TN: Goodfellow 2018 Long Acre Whistling Ridge Pinot Noir

My second Goodfellow. Day 1. Color is pale but deceptively so. This is packed good for its weight. On the nose, even at this young age, a mélange of so many aromas–tart cherry, mulled apple cider, and a chopping block of freshly chopped herbs. Tight and taut, but not at all austere, it’s giving a nice glimpse of what it will morph into over the next several years. At all times, this is 100% pinot noir. 12.8% ABV. Superb depth of fruit . Great job.

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Thanks for the preview. I bought a bunch of this bottling.

Hi David. I’m thinking you will be happy you did.

Great note Greg, thank you! 2018s are a great vintage to explore the Willamette Valley with. There is enough fruit for the more serious wines to still be nicely enjoyable, but the balance and structure for aging is definitely in place.

The Long Acre is one of the two blocks I started working with at Whistling Ridge. It gets it’s name because the rows are longer than the other blocks on that side of the vineyard(House Block and Experimental).
It, along with the Beloved Acre, are also the first multiclonal plantings at Whistling Ridge. The block faces South to Southeast and starts with a flat shelf for about 20 plants, then has a short steep slope(about 20-25 plants), and then flattens out again to a very mild East-Southeast tilt. In that section, there has been just a bit of “wrinkling” from the ridge uplift, so even though the block faces East-Southeast generally, the “wrinkles” give indivdual rows a range of aspects that brings a lot of layering to the wines from there.

The soils are very shallow and dry out very quickly, and the plants definitely struggle here. It’s the slowest developing block in the cellar, and always seems a bit wan by comparison, until somwhere close to bottling when it suddenly starts to blossom. Over the years I’ve learned not to “declassify” wines from this block until the last possible moments…

Thanks for the background info Marcus. Very interesting back story. The struggling vines you describe sure seem to have positively contributed to the weightless depth of fruit you were able to achieve. Looking forward to checking in on the remainder of the bottle today and tomorrow.

Greg