Winemaker Notes
The Estate Old Vine Pinot Noir is the flagship wine of Patricia Green Cellars. It exists because it is both delicious and unique, but also because it shows a particular aspect of this vineyard and the Ribbon Ridge AVA as a whole. At around 25 years of vine age the winemakers often see a change in the vines' nature as they become bigger and healthier plants with deep root systems. Once this happens the fruit and resulting wines shift from the darker fruit spectrum to a brighter, redder style. The wine gains length and a wonderful counterbalance of austerity to its rich texture. As well there is a sense of minerality intermingling with the long chain tannins that draw the wine out and provide exceptional length.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Patricia Green’s Estate Vineyard in Ribbon Ridge is comprised mostly of self-rooted Pommard vines planted between 1984 and 1998. The site was heavily impacted by spring frost in 2022—around 70% of the fruit was lost. “We were just devastated by the frost,” owner and winemaker Jim Anderson says. All of the Chardonnay was lost, while Pinot Noir averaged just over one ton per acre. In a normal vintage, Anderson would use the estate Pinot Noir to craft several cuvées. In 2022, all the fruit was allocated to the 2022 Pinot Noir Estate Vineyard Old Vine. Fruit was entirely destemmed. It unfurls slowly in the glass, segueing from wild mint, damp earth and tobacco to tones of cranberry, red cherry and bergamot. The medium-bodied palate features a concentrated core of savory fruit. It’s structured by finely chalky tannins and vibrant acidity, and it has a long, layered finish.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Ribbon Ridge is a regular span of uplifted, marine, sedimentary soils (called Willakenzie), whose highest ridge elevations twist like a ribbon. An early settler from Missouri named Colby Carter noticed this unique topography and gave the region its name in 1865—though it wasn’t declared its own AVA until 140 years later, in 2005. The AVA is enclosed by mountains on all sides between Yamhill-Carlton and the Chehalem Mountains, and is actually part of the larger Chehalem Mountains AVA. Its soils have a finer texture than its neighbors with parent materials composed of sandstone, siltstone, and mudstone. Given its presence of natural aquifers in this five square mile area, most vineyards are actually easily dry farmed!