willamette

PATRICIA GREEN

The recent lineup from Patti Green’s label crosse our table recently and both made a great impression and gave us a bit of more a feel for the 2021 vintage in Oregon, which is looking good. Founded back in 2000, this has been an insider’s winery for the most part as Patti, who passed in 2017, was always more focused on the natural synergy between vineyard and wine than the politics of the wine business. We tasted her stuff early on and liked this winery’s focus on purity and honesty of terroir.

These days a lot of folks talk terroir and geology in Oregon but, as partner Jim Anderson who now runs the show described, Patti was one of the first to really focus on those aspects 15-20 years ago before it became the anthem it is today. In his words, she didn’t always know the terminology, much of which hadn’t even been created yet, but she had an innate feel for what that meant in practice. The goal was to make wines naturally, which is not to say they were making ‘natural wine’ as that is defined today. One interesting quote from Anderson’s tribute to Patti is this, “If you go in with the idea that you know how to ‘make’ the wine or even really have a conception of what you want that wine to be like stylistically then you aren’t going about things the correct way to begin with.” It adheres to the philosophy of many great Burgundy domaines.

From three choices presented we picked this one as the best representative of the spirit of the vineyard, though they all delivered what a lot of winemakers don’t seem be as concerned with as we would like…joy. This is a bright, gushing, expressive show of spicy red cherries with subtle undercurrents of forest floor and savory as nuance. Medium weight with tender, delicate but juicy fruit, the Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Chehalem Mountain Vineyard 2021 seduces one with the style that Pinot drinkers will respond to. It’s sort of an ‘essence of Pinot’ feel to this bottling.

The vineyard itself has a story of its own. The first planting of the vineyard was 1968, ancient history in Oregon. This bottling comes from the second planting in 1978, which is still very old vine material around these parts. Originally planted by Oregon pioneer/nurseryman Dick Erath, and located on the border between the now delineated Ribbon Ridge and Chahalem AVAs, it has been referred to as the ‘Erath clone’ block but the cuttings for this parcel are believed to have come from Clos Vougeot in the mid-70s. A delightful, pure expression of Pinot.

BRITTAN-QUIETLY AMONG OREGON’S ELITE

This project has been afforded great respect pretty much since ‘Day One’. True, Robert Brittan came from California with a resume of being the winemaker and estate manager at Stags’ Leap Winery for 16 years. His wife Ellen was highly involved with a variety of marketing aspects with respect to rolling out the Rudd Winery program. These Napa veterans came to the Willamette Valley with reputations and great expectations.

They were afforded great credibility right of the bat. Examine this excerpt from one of the longest footnotes on a producer we’ve seen in the Wine Advocate as the reviewer talked about their very first releases, “…A personal encounter with these singular wines should be high on the to-do list of any wine lover – not just Pinotphile – who hasn’t yet had the experience. Over and beyond his Pinot Noirs (soon to be sourced in part from old California vine selections), Brittan’s estate essays in Chardonnay and Syrah have been nothing less than revelatory…”

In this article great attention was paid to the Brittan’s ‘scientific’ process and caring a lot about what many would consider minutia. Noting the different consistencies of the basalt soils in various parts of the vineyard, studying the interfaces between rock, root, soil, and plant metabolism, studying and encouraging diversity of flora and fauna across his property to enhance the microorganisms that populate his grapes’ skins, this is attention to detail at a rare level and it shows in the wine.

Subsequent to that initial review, Brittan wines only failed to crack the 90 point (and usually higher) level twice over 35 wines dating back to that original 2007 vintage in Wine Advocate, a testament to the quality that everyone seemed to expect out of this Oregon project from the beginning. The Pinots have always shown tremendous detail and filigree, purity of fruit and distinctive style and complexity. We have been quiet fans of Brittan’s wines for a long time.

The fruit in the Brittan Vineyards Pinot Noir Estate Willamette Valley 2017 shines expressing vibrant blue and dark red fruits, notes of lifted spice, and subtle but insistent streaks of white stone minerality. The fruit all comes from the original estate vineyard planted in 2001, though only eight of the original 18 acres planted in this rugged terrain in ultra-thin topsoils survived. Clearly the remaining plants are happy enough to produce some distinctive fruit.

