Last night’s Goodfellow and Burgundy tasting was a blast! Marcus and Meghan flying in from Oregon just made it very special, in addition to the 30+ WB in attendance, great service at Noreetuh (thank you Rodrigo for organizing), and generous wine shares (thank you all for the hangover this AM). Amazing how this was all spawned by Andrew K’s original question posted only just a few weeks ago. I hope others organize similar events!
What I enjoyed most of the event was not the wines, but the Goodfellow story. 20 years ago, as I understand it, Marcus was a bartender taking a shot in relatively unknown region. Today Marcus/Megan’s wines were being poured against the top 2% of Burgundy producers (all with much more vintage experience) with the toughest crowd (WB in NYC). Tasting a Matello, Goodfellow #1 and his most recent release made me feel part of the journey. It made me better appreciate what winemakers do - all of them - including the top notch Burgundy producers also poured today. This isn’t just juice, but a growing body of work compressed into every single vintage that we are lucky to taste every new vintage.
In all the fun, I managed to lose my tasting notes. I hope others share theirs. I shared my thoughts below off memory (to keep the post shorter, I hid my amateur notes in the spoiler tag).
My personal takeaway is that the Goodfellow wines showed very well. The Goodfellow wines were noticably cooler fruited than the burgundies. They seemed harder/more austere requiring more cellar time to soften and unfurl (also influenced by the particular burgundies chosen as comparisons which were very open). The ‘tells’ for me in identifying the burgs were (i) more prominent aromatics and (ii) more supple textures. Just focusing on the fruit ripeness profile would confound, as the burgundies were often the warmer fruited wines (I imagine this is a function of both climate change in Burgundy and the Goodfellow winemaking style).
Another takeaway: are 2019 burgundies that good right now or what!?
Flight 1
2017 Goodfellow Richard’s Cuvee Chardonnay $50
2017 Bouchard Meursault 1er Cru Charmes $116
One wine was white/pale yellow fruited, a bit of seashell, and being of much less weight. The other was voluptuous with full fruit, a streak of ripe fruit, much more weight, a rounded mouthfeel, supple textures and big aromatics. Having had the Goodfellow wine just two weeks ago, it was easy to call Goodfellow as the first wine. It was a little suprising how much more fruit was in the burgundy, although I really liked the ‘charming’ Bouchard.
Flight 2
2019 Goodfellow Lewman Heritage No. 16 ($60)
2019 Hudelot Noellat Bourgogne ($60)
One wine was very shut down, structured, with cool dark red fruit and a healthy dose of tannin. I don’t associate this much tannin/structure with Oregon, so I assumed this would be the burgundy. The other wine was open knit, gobs of deep red fruit, and really delicious. I quickly told Marcus ‘kudos’ for creating this really delicious open knit wine. But this second wine again had supple textures that I don’t associate with Oregon, so I later reversed and called the bigger fruited wine as the Burgundy. That proved to be the correct call.
A very informative flight for me. That 2019 Goodfellow struck me as the more age worthy wine that will need another 5-10 years to (start?) showing its potential. Marcus said 2019 was a cooler year in Oregon, especially versus the warm year in Burgundy, which would explain why it was the Burgundy seemed to be the one with the warmer, new world fruit. That said, the 2019 Hudelot Noellat was downright delicious! I am cellaring a couple Hudelot Noellat 1er/Grand Cru and made a mistake not going deeper into the range! Kudos to both winemakers!
Flight 3
2018 Goodfellow Old Vine Pommard ($50)
2018 Duroche Gevrey Chambertin ($66)
These two wines were right on top of each other. The crowd did not call a hot 2018 vintage for either wine (I recall calls for 2016 and 2012). Upon tasting and retasting, the wines were literally on top of each other. One wine had slightly softer texture, slightly deeper fruit, and slightly better aromatics - I called that as the Burgundy and was proven correct.
Duroche is one of my favorite producers, and seeing a non-heritage Goodfellow keep up really surprised me. The pricing for Goodfellow was a bit lower on release, but Marcus said they didn’t make too much of it (did he say ?55 cases?) and its mostly sold out at this point. I vaguely recall WB saying how good that wine was, and they are in for a treat.
Flight 4
2017 Goodfellow Heritage No. 10, Whistling Ridge $65
2017 Fourrier Gevrey VV $125
Another informative flight. On the palate, without taking in any information from the nose, I thought these wines were also right on top of each other. Very, very similar - with one wine having slightly deeper fruit. Others near me agreed, although one other taster on another table disagreed (without having a chance to explain their views). The one with the slightly deeper fruit had great aromatics, while the other had very little aromatics. I called the wine with the aromatics the burgundy and was proven correct. At this point, aromatics seemed to be a key factor for identifying the burgundies versus the Goodfellows.
Flight 5
2012 Goodfellow Heritage No.1, Whistling Ridge $65
2012 D’Angerville 1er Cru Fremiets, Volnay $115
This was Goodfellow Heritage No. 1, the first wine produced under the Goodfellow label. I think this was his ?7th? vintage after quitting his bartending job. Can see how the Goodfellow wine style needs 5+ years to soften up. This wine made me very optimistic on where Marcus’s more recent vintages are headed as they get more time in bottle.
I recall the D’Angerville showing excellently and being the best red of all the flights - a complete wine with body, elegance and nose. Unfortunately, I cannot recall much about this flight.
Flight 6
2008 Goodfellow Whistling Ridge $45
2008 Bouchard Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Chenes $90
Both wines were flawed, eg the Goodfellow was corked and the Bouchard seemingly oxidized. One was cheaper than the other, so Goodfellow won this round!