What Goodfellow/Matello are you drinking?

That’s great to hear, Megan and I really enjoyed it.

I apparently really like writing the word tannins based on that first sentence. :thinking:

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2022 Goodfellow Family Cellars Pinot Noir Whistling Ridge Vineyard Long Acre

Pop n’ pour into Grassl Cru and followed over the course of the evening. Elegant nose where the minerality takes center stage. There is a complex bouquet of crushed rocks, incense, lavender, dried bay leaf, and baking spice with evanescent aromas of sour cherry and plum that hang out in the periphery. While the nose is initially somewhat quiet, the fruit does gain some concentration over time in the glass. On the palate this is vibrant, energetic, and juicy, while still retaining the signature Goodfellow finesse, with flavors of black cherries, black currant, dried herbs, leather, and a hint of tobacco. The fruit and non-fruit flavors on the palate are nicely interwoven and show great depth, framed by fine-grained tannins and juicy acidity that provide excellent structure to the wine. Worth checking out now if you have a few bottles, but I suspect this will shut down pretty soon for a long slumber.

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2018 Dundee Hills Chardonnay continues to show well. Steely reduction, chalky, lemon, green apple, lots of acid, good density. Went very nicely with oysters.

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Can you explain this further? Stems harden off well? Why does that matter? And why use stems at all? Piedmont Nebbiolo is generally destemmed and certainly doesn’t lack tannins. Evesham Wood is 100% destemmed and doesn’t lack tannins either.

I can take a guess at some of this.

I think soft stems would be too pulpy and too much tannin would be easily extracted.

Stems in Pinot will have more effect than just tannin. Obviously (I think) Marcus is making wines that will handle age. With time, aside from the tannic influence, the stems will bring about some interesting flavors that would otherwise be absent.

Nebbiolo has all the tannin one would want without the stems. The issue there, at least in the motherland of Piedmont, is taming the tannins/getting them ripe enough before harvest. Stem inclusion would equate to a good rap in the chops (aka a punch in the mouth). And I say that as someone who really likes a good serving of tannin.

So, it’s pretty widely thought that stems need to lignify to avoid vegetal and green flavors in the resulting wines. As the vine begins prepping for winter it begins to lignify and harden off the wood of the plant so that can survive the cold temps. I’ve used fairly green stems, so it’s my belief that you can avoid vegetal flavors by minimizing temperature and eschewing the use of enzymes during fermentation. Think of fermenting green tea vs black tea.

Why use stems at all? Because whole cluster wine is so deliciously spicy, flloral, savory, and structural. And because as the wines age(and age, and age, and age some more, and a bit more, and well maybe just a few more years…) they develop layers of secondary and tertiary flavors that make for some the most compelling, complex, entrancing, captivating, mesmerizing, aromatic bouquets that leap far beyond the imaginings of mere mortal destemmed wines.

They also:

  1. extend ferments(you know that thing the Burgundians add sugar to do, even though their wines are no longer 11.5% pre-chaptalization-jkng)

  2. lower potential alcohol (what’s the average Piemontese wine checking in at these days? Hmm???)

  3. add excellent spice components to the nose, sometimes add intriguing herbal components

  4. extend aging for a thin skinned red grape that does age on acidity also but gets a fabulous textural stem boost as it ages

Stems also allowed Steve Doerner to make a nearly unrivaled set of monstrously good Pinot Noirs through the 90s that left him as “the Man” in the Willamette Valley for many years.

And for you my friend, they make it so that the single bottle of 2015 Goodfellow Willamette Valley Pinot Noir that somehow rolled under the wine shelving (the bottle was too skinny) in the cellar in 2019 and you don’t find until 2034…is :exploding_head::fire:

Nebbiolo, and most other red grapes, has thicker skins and tannins that do not resolve as quickly as the skin tannins of Pinot Noir. Nebbiolo skin is to grapfruit skin as Pinot Noir skin is to tangerine skin.

I really don’t think every grape variety needs to be fermented with lots of stems. For the wee bit of Cab Franc, we use 15-20% stem inclusion. That’s just how the fruit seems to want it.

Evesham Wood is awesome. There’s Dujac and Jayer and certainly room in the world for both and better for it. Same is true of Evesham Wood and Goodfellow. I love Erin’s wines and between he and Matt Kinney at McKinlay, I see no reason for me to make destemmed wines, I can just drink theirs. But if Evesham Wood had some more tannins, that would be great too!

I think it will be fun one day to do an Evesham Wood and Haden Fig (Erin experiments with stems in this label) comparison to see how the wines are aging.
It will also be cool to compare old bottles of Evesham Wood THV and Goodfellow West Field, both wines are 100% the same block, and what a block it is! His destemmed and ours 100% whole cluster. (My prediction is that he rules the first 15 years and I get the next but that both wines will be dynamite WV wines that are more kin than not).

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I remember one a Savoie producer I used to work with used them in their Persan and he said they helped with a better flow (ie not getting stuck/clogged) when draining the tank. If I understood it correctly they help create a little space or a pathway for liquid to flow smoothly as opposed to just skins that could cake up.

Can someone TLDR the 3 sparklers?

Have friends coming over this weekend so will be opening some whites. Any advice or recommendations on decanting the 2018 Dundee Hills Chardonnay?

@Terry_H_a_r_r_i_s I decanted 2 or maybe 2.5 hours. No idea if that was right or wrong amount but the wine was good!

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Thank you, Justin!!

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After a fun Daddy-Daughter Day with my girls, I popped 19 Oracle. 19 Oracle holds a memorable spot for me with my youngest.

Not shut down, but this wine has not budged in several years. My gut is saying this will be knockout when it is ready. No idea ready will be. Seems like 5+ years though. @Marcus_Goodfellow any insight or comment here.

Funny I popped one Friday night too, my first. Wonderful and complex aromatics - red fruit at first and then a tea note that I thought was interesting. Nicely structured - plenty of acid and the tannins present but not overpowering,

It ran circles around a ‘16 Caroline Morey Chassagne Montrachet which didn’t taste like Burgundy to me at all - served blind I would have called it a California Pinot from a warm area. That cola note, and just no structure.

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