2023 Goodfellow Dundee Hills Pinot Noir. Stunning. Note below.
Cranberry, cherry, violet, rose water, touch of sandalwood. Lively nose. Palate shows off the Goodfellow signature: acid, spice, and silky mouthfeel. Long finish with bright red fruit, five spice, and orange peel/rind. Beautiful wine.
N.B. We opened next to the ‘23 Ribbon Ridge AVA. Which is outstanding. We opted to recork the Ribbon Ridge for tomorrow. Both AVA wines are exceptional.
The last of my first Goodfellow purchase from BD11.
We had our last bottle 0f 2011 Matello Lazarus this week. I think this wine is near peak, and the fruit seemed a touch more dried than our bottle in January, and I preferred that one slightly because it seemed just a tad fresher. If you have some I would check in on it and see what you think.
I’ve had both of those wines a few times lately, including the past week. They are young but I’m drinking them while the other bottlings get some age. Both were exceptional values in the Spring release ($24/bottle). As might be expected, the Dundee Hills is more forward and approachable. But I love the Ribbon Ridge and its red fruit and savoriness, a quintessential Goodfellow Pinot Noir.
-Al
I had the 2023 Dundee Hills yesterday and very much enjoyed it. My wife and I shared it over dinner and it was soon gone. I felt it was developing some weight and the fruit was getting deeper by the time we finished the bottle. Would this be something that changes much over time? I’d like to find out, but my wife would probably finish the bottle before I would be able to. 
Yes. Most Goodfellow Pinots need a lot of air.
Thanks. Yeah, That is one reason I haven’t opened many of the ones I have. I thought that this one was intended more for earlier drinking and that it might not necessarily be the case. I guess it applies here as well.
That’s part of the fun. Here’s a trick: open a bottle of Goodfellow in the morning and pour 8oz into a measuring cup. Pour it right back in. Stick the bottle in the fridge until about 30 minutes before service.
Thanks Patrick. That sounds like an approach that will work rather than opening one and expecting it will last for days.
They will last for days, interestingly enough. Lots of wines will: I’m on day 3 of a Kelley Fox Chardonnay and an Extradimensional Mourvèdre. Both wines showed best on day 3. Cheers
(I am going to forego the cheap jokes on wine reviews during a 3 day window)
Thanks. It’s not that. There is just no way my wife and I won’t finish the bottle before the evening is done. We generally drink wine with dinner. I have always assumed that a wine is better if you let it rest for as many years it needs to be ready, as compared to just opening it and giving it a lot of air. I am not sure if that is the case, or if I could tell the difference. I don’t experiment with such things enough I suppose. Maybe it depends on the wine or grape.
Looking at the release offer, Marcus did say it was drinkable now (with air). I should have followed the (with air) part. Thanks for the advice and for the suggestion on how to approach the wines. The next time I open one I will take your suggested approach and see what happens.
Giving a young wine air does not approximate what proper ageing will do.
In terms of giving young pinot air, I think it really depends on the producer and bottle. My default is to open a wine and taste it immediately, if it feels balanced and has good aromatics then drink it and vacum seal the rest in the bottle. If it’s unbalanced or muted than I give it some air and try again. There is no hard and fast rule that I’ve found, recent young Vincent wines have shut down hard with air while a Kelley Fox Stater improved substantially with a couple hours in the decanter.
Thanks. I guess I’ll go back to my approach to drinking Goodfellow. Buy it, put it aside until it is ready, drink something else.
Knowing the producer and vineyard helps this out.
Kelley is pretty open about wanting people to drink the wines reasonably early. Her wines do age well but there is a more open knit aspect to the ones that I have tasted. She also uses a good amount of Dundee Hills fruit, and the deeper soils there hold water very well and give wines with modest structure and more fruit. That AVA almost always drinks well young and has some flesh. Look at the PGC estate wines vs Balcombe for a good example of this. While the Balcombe does age, it drinks well young. And older, the Balcombe is nice but I prefer the wines from the estate.
And Vincent sources fruit from both Armstrong (Ribbon Ridge) and Temperance Hill (Eola Amity Hills) both are more structural sites, especially Temperance Hill.
Edit: the n in between “do” and “age well” was a mistype. The letter n is right above the space bar on my phone and is too close for my fat thumbs.
Both of the recent Vincent’s that shut down with air were from Armstrong, one single vinyeard and one his Ribbon Ridge (all Armstrong fruit). Now that you mention it, a PGC Old vine within the last year was the same, with air became muted and a bit disjointed whereas on open it was more put together, but still dense.
Which vintage shut down?
2024 Ribbon Ridge, 2023 PGC Old Vine, and a 2016 Vincent Armstrong I had a 1-2 years ago.
Interesting, im in love with the 17 Armstrong and that bottle stays open. Need to drink more Vincent it sounds like…
This may mean that I drink my RR 24s too quickly. They’ve never shut down on me but they also never last long.