of some of the top sites in the Willamette Valley.
2023 is the best vintage in Patricia Green Cellar’s history: That’s up for debate, but certainly along with 2016 and 2005 it is in a very exclusive tier of truly great vintages. Excellent growing conditions during the summer and another early harvest with mild to moderate weather during picking. The wines across the board are sumptuous, rich, well-balanced and top-notch examples of each bottling we do. We actually had to sacrifice single-vineyard barrels for the greater good to even make ANY 2023 Reserve let alone the 3,400 cases we did which is in keeping with what we made in 2022. Instead of making a Coulee Vineyard Pinot Noir (as we did in 2022) all the barrels went to the Reserve and the same for the Shafer Vineyard barrels (we made an insanely popular bottling in 2021 but did not receive the fruit in 2022). The 2023 Reserve is simply loaded with an even higher level of upper echelon barrels than it normally is and it completely shows in this bottling. So, a great vintage makes this one of, if not the single best, bottlings of Reserve we have ever produced.
Wine Making and Notes: This bottling comes from terrific sources. The Reserve has always been a wine that looked to excellent and renowned vineyards for its make-up. The 2023 has an excellent and a completely unique pedigree for a wine at its pricing. All of the wines in this bottling are from vineyards (8 of them!) from which we make or have made at least one single-vineyard Pinot Noir.
This wine carries the breadth of the winery in other ways as well. From completely destemmed grapes to 100% whole cluster fermentations, all winemaking stylistic decisions are represented within this bottling. The level of vineyards in this wine has always been something else and this year that facet is concentrated to an incredible degree. The 8 vineyards that make up this bottling would all be most winery’s best vineyard. We have included nearly 20 barrels sourced from 50-year-old vines and about a third comes from our Estate Vineyard which assuredly and easily had its single best year of production in its 40-year history. The 2023 Reserve Pinot Noir is nothing BUT a pedigree monster!
As noted earlier, the 2023 vintage is simply a great vintage. Possibly the greatest in the 24-vintage history of the winery. Wines are particularly richly fruited, intense, deep and delicious at early ages in this vintage. Perfect for a bottling that values consumption at a youthful age even if it possesses unusual aging capacity for an Oregon Pinot Noir at this price.
This winery has always been dedicated to the concept of the highest-level quality without necessarily attaching a corresponding price point. Patty and I always wanted to have a winery that made wines that we liked to drink, but more importantly a winery that had wines we would, were we the customer, feel good about paying for. This Reserve Pinot Noir is as an important bottling to us and this winery as the lowest production, super-fancy, and exclusive wine that we make. Lots of people see, buy, and drink this wine and that is something that we love.
Production: 3,393 cases bottled.
The wine was bottled with a TA of 5.4 and a pH of 3.56. Bottled with under 30 PPM free SO2 and 75 PPM total SO2.
ABV: 13.5%
