Cameron,
Check out the 2019 Temperance Hill Chardonnay which is from the same vineyard that the Berserker Cuvee comes from. Here’s Marcus on the differences/similaries between the two: https://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3240075#p3240075
Wait till you try the Richards Cuvee. It’s going to be another step up and always the top dog from Goodfellow.
Marcus doesn’t get as much love around here for his appellation bottlings compared to his SVDs but his Willamette Valley Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are annual case purchases for me and capture the magic of his best wines at price point that’s hard to comprehend.
Sean
Opened one this week, just an outstanding wine. I really enjoy handing friends a bottle of Goodfellow when they say they don’t like Chardonnay, I’m close to batting 1.000 with their response. Marcus just makes outstanding wine.
Oregon might already have a Rombauer doppelganger…or has she moved on? Either way, a wine trip to Oregon is totally worth it.
RT
The in-person winery visit or in-market winemaker dinner always does it for my wife. Visiting Willamette Valley is nothing like Napa. More like Sonoma, which means I love visiting Oregon wine country. Much more laid back and less corporate in my somewhat limited experience. I also am from a state with a lot of agricultural and Sonoma and Willamette Valley winemakers remind me of visiting with local cattleman about their beef.
All that to say, take her to Oregon!
Double date, let’s do it.
However, the ‘laid back’ part is typically not Jen’s favorite - she does like the flash and bang of the fancier places…hates tasting in a barn with fruit flies all over the place
The Ritz San Fran has a tasting room for your swanky people!
Bite me. I’m not swanky like you. I don’t rent Teslas to drive to Napa without realizing there are no handy supercharger stations at the destination 
And I wear Under Armour, not Hugo Boss. I’m a simple man.
Ha! I love that. It’s the Ritz in CA or a fruit fly-infested barn in Oregon! Shit man, almost every winery has some sort of tasting room/tasting area these days. Honestly, you would be hard pressed to find many of the “flip the barrel on its head and let’s taste” operations any more.
Have these all tucked away at my off site. Question for Marcus, how long would you think we should age these before they are most optimal to drink?
Eyeing September as a possible Oregon date….
I didn’t taste in a barn, but a couple warehouses and Hamina’s old place was next to a lumberyard. A lot of places we like in WV are pretty spread out, versus the Napa experience where you can hit many great wineries with a stone throw in some areas.
I bet she’d love Jim’s place. Very comfortable and beautiful pastoral setting. Especially when she finds out Jim’s about the only the man on the payroll. We were there on a sorting day and there wasn’t a man in sight, my wife thought that was the best!
True story! We were at Smith-Madrone years ago - incredible wines, legendary, of course - and tasted in the barn area, which was horribly infested with fruitflies. No matter how great the wine was, Jen couldn’t appreciate or enjoy it with all the flies.
I can’t afford the Ritz, I’m not Alfert!
And that is kind of a shame. Whether in Italy or Oregon, those corner of the cellar tastings rank as the best ones I’ve ever had. And that includes being in the PGC cellar with Jim Anderson as he wandered through the barrels, glass in one hand and wine thief in the other. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
We can do both but we have definitely conducted tastings in pretty heinous conditions. Nothing wrong with tasting in a cellar but fruit flies are nasty.
When Berserkers talk, Oregon blushes.
Really, why can’t they figure out how to take insects out of agriculture once and for all? It so spoils the whole tourist experience. I’d suggest you not visit Kelley Fox. We were in her cellar and there were fruit flies all over the barrel bungs. What do you expect from a person who celebrates the earwig on her label? Come to think of it, I think I saw some flies at Walter Scott, so visiting them might be sketchy too. However, if you both wear Under Armour, you should be sufficiently protected.
I had to look up QPR. Either our wine is in a Queer Platonic Relationship (which is possible, though I am unaware of it), or I figured out it meant Quality-Price Ratio. I am going for definition number 2, and thank you Todd! We raised the price $2/bottle this year, so act quickly!
We might have had a case or two on BD, but preview day was really the only day it was around. Absolutely insane.
2019 Goodfellow Temperance Hill Chardonnay was just sent out to our mailing list. The Berserker Cuvee was a single puncheon, the 2019 vineyard designate is a fantastic example of how good the Temperance Hill vineyard is.
That said, there are lots of great wines in that style up here: Patricia Green, Walter Scott, Morgen Long, Suzor, Vincent, Twill, Haden Fig, Cameron, and quite a few others I am forgetting.
I don’t know about optimal as that’s a bit subjective, but I am starting to believe that there’s quite a range of good drinking dates for the Chardonnays.
Generally, between 5-10 years seems to be a great spot for the wines. But that said, I really love the energy and freshness of the wines in their youth(Chris James and I had a conversation about this, and we both really enjoy them in youth). I think that one of the big determining factors here is how much do you enjoy more aggressive flavors and acidity. Younger the Chardonnays are more like driving two wheeled vehicles or stripped down sports cars, as they develop there is more nuance and also a bit more suppleness and softness.
With the 2019s, it’s a great vintage and everyone either has 6 or 12 bottles. With the 6-pack, I would drink 1-2 in the next year or two. 1-2 in 2024-2025, and 1-2 in 2027-2028. With 12 bottles I would probably fill in the gaps and double up when I opened a bottle and really loved it.