2017 Patricia Green Pinot Noir, Olenik Anklebreaker Block
Splash decanted. Cherry, raspberry, excellent concentration, power without weight. Some baking spice, very slightly chewy tannins. Good acidity, mouthwatering in a way that balances the fruit and the 14% ABV perfectly. Young, delicious, but still interesting enough that it’s not a crime to drink with a bit of air. Jim’s drinkability chart says hold, because his wines develop over decades (that’s a compliment). Very glad to have another to try in five years. Excellent.
I’ve been thinking a lot about 2017 (and 2018) vintages a lot. 2025 has commonalities with both. In my world and mind, anyway. I think we did a good job on 2017 and a better job on 2018. I think I’m better informed and prepared now for things like that. I hope so.
That wine was always a winery worker’s fave. It’s not particularly friendly in its youth. It’s more savory than supple. But it has personality and elements that are unique. Our last vintage is 2023. Sad to see it go.
Ha! The OG of our first round of buying Croft fruit. This was initially done because the set in the northern Willamette Valley was atrocious. At the time we were farming 4 other vineyards as well as the Estate site. We harvested 29 tons from 63 (!!!) acres that year. We sought out anything we could find and Croft (all organically farmed even back then) had some Pommard and Wadesnvil planted in the mid-1980s available. I remember it as a bold wine, especially in the context of the more fruity 2004 vintage. Hope it held up.
Purchased 6 bottles of OLYG Berserker offer. So I don’t actually know what this is, but I’m 60% sure it’s Ghost Barn. That 40% doubt is purely because the recent Reserve bottlings (specifically ‘22 and ‘23) are that damn good.
Tomato leaf, plum, blue fruit. Entry is a bit backward and super tight. Similar to drinking a barrel sample. But damn, is this good. This wine needs a 5 year nap. A real treat this will be when it turns itself outside in.
Couple of years ago or so I picked up a 2021 Reserve at a wine shop down in Colorado. Only PGC Reserve I’d ever purchased. Decided to give it a run a month or so ago, knowing I had a case of the 2024 OLYG coming this fall. Was a wonderful bottle of wine.
Haven’t yet opened one of the 2024 OLYG, but expect I will before the end of 2025.
There’s really no danger/losing. The one pallet is basically all LBP Ghost Barn Block. We were down more than 56 cases of that bottling when we ended up doing it and we know that the tank swap mistake happened right as we were nearing finishing a pallet of Reserve. Even so, the 2024 Reserve is so ludicrously full of high end, old vine wine from Hyland, Durant, Weber and Shafer (about 60% of the wine comes from 25-54 year old vines on those 4 places) that a small intermingling of it will assuredly do no damage.
100% agree @Jim_Anderson. It’s so damn good that I don’t even care what it is. Fun little experiment to eventually taste the OLYG alongside both the ‘24 Ghost Barn and Reserve bottlings. But that’s more curiosity than anything.
Going to treat like I do most PCG bottlings: 5 year nap (except the ‘22 Freedom Hill “base bottling”…that one is on fire) and then explore over next 5 years.
I spent a year telling people that the 2023s were the best set of wines we have ever produced. It might well be the case that the 2024s exceed them. It won’t be an apples to apples sort of thing as we eliminated 9 bottlings in 2024 that were done in 2023 (we also added 2, so don’t be too horrified). As good as I think the 2023 Reserve is, I know that the 2024 is better. We used more whole cluster on our Estate Vineyard in 2024 than 2023 so I am likely inclined towards those bottlings but we shall see, the 2023 Estates are pretty damn solid.
In any case, one might prefer the 2023s to the 2024s or vice versa but they’re both exceptionally good vintages with a long list of terrific wines in each.
Banging Mr. Anderson. I’m having the last taste this afternoon and it might be better today than 2 weeks ago. Cheers to you, Patty and the fine folks at PGC past and present…
I bought some 2004 PGC’s from WineBid about a year ago as well. I rescued these bottles from the Exs garage a few weeks ago. There are a few bottles of 2002 PGC mixed in with a couple bottles of German Rieslings. Based on the German wines, I think that these particular PGC bottles came from Spectrum.
Opened a 2012 PGC Estate Old Vine last evening. So nice. Decanted off the sediment (had been standing up for 11 days) and left open decanter back down in the 60 degree cellar for three hours. Have five more still in the cellar, one of which likely will be opened (along with some other PGC wines) tomorrow evening, as a group of us celebrate my buddy Nick’s 68th Bday.
Also, I’ve now taken a peek at three of the 2023 PGC Pinots: Freedom Hill Wadensvil (post #1048, above), Estate and Estate Wadensvil. Both the Estate and Estate Wadensvil were opened and enjoyed over the past week. All were/are so damn nice, both the first evening and when I finished the bottle the next evening. I think I’ve read that Jim thinks the 2023s are structured like the '21s but more friendly/open/exuberant like the '22s - sort of the best of both prior vintages. Any event, that’s how all three of those '23s seemed to me.
As mentioned, my buddy Nick turned 68 today. Having a group of six over to celebrate. Cooking off a little bit of the liquid of a cassoulet I prepared yesterday, slow cooking (all but the beans) over 10 hours, adding the beans that last hour.
Decanted the older PGC wines for about two hours. Pulled the corks on the two 2023 PGCs and the two Goodfellows about the same time, leaving all of them in my cellar.
Waiting for folks to arrive . . . so I think I’ll start tasting a few wines.
The 2008 Marine Sedimentary is back when we were making like 25-50 cases of that/vintage, so that’s an oddball. The 2008s are showing pretty well. I have no idea what combination of stuff that would be. Off the top of my head, and given the AVA, it is some combination of our Estate Vineyard and Whistling Ridge Vineyard which we got fruit from during the 2003-2012 time period.
2012 Estate Vineyard, Old Vine should be in excellent condition providing that bottle came from somewhere good. Had it recently and like all 2012s is still young and very shiny.
2023 remains my favorite vintage of all time with 2016, 2012 and 2024 (with a bullet) in the mix. Those are two wicked bottlings, even in their preposterous youth.
I have only been to Wyoming once, on a cross-country drive from my junior year at the University of Oregon. This was on my Salt Lake City, UT to North Platte Nebraska portion of the trip. I don’t think I stopped except for gas and maybe to take a picture of the sign of Curt Gowdy State Park outside of Laramie.
Maybe I need to make a trek. Hell, I have supported distributors that buy less wine.
