Saturday afternoon TNs: Three more Chardonnays from Goodfellow

WINE TALK
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Since I’ve been buying Goodfellow wines, I have tended to focus my Chardonnay purchasing on the Richard’s Cuvee and Durant bottlings. But in the last two vintages Marcus started releasing higher end bottlings besides those two wines - to the best of my recall, prior to today I hadn’t tried any of these wines.

And if you think about it (using an analogy from Felsina’s Chianti hierarchy), if you want to really delve into the Whistling Ridge vineyard, we now have three different ways to do it - the Ribbon Ridge is our Chianti Classico, the Whistling Ridge is the CCR, and the Richard’s is our Rancia.

At any rate, all three of these are interesting and a worthwhile purchase. I don’t know if they would change my prospective focus away from the Richard’s and Durant releases, but I may need to think about buying a few more of these in the future.


Expansive on the palate - really spreads out, and the acidity keeps this lively. Boy, when you consider that in the qualitative hierarchy of the vintage, this would be considered Marcus’ 3rd Chardonnay from the Whistling Ridge vineyard, this is really impressive. I know that reductive note on the nose will turn some folks off, but I’m really enjoying this right now.

  • 2017 Goodfellow Family Cellars Chardonnay Whistling Ridge Vineyard - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Ribbon Ridge (4/18/2020)
    Similar to the Ribbon Ridge, nicely expansive on the palate. This wine does not have that reductive note on opening. Tart white fruit on the palate. Very good.
  • 2018 Goodfellow Family Cellars Chardonnay Whistling Ridge Vineyard - USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley, Ribbon Ridge (4/18/2020)
    More substantial on the palate here than the '17 version, and the tart fruit I mentioned earlier is amped up a bit here. A slight reductive note on the nose. I don’t know how Marcus would rate the vintages, but off these two bottles, I would say that the '18 has the same flavor profile as the '17, but just seems to have more of it.

Posted from CellarTracker

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Bob…how full is your cellar room? Does Marcus have any Chards left to sell?

Goodfellow mirroring Chianti Classico? I already know you put dent in Felsina’s import volume.

RT

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I believe Marcus still has some Chardonnay in stock [cheers.gif]

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Hi Bob,

Great notes! Thank you.

I would agree with you on the vintages. While they have their own personalities, 2017 and 2018 are more similar than different. Especially in the white wines. There is a sappier core of fruit to the Pinot Noirs, and in tue whites that just amps up the nature of the wines. I find that interesting, in part because the 2018 Whistling Ridge is 12.1% abv vs. 2017 at 12.9%.

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Thanks for the notes Bob!