Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Balcombe Vineyard 08
Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Balcombe Vineyard 08 -
From the winery:
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. - the winery
Balcombe Vineyard is simply one of the best vineyards we work with and every year it produces wines of terrific quality that are absolutely true to the Dundee Hills. For those of you who don’t know this site is located toward the top of the Dundee Hills on Breyman Orchard Rd. It was planted in 1990 to Pommard and we have worked with the fruit every year since 1997 so we have become pretty accustom to how the grapes grow, ripen and ferment into wine. All of these aspects are very important pieces of making high quality Pinot Noir.
What we especially love about the 2008 vintage is seem easily in the difference between this, the regular bottling of Balcombe Vineyard and the block designated Balcombe Vineyard, Block 1B bottling that we produce. Each vintage these wines offer a contrast in style from the same site. However, this year the contrast is so stark and the wines are so quintessentially the essence of what we expect them to be that the comparison is quite striking.
Previous Vintage Tasting Notes
2007 Vintage Tasting Notes
Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir Balcombe Vineyard 07 is always a favorite of Avalon Wine. Patty has worked with the vineyard since 1997.
Winery tasting notes:
Balcombe Vineyard is simply one of the best vineyards we work with and every year it produces wines of terrific quality that are absolutely true to the Dundee Hills. For those of you who don’t know this site is located toward the top of the Dundee Hills on Breyman Orchard Rd. It was planted in 1990 to Pommard and we have worked with the fruit every year since 1997 so we have become pretty accustom to how the grapes grow, ripen and ferment into wine. All of these aspects are very important pieces of making high quality Pinot Noir.
The wines from Balcombe Vineyard in 2007 (including the Block 1B bottling and the Notorious) are all incredibly intense, lush, sexy wines that have piles of fruit, good structure and, amazingly, almost perfect balance. This bottling is meant to show the silky red-fruited nature of this area of the Dundee Hills.
Mixed in with the round, sleek texture are red fruits, herbs, baking spice and a little of that Dundee Hills brown sugar quality. While feminine and demure there is a sneaky exotic side to this wine that gives it dimension beyond being simply fruity and textured. There is a lot of complexity lurking in this wine and when all the components begin to mingle together as opposed to standing alone this will be a complete and multi-dimensional Pinot Noir. 550 cases bottled.
MORE INFORMATION
2005 Vintage Tasting Notes
Avalon favorite, the 2005 is intense, lush, and sexy, with loads of black fruit and berry flavors, correct structure and perfect acid/tannin balance A sweet, red cherry quality typical of Dundee Hills fruit combines with the 2005 vintage's lovely balance and complexity. The Balcombe Vineyard has been carefully managed by Patty and Jim for over 15 years, and they really make this small property shine. It's a layered beauty with alluring flavors combining ripe cherries and red currants for a nose and palate filling sensation. -Jean
2004 TASTING NOTES
Always one of Patty's most popular Pinots, the 2004 is made from a tiny tiny harvest, and shows complexity and depth. It's lush, silky, and full of fruit, with enough structure to hold everything together for cellaring.
Balcombe Vineyard is simply one of the best vineyards we work with and every year it produced wines of terrific quality that are absolutely true to the Dundee Hills. For those of you who don't know this site is located toward the top of the Dundee Hills on Breyman Orchard Rd. It was planted in 1990 to Pommard and we have worked with the fruit every year since 1997 so we have become pretty accustom to how the grapes grow, ripen and ferment into wine. All of these aspects are very important pieces of making high quality Pinot Noir.
The wines from Balcombe Vineyard in 2004 (including the Block 1B and the Notorious) are all incredibly intense, lush, sexy wines that have piles of fruit, good structure and, amazingly, almost perfect balance. This bottling is the most high-toned (as usual) of the three and represents almost pure varietal character despite the largesse of the vintage. The sweet, red cherry quality that the Dundee Hills offer combine with the richness from the vintage and the inherent complexity of the site to make this wine a powerful beauty. The aromatics are spot-on Pinot Noir at its absolute most alluring. We received less than 1 ton/acre from this site in 2004 and while the wine shows that sort of concentration we chose, as we did with many Pinots, to go with more one and two year old barrels so it is just 10% new oak, down from the usual 40-50% we give this wine. This was is great now but will no doubt do very well over a period of years.
2003 TASTING NOTES
Supple, hightoned aromatics, sweet cherry fruit, rose petal notes in the nose. Dense and concentrated. Intense, lush, sexy wine with piles of fruit, good structure and, amazingly, almost perfect balance.
