Dipping my toes into Oregon Pinot, figured I would start with an order of lower priced wines to get a sense of producer style. Opened three last night with my wife:
2019 Patricia Green Cellars Reserve - least favorite of the night, seemed to have more fruit and more oak, made for an enjoyable and flavorful first sip but was not something I wanted multiple glasses of.
2017 Eyrie Estate - Wife’s favorite OR Pinot so far, so it’s the standard comparison bottle. Much less oak flavor on this, lots of earthy/funk, plenty of acidity and nice tannins, background of red fruit. Tasted the next day and this improved more. 2nd favorite the night we opened, favorite the next day.
2017 Goodfellow Ribbon Ridge - very pretty red fruit with abundance of acidity, nice tannin finish. Opened up considerable throughout the the night, glass the next day was still improving. Very pretty, clean, tart wine, easy to drink. I think I prefer the clean flavors in this wine in general over some of the funk/earthy notes that other Pinot Noir has. I enjoy those notes when they are in balance, the Eyrie had this balanced, but it’s often overpowering in other wines.
My main questions for you all:
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Is the Patricia Green Reserve representative of their higher end single vineyard bottles? I get the sense that a lot of smaller OR wineries produce all their wine aiming for a similar taste profile, then split the finished product into single vineyard versus ‘Willamette Valley’ or ‘Ribbon Ridge’ based on the quality of each barrel. That’s how the Goodfellow and Eyrie felt, so good representation of their house style but at a lower quality (and price) point. The Patricia Green Reserve felt like it was made to spec as a product in and of itself as opposed to being their declassified wine, so maybe not a good representation of their single vineyard offerings?
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How much should I read into how the wines tasted on day two as a representation of how much more age they need? The Goodfellow had very high acidity which continued to tone down over the evening/next day. Would this benefit from aging, even as their lower end product?