Got into these bottles yesterday on a beautiful afternoon at home. Tough times, but the ATL weather has been great.
These wines are really good. I neglected paying serious attention to OR wines for much of my journey. Those days are over.
2017 Vincent Pinot Noir Zenith Vineyard- USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Eola - Amity Hills (5/4/2020)
Decanted for 30 minutes. Bright red fruit and black cherry with some lovely floral/earth tones. Nice presence of fruit backed by some serious structure. Burgundian intensity. Feels like this will reward some time in the cellar. No harm now for the upfront vibrant fruit. Serious wine.
2017 Goodfellow Family Cellars Chardonnay Ribbon Ridge Cuvée- USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Ribbon Ridge (5/3/2020)
Seriously coiled tension and throwing waves of serious reduction, some petrol + matchstick on the nose. Super laser-beam acidity and edge right now. Green apple. Cool, saline, mineral. Chablis-ike. Puckers and long on the finish. Really super at this young age, but I would really like to try this again in 5 years time.
Very rarely do I find that a wine is good or better on night two, it’s just not my thing. But this Goodfellow…damn, the last 5 ounces from the bottle open last night is just killing tonight after being re-corked and stuck in the fridge overnight. Lovely.
A Goodfellow tip FWIW…sampling young is fun, but be prepared to put the rest away for a few years (or several). Some are accessible out of the gate (like his WV Pinot and Whistling Ridge Blanc). Many, less so. YMMV.
Dennis,
I have limited experience with Goodfellow but agree with Richard about the need to bottle age. My tastes of some of the Pinots early showed lots of stuffing but not much integration. Thanks for the note on the Chard - haven’t tried those . . . yet.
The Vincent stuff I’m pretty familiar with and while the Pinots seem like aging would serve them well, they are very good and nicely integrated young. I’d still prefer to age them but sometimes, you just have to say WTF.
And the Vincent whites are nice from the get go. Surely, the chard will age but it probably won’t at my house.
Best, Jim
Thanks, Jim, for some additional thoughts. I know you are a fan of Vincent’s wines, I can see why. And I think you will dig the Goodfellow Chardonnays. Been a while since I’ve had my bell rung on a new label and Goodfellow is doing that to me now. Cheers.
Yeah, I learned that the hard way. The day after a fantastic visit with Marcus and Megan, my travelling buddy and I found ourselves at Aviary and they had the '17 Ribbon Ridge Pinot on the list. It was tight as a drum.
I’m sorry the 17 Ribbon Ridge was tight when you ordered it at Aviary.
2017 in particular, is a restrained and structured vintage. But there is little doubt that even in forward years we make wines for Negroni drinkers. Whistling Ridge most of all, it is definitely our coolest site.
It’s also my belief that the tannic structure in young wines becomes the building blocks for many of the tertiary flavors that develop over time. So by having that extra structure, we are creating an opportunity for more nuance later in a wines evolution.
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