From the winery: "Balcombe Vineyard is simply one of the best vineyards we work with and every year it produces wines of terrific quality that are absolutely true to the Dundee Hills. For those of you who don't know this site is located toward the top of the Dundee Hills on Breyman Orchard Rd. It was planted in 1990 to Pommard and we have worked with the fruit every year since 1997 so we have become pretty accustom to how the grapes grow, ripen and ferment into wine. All very important pieces of making high quality Pinot Noir."
The wines from Balcombe Vineyard in 2003 (including the Block 1B bottling and the Notorious) are all incredibly intense, lush, sexy wines that have piles of fruit, good structure and, amazingly, almost perfect balance. This bottling is the most high-toned (as usual) of the three and represents almost pure varietal character despite the largesse of the vintage. The sweet, red cherry quality that the Dundee Hills offer combine with the richness from the vintage and the inherent complexity of the site to make this wine a powerful beauty. The aromatics are spot-on Pinot Noir at its absolute most alluring. While it is 50% new oak you would never know as the density of the fruit simply swallows it up. This was is great now but will no doubt do very well over a period of years. Less than 400 cases were produced."
This vineyard is located towards the top of the Dundee Hills on Breyman Orchard Road, and was planted in 1990 to Pommard Clone Pinot noir. Patty and her crew have worked the vineyard since 1997 and have become quite adept at drawing the most from this site.
2002 vintage notes:
"This 2002 Balcombe comes from 3 of the 5 blocks in the vineyard. Two were chosen for their supple qualities and hightoned, floral aromatics and one is chosen to support the more ethereal qualities in the wine." 2001 vintage notes:
The 2001 Balcombe Vineyard was probably the wine of the vintage for us. For the past two year Balcombe Vineyard has produced the highest toned, silkiest and most aromatically expressive wine in the cellar. The 7.25 acre vineyard is set high up in the Dundee Hills. While the elevation and its great exposure provide it with the suppleness and texture that make Pinot Noir so incredible those two factors force us to work harder in this vineyard than any other. Since we operate in a fairly marginal climactic part of the world we always have an eye on the calendar as we get deeper into October. In 2001 we felt that the larger sized clusters would be delayed in achieving physiological ripeness in this generally late ripening site. Consequently we dropped fruit on numerous occasions and ended up with a resulting tonnage of about 1.4 tons per acre. While we harvested less fruit than we are generally accustomed to the quality is supreme!
This is pure Dundee Hills Pinot Noir. It has deep aromatics of black cherries, crushed raspberries, fresh rose petals, red earth spices and a touch of sweet oak. The wine has the signature velvety texture, richness and long, spicy finish that make Balcombe extraordinary and highly sought. For those of you in the know there is also a bottling called Balcombe Block 1B that was sold on futures that is more masculine and powerful. The regular bottling of Balcombe Vineyard is perhaps the wine we get most excited about (the 2000 bottling was the wine we featured at the 2002 International Pinot Noir Celebration). There are only 470 cases of this wine."
Jean's notes on the 2001 Balcombe: I tasted four times in barrel- it just kept getting better! One of the best Pinot noirs Patty has ever produced and one with an incredible cellaring potential. I suspect Pierre Rovani's going to rave about this wine in Wine Advocate, Patty says he tasted this summer with them.... Just a wonderful, wonderful wine. Very limited.
NOTES ON 2000 VINTAGE
Wow! Jean's fav of the 2000 PGC single vineyard Pinot noirs, this wine reminds me of Patty's 98 Quail Hill Pinot Noir (92 points in Wine Spectator). This wine has tons of different scents and flavors. The scent is what I call "Patty nose". There's a scent to the really great Oregon Pinot Noirs that varies from winemaker to winemaker- It's always interesting, appealing, and intriguing... Ken Wright's always has this tiny hit of rose petal and vanilla to me, Beaux Freres is St Dalfour French Black Cherry Preserves and a hint of mint. Patty's Pinot Noirs have a tiny hint of licorice and tar in the warm vanilla and apple wood smoke nose.
This wine has gushing, black bing cherry, cassis, blackberry, currant, and spice flavors. It is drinking spectacularly well from barrel. The wine has depth and complexity, but could probably be drunk on release through 2008. We're looking forward to this one!
Winemakers notes: The vines are now 11 years in age and the lion's share of the vineyard os showing a level of grace and complexity that comes with maturation. There are about 30 barrels of this wine and 1o of them are new. The wine has very sweet and supple cherry and rose petal nuances with a silky texture and a fine stream of tannins on the back. This wine is impeccably balanced and while the texture should make it accessible in its youth the intensity of fruit and the balance of the other components will make it ageworthy.