To be honest, the style of the house isn’t necessarily ‘pop-and-serve’. This wine has a lot of layers to unravel. Note the comments from Wine Advocate reviewer Erin Brooks, “Drinking these wines on my own for pleasure, I notice that the Pinot Noirs, especially, take several hours to open and show their stuff once the cork is pulled. Consider giving these wines more time than usual in bottle—or at least a long decant—before enjoying.” There’s a lot to love here but giving the wine a little time to stretch out gives you a more complete experience.

As we have pointed out on occasion, reviewers are people, too. This piece from Josh Reynolds sums up the bullet points rather succinctly, “Shimmering red. Spice-accented raspberry, cherry and floral aromas are complemented by hints of cola, succulent herbs and smoky minerals. Sweet and pliant on the palate, the Estate offers nicely concentrated red and dark berry preserve and rose pastille flavors. A spicy nuance builds steadily on the back half. Supple, fruit-driven and accessible, this wine delivers solid finishing thrust, well-knit tannins and strong, floral-tinged persistence. Aged in 15% new oak…92 points.”

Nice review, and certainly a respectable score. But our point here is that this is one of those wines that isn’t necessarily fully explained with just a number. There’s a lot of cool nuance here that cannot be ‘digitally’ expressed. In other words, we think, all in all, this is an even better wine than the score indicates. There is a certain ‘touch’ that Brittan Pinots show that we don’t see all that often and some ‘bonus’ complexity you might miss if you aren’t paying full attention. They are quietly on another level. Only 517 cases produced. (*There is a special price at checkout).

NEW PINOT FROM AVERAEN

Every day is a winding road, and you never know what is going to roll in the door. This was a good case for this particular wine as the buyer on call that day had never seen this particular wine before. Came to find out that the store had sold the 2016 version of Averaen Pinot Noir and the other buyer, who had not seen the label previously, thought it was pretty cool juice and bought the 2017. Can’t think of a lot better testimony for the wine’s quality than that.

The short story on this label was as follows. The folks that made Banshee wines, and their value label Rickshaw, were at the INPC (International Pinot Noir Conference) and just ‘sittin’ round the campfire’ when they had a revelation that this appellation that they were in, located in McMinnville, was remarkably similar to where they were working in California’s Sonoma Coast. Cold Marine wind funneling through low-lying gaps in the coastal mountain ranges and soils of a mixed volcanic and marine sedimentary soils played off of each other to create a very advantageous environment to grow Pinot Noir. Clearly it was kismet.

Not only did the Banshee boys sense that this would be a good environment for premium Pinot Noir, but they had just completed a partnership deal with William Foley that took a lot of stress out of taking the Banshee/Rickshaw label to the next level, but they ran across one Adam Smith, a talented winemaker who had bolted to the Northwest after making the first vintage of Banshee in 2010. It was ‘kismet’ and Averaen was born.

The 2017 Averaen Pinot Noir reflects both their desire to make high-toned, cool climate Pinot Noir, and the distinctive element s of the 2017 vintage that made this a very successful but very unique expression of Oregon Pinot. This was the fourth straight successful vintage in this part of the world (global warming?), but one that differed from the previous three harvests in its personality. While the 2014-2016 run showcased the riper side of Oregon Pinot, the 2017s showed plenty of ripeness but also a higher pitched, fresher, more lifted profile.

The nose showed urgent but high-toned ripe red, spicy fruit from the get-go. In the mouth, this expressive, lifted, almost ‘crunchy’ Pinot had plenty of well-defined, vivid red fruits that sat higher of the palate and delivered a wave of energetic flavors. We were taken with the wine immediately and bought it. Some two weeks later as we sat down to write these notes, Vinous Media put their comments on this wine on the front of their website. Apparently we are not alone.

Josh Raynolds comments in that feature reflected our impressions of both performance and value here, “Displays abundant berry and floral character, with vibrant spice accents adding verve. Seamless in texture and appealingly sweet, the 2017 finishes with impressive, juicy persistence and resonating florality. This is textbook Willamette Valley Pinot Noir at a great price. ..91 points (an even better score than he gave the 2016).”

The 2017 Averaen Pinot Noir Willamette Valley is appealing, well-priced effort from a label that shows a lot of promise going forward from a group that was already quite successful further south (Sonoma Coast). This juicy, little number plays nicely in the here and now in a higher-toned, ‘Burgundy’ sort of way .