I expect Walter Scott and Patricia Green to announce futures soon for the 2023 vintage, I wondered if anyone had any insights into this vintage?
@Marcus_Goodfellow has positive things to say abouy 2023
I’ve worked each of the last four harvests at a vineyard in the Chehalem Mountains AVA. IMO, the 2023 and 2024 vintages are among the strongest Willamette Valley vintages of the past 25 years.
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2023 is a vintage to be truly ecstatic about. Especially for Chardonnay
PS: First post from a long-time lurker.
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Tasted the 2023s at Walter Scott in barrel this summer and a couple 2023 whites from Kelley Fox. Will be an expensive vintage for sure.
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Welcome to the Dark Side!
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Right there with 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2010, some 2012s, some 2014s, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022. 2024 definitely looks good too.
It’s been a strong run since 2020, and 2023 looks to be well balanced, modest alcohol, very pretty fruit, and wonderfully representative of the difference in sites.
But if you look at critical review or just enjoy the wines, there are too many other really dynamic vintages in the Valley for me to feel that 2023 upstages everything else. It seems like a lovely mix of 2019 and 2022 to me. And fans of the cooler lower alcohol vintages will have plenty of fantastic wines to choose from. Those who like seriously robust wines will also be able to find them as some sites seemed to jump up in sugars quite significantly as people waited.
Base wines and white wines have some exceptional material to work with. The white wines from our cellar have a wonderful electric quality to them. Nervy and focused would be my best description.
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Jim has been expressing his excitement over 2023 for some time now. From the PGC’s Spring 2024 newsletter:
"It sounds cliche to say, '‘All the vintages are great,’ but aside from the wildfire-ravaged 2020 vintage, we are in a run of years dating back to 2012. All have been considered very good, with the best of them achieving legendary status.
The 2023s are destined to fall into the ‘legendary’ category. The raw material in barrel harkens back to the 2012 and 2016 vintages. Those vintages were small-to-medium-sized crops, whereas the 2023 vintage produced an unprecedented crop on nearly every vineyard with which we work. These are amazing wines that offer the sheer magnitude and majesty of the 2021s with the textures, aromatics, and sumptuousness that the 2022s possess. They are, to make an odd analogy, the platypus of Oregon Pinot Noirs. It seems impossible that they exist in the manner that they do, yet here they are."
I’m really excited about what likely is headed our way from 2023. That said, I’ve loaded up (for me) on both 2021s and 2022s. Fun times! And, how lucky we are to be able to put these wines in our cellars and enjoy them for years to come!! 
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This is perfect thank you! I did not want you to come and say best vintage in the last 25 years neither since I feel that adds no value… this is what I was looking for
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Tasted with Seth at Morgen Long this Summer and he was drawing a lot of comparisons to his 2021s.
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One thing that I feel is lacking in the Willamette is varietal specific coverage for vintages. This is likely due to the fact that Pinot is drastically more popular than any other varietal in the Willamette, but now that Chardonnay is coming into it’s own, I would love to understand vintages through a Burgundy style lens (Pinot vs Chardonnay). Especially since my Willamette purchases are pretty Chardonnay heavy.
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This right here.
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Starting to buy now and found this thread - just to add: I had the chance to visit and taste some pinots from '22 and '23 this past February (in barrel) and just floored by the quality. Did not have a chance to taste the whites. Now looking to buy some (very pricey) Antica Terra whites just announced to the list; this thread just tipped me from undecided over into ‘buy’
2024 is a great Pinot Noir vintage (again) but it is also an amazing white wine vintage (I think). I am not amongst the Illuminati who craft and sell untold amounts of expensive Oregon Chardonnay. I make 300 cases from 1 tiny section of our Estate Vineyard. I have tasted Kelley’s much more extensive collection and they’re awesome (she has a surprise for y’all as well!) My 2024 Sauvignon Blancs (3 or maybe 4 of them because, of course) are all the best examples of what we have done.
Hi Jim, how would you compare 2023 and 2024 vintage in terms of style?
I just tasted through all 34 of our 2023 Pinot Noir bottlings with Aubrey Frick (who is or should be considered a national wine treasure) and there is nothing I’ve said to date that is even slightly off base. I had tasted maybe 10 of those wines since they were bottled so it was a re-initiation for me on them.
We also just put the 2024 Willamette Valley Reserve Pinot Noir bottling together last week so I was well informed on those versus the 2023s. They are of extremely similar quality. I would say the 23s are more structured and have a dark tone to the red fruit while the 24s are slightly more supple and have a red fruit energy that is palpable. This is a mass generalization of course when talking about a fairly significant number of wines across multiple vineyards and AVAs.
Any growing region in the world would be MORE than happy with the run of vintages we have experienced in the northern Willamette Valley since 2012. I don’t know if 2021-2024 are the icing on the cake or just more cake.
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