Patricia Green Cellars Pinot noir Whistling Ridge 07
From the winery:
This is the small, 18-year old vineyard located directly behind both us and Beaux Freres. It is owned by Dick and Patricia Alvord. We started buying a small portion of the Pinot Noir in 2003 and it turned out to be one of the most interesting and popular wines we produced. What provides a constant source of amazement to us and people who taste this wine next to our Estate wines is, despite the proximity of this vineyard to ours, how distinctly different the wines from this site are in relation to anything that comes off of our vineyard.
When we began with this wine in 2003 for one reason or another it has always been the most idiosyncratic wine in the cellar each vintage. If you are a lover of smooth, soft-textured wines with low-acidities and plump mid-palates this is not the wine for you.
This is a high energy wine that is the highest acidity and highest tannin-level wine in the cellar. Does that translate to scratchy, tart and thin? Absolutely not. There is a river of red and black raspberry fruit that glides over the top of the firm structure of this wine pulling it together in the mid-palate before giving way to the minerally backend that graces all our Ribbon Ridge wines. Intense, wild and unique this is special and fun wine that will provide lovers of more structured and dark-hearted Pinots years and years of pleasure. 210 cases bottled.
Previous Vintage Tasting Notes
2005 Vintage Tasting Notes
This vineyard sits atop the hill on which our vineyard and Beaux Freres' vineyard lies. Adjacent to both of us, the site was planted to Pinot Noir and other varietals by Dick and Patricia Alvord in 1990. We have been interested in the fruit from this site since we purchased our Estate in 2000. We have agreed to a one acre deal where they do most of the work but we have our crew go in every so often to do a little extra work.
This relationship has worked out very nicely in 2003 and 2004 and we look forward to extending it into the future. Not only are we getting some fruit that we think is of top quality but we are getting a nice little additional education in the amazing power of site differences in relation to Pinot Noir especially in sedimentary soils.
It would be easy to look at the wines from Beaux Freres and from us and conclude that even adjacent vineyards show big differences. However there are winemaking differences, vineyard management differences, different barrels, etc. With the fruit we get and partially take care from this adjacent site we get to see why Pinot Noir is such a fascinating wine.
This wine has distinct and profound aromatics and flavors of freshly picked and crushed raspberries. It really is just amazing as those are just not characteristics of our vineyard site. This bottling has great depth, mouthfeel and complexity to incorporate the distinct fruit notes. This wine developed more than any of other wines in barrel and we expect it to do so in bottle as well. Just 170 cases of this fascinating wine so make sure you incorporate it into your cellar."
