Patricia Green Chehalem Mountain Vineyard pinot noir/2021
Blend
Pinot Noir
Geographical Attributes
In 1968 legendary pioneering winemaker Dick Erath moved to Oregon and established his first vineyard. Because of the long history of Erath Winery most people assume that vineyard was the one on Worden Hill Rd. in the Dundee Hills, but the truth is that the property that first spoke to Dick was Chehalem Mountain Vineyard on Dopp Rd. This site is literally on the borderline of the Ribbon Ridge and Chehalem Mountains appellations dividing line. Were it across the street from where it is it would be in Ribbon Ridge. The number of vineyards in the Willamette Valley prior to 1970 is limited to a handful and those with the original vines still there would be even fewer. This site carries a significance in the history of the Oregon wine industry that simply cannot be understated.
Vintner Notes
This wine combines the fruit driven intensity of the California clones that make up around 60% of its volume with the more densely structured and earthenly-nuanced clones that are common to Oregon. Combined with growing in marine soils and the isolated valley nature of this site it all adds up to a unique, dynamic, and intense without being too powerful sort of Pinot Noir. This is richly colored, highly aromatic and abounding with darker/bluer sort of fruit notes and finishing with an excellent structural composition that reins everything allowing for it to be balanced and delicious in the short term while giving appropriate framing for, most certainly, medium term aging and quite possibly rewarding aging well into a second decade in bottle.