Strange, I wonder what else could contribute to that. I’ve only noticed this same thing in other whole cluster wines and strangely Canary Island wines. Maybe bitterness isn’t the best vernacular, it’s similar to a very delayed tannin hit after the finish, but much more taste than texture.
Yeah–I don’t think I’ve ever had a Patti Green wine that had any significant bitterness. Or for that matter any excessive or late tannic elements, particularly those specific bottlings. Maybe you are just super sensitive to tannins, or it was a result of bottle mistreatment (which seems a little weird, as I’ve never experienced this with mistreated bottles of other wines.)
I should be temporarily banned from making tasting notes. It was the ESTATE, not Reserve. I didn’t realize I even owned an Estate bottling. My guest opened and decanted and put in the recycling bin. I just verified.
I’ve probably tasted 150+ bottles of PGC and also have never experienced it. Though I’ve never had anything from the 2010 vintage. This bitterness was apparent for all four guests who tried it, I probably have a higher sensitivity to it but it was noticeable for the more casual drinker.
Don’t worry though, I have a good strategy going forward…I need more data, therefore will need to drink more PGC wine!
I often get some bitter components in Willamette Valley Pinot. Reminds me of orange peel. It’s usually not too strong, but there have been some that had more than I cared for.
Another Winebid winner:
2006 Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Estate Etzel Block - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Ribbon Ridge (11/11/2018)
Recent purchase from WineBid.
Was a bit concerned when I saw the cork had a seepage streak up to the top, and the capsule showed a small sign of seepage as well, but it looked like it had dried long ago.
In any case, the wine turned out to be just fine. This bottle was more open on the nose and palate than the other 2006 that I picked up at the same auction (Goldschmidt vineyard) and more refined as well.
This was just lovely, with excellent focus, balance, and a great core of the signature PGC sappy fruit. Enjoyed every sip of this and was sad when the bottle was empty.
Tasted over two evenings (vacuvin’d and refrigerated overnight) - consistent throughout. (92 pts.)
PSA for people living on Long Island: Raeder’s in Albertson has the 2006 Ribbon Ridge Estate for $25.99 (their extremely unreliable web site doesn’t show it, but it’s in the store). It’s drinking beautifully.
Raeder’s is an odd little store. Every once in a while, things like this show up out of the blue at good prices. Presumably distributor closeouts.
Sounds like something they have had for awhile or acquired somewhere else. Skurnik sends us depletions and that certainly hasn’t been on it for a long time and I doubt that they came across a 10+ year old vintage and closed it out. Maybe the store keeps stuff. There was a grocery store here in Portland famous for squirreling stuff away for years.
That makes sense Jim, though I would say that “lost and found” is more likely than “squirreled away” - especially given the wild inaccuracies on their web site. It certainly wouldn’t have been a winning retail strategy to intentionally store the wine all those years and then sell it to me for approximately what I would have paid at the time. As I said above, things like this pop up every once in a while at this store, and that’s led me to suspect that they occasionally buy out stock from somewhere. But I should shut up about Raeder’s. Good cherry picking locations have become quite rare.
Jim -
There was a 2002 PGC Hirsch Vineyard Sonoma Coast Pinot on Spectrum Wine auctions last week. Would you share the story on this bottling?
Sure. Just posted on Instagram a couple weeks ago a picture of a magnum we opened on Thanksgiving open house. It was very good. Very Sonoma Coast good so don’t expect it to taste like Oregon Pinot Noir. And that was the point.
While now it is easy to talk about why our wines have a lot of variability based on site and/or block back in 2002 that wasn’t the case so much. Getting fruit from the Sonoma Coast was an exercise in seeing if what we were doing was producing wines of site or producing wines that were, even at an unconscious level, being produced by technique. Having something so far outside the box was going to help us answer that question. And it did. It tastes like Mt. Eden Clone PN from the Sonoma Coast.
We had it out of a perfectly stored magnum. I liked it a lot but certainly have a bias. It is definitely Ca PN. Still was youtfhful at this point. We just went through our massive library (and random library) and I believe we have 4 cases of this remaining that I think we are simply going to sell off. No sense is keeping it at this point. Certainly enjoyable and hopefully folks would get something old and cool.
Jim, like many others here I am big fan of your work! If you do chose to sell off the remaining 2002 PGC Hirsch I would be more than happy to take some off your hands!
+1 for me and probably +5 for my wife. She’s always asking “do we have any more of that Patricia Green stuff?” and I keep responding “No dear, you drank it all.”
+2.
+2
Thanks, Jim! This exemplifies what I love about PGC - letting the grapes/site talk.