Had the Durant BdB over two nights. Some green apple and mineral cut / drive on night one. Lacking a bit of depth/complexity. Rounding into a more vinous wine on night two with some ginger notes and nice finish. More depth on the mid palate. Excited for the future of Marcus and Megan’s sparkling endeavor.
Have two of each and haven’t popped a cork yet, seems like the consensus is they could still use time?
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I’m still holding all of mine too!
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They’re solid right now, but my recommendation is to avoid over chilling, serve closer to cellar temp to show best. Let the bottle breathe as well, ideally at least 30 minutes. I avoid decanting all sparkling wines, finding the bubble loss to be problematic.
I’m also holding several of mine to see how they perform with more bottle age.
Excellent wines, and a fun blind to do with champagne.
I think they’re really enjoyable now, the key being to pop them either evening before or morning of the evening you want to drink them. With the CO2 in tye wines there’s really no oxidation issues and both the Whistling Ridge and Durant are a lot of fun to drink. Durant might come around a little faster, so probably morning of for that one.
Holding some bottles to follow over time makes sense to me more with the Whistling Ridge and the Willamette Valley Extra Brut, but with the Durant I would lean to drinking this one in the next 1-2 years. That’s not a quality issue, it just seems like that wine is in a delicious place with plenty of autolytic qualities (nutty, pastry crust) already.
I hope everyone enjoys these wines from the first disgorgement, we’ve been extraorinarily happy with the second and third rounds of wines wines we put into tirage…now just another 2-5 years for them to be ready 
(we really need an emoji of money on fire).
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A couple Durant on deck for this evening to kick off a dinner party for Darcee’s 60th - will pop corks soon! Thanks for the heads up and will report back!
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So glad this thread surfaced in time for our first foray into the GFW sparkling’s to kick off a dinner party celebrating my wife’s 60th! We had the fortune to have the Durant BdB alongside an 08 Pierre Legras Idee de Voyage BdB Chouilly GC. These were paired with a pastry dough wrapped Moses Sleeper Cheese from Jasper Hill Farms topped with a Cherry Fig jam and caramelized apples.
The Goodfellow Durant opened at 9:00 in the morning and served at 6:30 was awesome! My brother-in-law Derek’s first remark was look at all the bubbles. The wine had upon entry a weightless quality to it but showing layers that I think will continue to gain some complexity but were full of the pastry dough, citrus (lemon), apple and nuts. The power yet weightless aspect of the wine just finishes so clean and wiped the palate of all fat from the cheese.
Just an amazing first effort! I don’t if many of these bottles will last with the holiday season upon us! I particularly like the crisp clean style that the low dosage allows and also see how that really helps to integrate the wine. It was the preferred wine over what I considered to be some stiff competition by the group.
Bravo @Marcus_Goodfellow ! It certainly brought smiles to my wife’s face as she prefers to drink wines to which she fills a connection. At 60 I am so glad that there will Goodfellow wines I don’t have to wait on for years! Look forward to visiting again soon and seeing where this wild ride Marcus and Megan have started goes!
BTW - perhaps my red WOTY was also enjoyed on Sunday evening - a separate note on that one to come. It was from OR but not a Goodfellow.
Cheers,
Bill
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Would you mind sharing more details of how you treated the wine upon opening? Did you open it and stick it back in your refrigerator still open? Or did you open it, let it breath for a bit and then recap it?
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I’ll let Bill answer for his bottles.
But we’ve been chilling the wine, opening the bottle and tasting, and then putting the sparkling wine stopper on until it’s time to pour the wine.
Unlike still wine the outgassing on opening seems to introduce enough turbulence to get the wine opening and evolving.
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Following the tips from Marcus and Bweiss I popped the corks at 9:00 and just placed back in our cellar (60 degrees). I left them untouched until 2:00 and placed a stopper on each. 30 minutes prior to serving I placed outside as it was 52 degrees to bring down the temperature slightly.
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Bill,
I’m really happy that everyone enjoyed the wine, especially for Darcee’s 60th. I know when you all last visited that this occasion was on your mind. First and foremost Happy Birthday from both Megan and I. It sounds like a fantastic party, and it’s good to know we enjoy some of the same cheeses as well!
If you can make it out again this coming year we would love to see you, and to show you a preview of some of the second and third efforts. It’s taken far longer than I could have expected but we have a pallet of sparkling magnum glass finally arriving before our tirage in June. We’ll have something ready for her 65th.
This is such a remarkable community and I’m always really grateful for all of the people I’ve met via WB, and you two are high on the list.
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Marcus,
So glad you got glass - nothing like the joy of sharing big bottles! Hope to see you in the near future. Thank you for your participation on this Board. You have contributued so much that has enhanced our journey considerably.
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My heart swoons, my bank account files a restraining order. 
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We’ll keep it sane enough for your bank card 
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You’re a bad man.
(Meant as compliment)
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