Generally speaking, I don’t think winemakers get to be legendary without great fruit. Across the board, the winemakers that I respect most will state that great wine is made by the vineyard and that farming and winemaking are about retaining that potential.
Without disrespect to any of the people you mentioned, I haven’t tasted much from any of those winemakers, except Lynn and Ken(but that was probably 20 years ago). And Isabelle, I’ve had some excellent Chardonnay from Lavinea. My experience with Brittan wines is primarily his estate fruit from McMinnville AVA.
I feel that great quality Y-C wines, have to range beyond just the natural fruit and power of the AVA and showcase elegance and nuance as well. Brian O’Donnell does a wonderful job at this with his eatate fruit. Domaine Nicholas-Jay is doing very good work with Bishop Creek. I loved the work that Chris Mazepink and Blair Trathan have done at Shea(Drew Voight as well). And Shane Moore with Grand Moraine is making some top tier Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs from the AVA. And the quality of fruit we were getting from Fir Crest was exceptional. It took a few vintages to understand the fruit and begin to align our process with that vineyard well enough to see how good it could be.
I like Cody’s wines as well, and it will be fun to see what he does in Ribbon Ridge. It’s good to see his name on the board too, as we don’t talk about his wines enough.
For the moment. The vineyard sold, and we are looking for property ourselves. It made sense to cut back on the sites we work with a bit to try and conserve cash for a down payment(agricultural loans typically have a higher percentage of down required).
I like the new owner at Fir Crest, and he really likes the wines we’ve produced from the vineyard. So it’s possible we may work with the vineyard again in the future. It’s a great vineyard site, and while not widely known that has nothing to do with the quality of the fruit.
A bit bummed there won’t be more Fir Crest in the near future. The 2017 Fir Crest Block 11 has been truly superb. One of my favourites to date. Looks like I’ll need to ration my remaining bottles more carefully and tuck a few of them deep in the cellar and forget about them.
Excited to see what you and Megan do with a property of your own. Best of luck in that endeavour!
That was me muhahaha! I definitely think WV deserves its own thread, having just visited and already planning my next trip. I would agree with the comment that the Dundee Hills PN seemed to be a crowd pleaser at most wineries.
RidgeCrest/Ribbon Ridge Winery was in town tonight for a tasting. I enjoyed all the wines but particularly a 2010 Pinot noir Reserve from their library. The Riesling and Gamay were also favorites.
And it appears that Cody sold his Ribbon Ridge project to a Walla Walla based purchaser, and has bought a different property on Calkins Lane(close to Ribbon Ridge but I believe just into Chehalem Mountains). Soccer camp can be a good source for news…
Jon at Ribbon Ridge Winery told me there are about 100 acres of Gamay planted vs 20,000 of Pinot noir, so no, there isn’t much. I think Willamette Valley Vineyards has a Gamay, and Domaine Divio has a Passetoutgrain, which is a mix of Gamay and Pinot noir.
A number of wineries in the WV make Gamay, and it’s often very good. I think our soils and climate seem to do really well with the grape. The big issue for most has been finding grapes—the demand seems to be there, from winemakers I’ve talked to, but the acreage isn’t yet. Vincent does a really excellent job, and others I’d look out for include Bow & Arrow, Love and Squalor, Brick House, Martin Woods, Hundred Suns, Grochau Cellars, and Walter Scott. Depending on the producer and site in question, some can be very powerful expressions of the grape, but they all seem to hold onto great acidity.
Count me in as a big fan of Vincent’s gamay (in addition to his excellent pinot offerings). I just recently ordered some 2020 Willamette Valley gamay at his very reasonable “pre-release” price. And look out for his Bjornson Vineyard gamay – it goes to 11!
