I believe there was a thread on the '17 Reserve recently. Haven’t had it. But I did open a bottle of this last night. Picked up at an Ohio retailer for $37. Being a wine club member I have two cases of upper tier '17 PG’s in the cellar and don’t intend to open any of those for a while. Having been a fan of PG from the very beginning, I think an argument can be made that the Estate has often been the best value play. This is dark fruited with a slate-type mineral edge and absolutely seamless from beginning to end with an incredibly fine-tannin dominated finish. As I was drinking it I kept asking myself if I had ever drunk a nicer wine at the under-$40 price point. Since immediacy tends to dominate our memories, I will say it has to be in the top 10. I didn’t mention the aromatics-taking a sniffy sniff of the remaining half-bottle as I drink my coffee this morning-I again would love to put this into a tasting blind and hear the guesses as to price-point. It is dominated by the purest form of black cherry with just the subtlest possible tinge of oak. This is a very classy wine at any price. I imagine Jim had to select barrels for this bottling that were not suited for others and did a masterful job.
I was very impressed with the 2017 Patricia Green Estate and purchased a case of it. I also purchased several of their other wines, including the 2016 and 2017 Balcombe, and 2016 and 2017 Freedom Hill. I think the Estate is a great buy and I plan on purchasing more of it. I also want to try some of their Chardonnays. Here is a note I posted on CellarTracker in April:
“Served with grilled salmon cooked over alder wood, along with 2017 Patricia Green Reserva and a 2014 Nuiton-Beaunoy Beaune Burgundy. Had my sister and her husband for dinner. I have had the Patricia Green Reserva and the 2014 Evening Land Seven Springs on several occasions and thoroughly enjoy both wines. The Patricia Green was the WOTN, but the Evening Land was delightful as usual. The Nuiton-Beaunoy was good, but lighter and needs to be drunk up. The Patricia Green and Evening Land should continue to improve for several years.”
The '17 Estate is unusually “classy”. I don’t know how to define what makes a certain wine “classy” as opposed to most other similar wines though I know what I mean. Powerful, graceful, refined, and polished all at the same time. I have 2002 Balcombe 1B left in my cellar and this wine reminded me of that one despite the age difference and supposed rank. No huge surprise though since Balcombe and Balcombe 1B are sub-divisions of the Estate. I was frankly unaware that '17 was a particularly good vintage until reading the input on the Reserve (which most of you know is one of the lower level bottlings, second only to the occasional “Dollar Bills” if memory serves. I pretty much ignore talk of vintages in Oregon anyway. But this '17 Estate is IMHO very special.
Mitch, great note. The Balcombe vineyard is in the Dundee Hills and the PGC Estate is in the Ribbon Ridge. The Bonshaw and Etzel bottlings are from the PGC Estate.
James
Mitch, great note. The Balcombe vineyard is in the Dundee Hills and the PGC Estate is in the Ribbon Ridge. The Bonshaw and Etzel bottlings are from the PGC Estate.
James
Aww crap. You are right of course. As I was typing I was questioning myself on that but felt confident enough to hit send without first checking. It does get confusing. At least for me. I read the newsletters and rely on my often faulty memory of the vineyard descriptions and locations.
I’m always happy to see any Oregon Pinot, let alone ours, have a TN posted on the board. Fairly uncommon. So, thanks for taking the time to share your opinions.
Our Estate Vineyard is, well, complicated. We have multiple bottlings from the site based on several factors.
Our Estate designate is basically vines that are in the 20-ish year vine age situation. Not completely mature so as to go into the Old Vine bottling or specific enough to come from one of the 4 Block designate bottlings.
The 2017, I think, tastes great. I’m pretty sure it comes from 3-4 blocks mostly consisting of Pommard Clone although a little 777 sneaks in sometimes (until we grafted it out). It is supposed to represent the riper, more supple, plush and earlier drinking bottlings from the property. Sounds like to that end we succeeded!
Our property and vineyard are an evolving situation. The Estate will be a wine that works within the context of a site that has changes going on for a number of reasons yet the selections are so broad that this wine can hopefully deliver Year in and year out despite its nature of capturing the site’s evolution more than any of the other Eatate bottlings