February 2011

PATRICIA GREEN CELLARS

FIRST FLIGHT  ~  Roasted Salmon, Barley Risotto and Beurre Rouge

2009 Ana Vineyard Pinot Noir 
Incredible aromatics of rose petals, freshly cooked lamb, and earth toned red-spices. The texture is always graceful, at once being mouth-filling but never in an aggressive way. The finish is long, subtle and complete. This is a terrific rendition of what Dundee Hills Pinot Noir can and should taste like. 192 cases bottled.

2009 Balcombe Vineyard Pinot Noir
This bottling has the sweetness of red fruit, high-toned acidity and super-silky tannins that make Balcombe Vineyard such a terrific and sought after site. There is a great deal of intensity in this particular wine and while the nature of this wine tends toward femininity and elegance there is an underlying darkness and strength to it that provide a whole different level of dimension. Fans of this bottling will love this vintage as it is mouth-watering, smooth, rich and possesses so much substance that it will be terrific for many years down the road.

SECOND FLIGHT  ~  Lentil Soup with Sausages

2009 Bishop Creek Vineyard Pinot Noir 
Few Pinot Noirs get darker than this purple/black monster. The wine is utterly opaque. However, while the flavors run toward the darker side of Pinot Noir there is a deftness and elegance to this wine that belies the pigmentation of it. There is plenty of power in this wine which is befitting of the 2009 vintage at the upper end of the spectrum. The wine does have pretty sizeable grip on the back end that gives the sensation of it playing off of pure density however the mid-palate is cool, serene and has a range of flavors one might not expect to find in a wine of this heft. While this is our first go round with this particular vineyard it is pretty easy to see how this wine will gain in complexity with a few years of bottle aging and how this wine could easily go into a 15-20 year range of being aged while still being enormously enjoyable. We are excited about the prospects for this wine and our continued relationship with this vineyard down the road. 312 cases produced.

2009 Olenik Vineyard Pinot Noir
As was the case with many of our best wines, this wine was fermented with about 33% whole clusters and we were rewarded with an incredible array of flavors and textures. In contrast to the opulent, bordering on hedonistic qualities that arose in the Dundee Hills based Balcombe Block 1B and Archibald the Olenik is an incredibly pure burst of black fruit, minerality, dried herbs and smokiness all of which linger on the small tannin-saturated finish. The mid-palate has a terrific richness that is less opulence and more weight-without-heaviness that gives the wine fantastic sophistication in a much understated manner. While this may not offer the thrills of the 1B or Mysterious it is a testimony to the wonderful interplay that we are finding more and more with the Wadensvil clone of Pinot Noir and Marine Sedimentary soils. Approximately 350 cases will be bottled.

THIRD FLIGHT   ~  Lamb Meatballs and Red Wine Mushroom Sauce

2008 Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir
Wine Advocate: The 2008 Pinot Noir Estate is more deeply colored with a seductive perfume of smoke, rose petal, incense, terroir notes, black cherry and black raspberry. Mouth-filling, intense, already complex, and lengthy, it will evolve for another 2-3 years and offer a drinking window extending from 2013 to 2023. - Jay Miller
From the winery:
This, as always, is dark in every possible way. The pigmentation is such that it one cannot see though a full glass of this wine. The flavors are brimming with blackberry, currant, black cherry, cola and slate. The structure leans toward the powerful side with strong tannins providing heft and grip at the back of the wine. This is a substantial number every year and the 2008 packs a real punch. Because this is younger vine material we do keep the new wood in check as this clocks in at just 17% with most of the barrels being either twice or three times used. Despite the vigor and largesse of this bottling we think that over time this benefits from less new wood than more. As good a bottling of the Estate as we have done in our opinion.

2009 Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir
winemaker's notes:
This wine definitely veers toward the darker, denser and more powerful side of Pinot Noir. Ribbon Ridge Appellation vines when they are young produce succulent, darkly fruited wines in their youth and this is no exception. Because of the combination of clones flavors can range from red raspberry up through black currant and blackberries. Tannins, even at this stage of the games, are dense and give the wine a brooding sort of nature that belies the relative youth of the vines from which it comes. This bottling is going to have a serious sense of pizzazz. The fruit is wonderfully ripe without being out of balance at all. The tannins are large-scale in some instances but, again, they are perfectly within context of the fruit intensity and acidity of the wine. This is large-scale stuff but it is in no way any sort of fruit-bomb. In fact, if anything this might be the most pulled in wine of this line-up due to the structure which pulls the wine in at the back-end of the wine. 1,445 cases bottled.