The Goodfellow bubble love is in the house!
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If you absolutely have to pop them, they are already bouncing back a little. I think you’ll see texture really fill in over the next few months, and layering should jump up. But here’s what we’ve seen so far:
Willamette Valley Extra Brut-stylish, more sleek than powerful, the presence of PN in this makes it distinctly different from the other two wines, as does the 2.5g/l of dosage. While there’s a salty note in the nose from the chardonnay, there’s also a combination of orchard fruits including Rainier cherries and stone fruits, peach blossoms. At the moment, the palate is compact and this goes down easily but will probably expand quite a bit with 6-months to a year in bottle. The dose creates a seamless finish without sharpness, but is probably the max that I would consider for this wine.
While the WV Extra Brut is tasty, this is the last of the three wines that I would Pobega.
(While our pHs are very similar to Champagne, the Willamette Valley simply provides a softer expression of acid, and our malics are modest. While Brut nature Champagne may not be for everyone, I find that the Blanc d’Argiles from Vouette Sorbe always seems to find an excellent balance point for me and I suspect that our wines will mostly be 0-2g/l for dose.)
Durant Vineyard Blanc de Blancs-this is bouncing back nicely and showing the solid step up that I thought it would be. It’s the wine of the three that is most marked by autolytic qualities, and also has a bit of a grower funk note when it’s first opened. But it’s very true to the vineyard, pears, almonds, pastry crust, and grain. More textural than the WV, and longer in the finish. I really love the balance in the finish of bright acidity and mineral notes, the .5g/l dosage is just enough to polish the sharp edges but doesn’t interfere in the finish or alter the personality of the wine.
This is probably the first of the three I would open, but it wants a 2-3 minutes of air in the glass to blow off the funk.
Whistling Ridge Blanc de Blancs-my personal favorite of the three, the nose is clean and saline, fresh, star fruit, white currant, lime flowers, sea water. This is subtle, no explosive guitar solos, just directly beautiful. In the mouth it’s delicate, nicely filigreed, opposite of much of the current releases from base 2018/2019/2020 in Champagne. No dosage and I am very happy in that choice. While dose might round some edges, this is a very complete wine as it is. It disappears in a hurry…
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@Marcus_Goodfellow @Megan_Joy I got my wine shipments from you guys today. Thanks! Mind if I ask a bit of a nosy business question about the bottles I received?
I noticed that there seems to be two different styles of labels that you use. The first has a “marketing” label on the front of the bottle and a “compliance” label on the back with all the mandatory legalese. The second style has all the information (both marketing and compliance information) on the front label and a simple back label that has just the Goodfellow Family Cellars flower motif on the back.
Why the two styles of labels? Is it a cost thing? A marketing reason? Something else? I have no objection to either style of label. I’m just curious why the difference.
Hi Charles,
When we shifted the Whistling Ridge Field Blend and Riesling over to Goodfellow from Matello, the bottle wasn’t wide enough to handle the wider lavel from the Chardonnays, Pinot Noirs, and Pinot Gris. We redesigned with the wordless front label, and put everything, vineyard and legal, on the back label.
The Chardonnay/Pinot Noir style label has vineyard and/or AVA information and vintage, but some required bits only on the back, abv, our winery location and bottled by statement, and the government warning. So the redundancy of information on that one just satisfies legal needs.
The choice to shift the Rosé and Soif to the same style as the Riesling is mostly just keeping them fun. Though we did opt for using that label with the Soif to help delineate it veing different from the regular Chardonnays (bottled earlier and without everything being barrel fermented).
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Reading about smoke taint made me recall that we opened another 2020 Willamette Valley Chardonnay the other day. It was delicious, and at least for my palate, not showing any smoke taint.
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Wasn’t some Chardonnay picked before the fire?
Some was picked before the fire, and a few vineyards weren’t “in the line of fire”. From what i understand, Freedom Hill was less affected - most of the smoke went either north or south of there. I think everyone who made a decent Chardonnay was very selective.
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Just had 3 cases arrive today (fortunately at the office not home 
). Looks like I’ll put the sparklers aside and try some of the Berserkers Cuvée to get started.
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Got my BD case of sparklers and Berserkers Cuvee chard on Wednesday. I think the spring offering is shipping shortly as well.
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Patiently waiting for PNW shipments up here…
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Strange, I got my BD shipment a week (or so) ago.
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You in Seattle?
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Yup.
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@Scott_Tallman Can you change the title of this thread to What Goodfellow/Matello did you have delivered? That seems to have become the burning question for many here. All the other shipping/delivery threads are clearly not sufficient!
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Let me check in w/Megan to see when yours is heading out.
Guilty as charged!!
Thanks Marcus - she got back to me with an update. The sparklers need to sit a few months anyway!
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3 cases of awesomeness arrived today. Planning to open one of the sparklers this weekend, I think in his write up Marcus recommended one to open if we absolutely couldn’t wait. And I can’t.
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Thinking about a Goodfellow pinot this weekend, and curious what the hive mind thinks I should try. I’ve got on hand:
'13 Whistling Ridge PN
'15 Bishop Creek PN
'16 Whistling Ridge PN
'17 WR Last Acre PN
'18 Temperance Hill PN
Anyone with good (or bad) recent showings of any of these?
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I vote for the 13 but that’s because I’ve had an eye on mine for a bit here.
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