TN: 2013 Goodfellow Family Cellars Pinot Noir Whistling Ridge Vineyard

• 2013 Goodfellow Family Cellars Pinot Noir Whistling Ridge Vineyard - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Ribbon Ridge (12/11/2020)
  Medium ruby, balsam nose, dry medium fruit with mellow tannins, lightly tart and well balanced with a good structure. Unripe Himalayan blackberries, cane tannins and balsam with a long finish. Ron, you are correct, I need to move up market from the basic WV. 13 may be my favorite vintage for the Valley, not as austere as the '11s. (92 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

Great note I popped one of these last night and loved the balsam notes. Might try the 13 Heritage tonight to compare.

Both of you are to report to the Virtual tasting 3 thread right away.

I have had this wine several times already and really, really love it as I do most 2013s. As the 2007s disappear, I nominate 2013 as the next great shitty vintage.

Great to hear. Just picked up a bunch of these from Marcus’ last offer.

Unripe Himalayan blackberries?

Open that now if you do want to open it(or just be sure to save some for tomorrow)

Thanks for the lovely note Dennis!

I only eat ripened himalayan blackberries. Bhutan and Tibetan are underrated.

They have to be harvested above 23,000 feet or it’s just not worth it.

Funny as it may sound, Himalayan blackberries are an invasive species that are the bane of property owners in the PNW. They can grown over ten feet a year, spread like crazy, have razor sharp thorns, and are almost impossible to eradicate. On the plus side, they produce prolific quantities of delicious fruit for months on end. So, in the beginning of the season, there are plenty of chances to eat unripened Himalayan blackberries.

Don’t forget to shake your Bhutan!

You guys are being mean. It’s a descriptor that meant something to the OP. Cut it out.

Sounds like a great wine. The first vintage I bought from Goodfellow was 2014 when we visited the winery. Haven’t opened a red yet, so excited. I bought some of the recent library offer too.

It’ OK Brandon, I’m glad it got a response. I grew up as a little kid on the family farm in the hills south of Mt St. Helens and spent a lot of time with my cousins out in the fields and woods eating berries and whatever was edible. Those flavors are etched in my brain and easy to access. I got to think a bit to get creative with old age these days.

Thanks for posting this - I haven’t had a chance to try any properly aged Willamette pinots and have a couple bottles of this one en route!

Hey Dennis, my mom spent part of her childhood just outside of Amboy, near Mt. St. Helens. It’s an extraorinarily beautiful area.

Hi Brandon,

We are hoping to get new notes up for the vintages pages soon, but the 2014s are starting to open up. Early in their life still but not really in a dumb phase anymore.

Himalayan blackberries are a hybrid created by none other than Luther Burbank. If he was attempting to develop a vigorous plant, he over shot. They were grown commercially before birds spread them everywhere. I even saw some on the Galapagos. There are attempts to eradicate them on the islands. I wish them luck.

Thank you for the note. I have a few bottles of these that are supposed to be delivered tonight.

Good luck indeed! From my experience, they spread by seed, function as rhizomes, can replant themselves off the tips of long vines, and sprout anew from clippings. I’ve found vines over 30 feet long that have climbed up one side of a cedar tree and down the other to replant again. I’ve been trying to eradicate them for eight years on my property. I’ve tried wacking down, digging out root balls, and herbicides. Every spring they sprout again.