2011 Patricia Green Pinot Noir Estate Old Vine

Green's 2011 Pinot Noir Estate Vineyard Old Vine - from several in part ungrafted parcels of vines on - exhibits dark fruit, fine-grained tannins and an overall polish in striking contrast to the corresponding "regular" estate bottling. Deep, smoky, perfumed nut oils and black tea inflect juicy fresh plum and blackberry whose skins lend a fine sense of tension and ping but not outright tartness. The nuttiness here helps engender a sense of richness, as does a savor of crustacean shell reduction that, along with mineral salts, serves to liberate the salivary glands in a finish of prodigious length. At 12.5% alcohol, there is a sense of levity here rare nowadays in Pinot Noir no matter its place of origin. Look for this brilliant effort to dazzle through at least 2024. I tasted the 2011 Patty Green collection with her long-time winemaking partner Jim Anderson and toured their impressively managed 52 acre Ribbon Ridge estate that is responsible for around one-third of their total production, the rest originating with a who's who of largely outstanding sites scattered throughout the Willamette (and expanded in 2012 to include venerable Freedom Hill), most issuing in single-site bottlings in the 150-350 case range. The oldest (1984) vines on the estate sit rather low where cold air can get trapped and were not picked in 2011 until November 8; while some of those immediately adjacent - bearing a good 15 tons of fruit that weren't even harvested for lack of complete ripeness. But all of the Pinot fruit that Anderson and Green did elect to process in 2011 yielded impressive results. "It's shocking to have seen what we were putting into the barrel and what we thought of it when we were doing it," says Anderson, "and then to taste how good they are and how they've fleshed out. The numbers were extreme, but they all added up." Around one-half of the wines were lightly chaptalized and any acidification was, in Anderson's words "very, very minor. Fermentation temperatures were kept much lower than usual," he continues, "because we felt that regardless of (the long) hang time, there was a green element both in the seeds and the skins" that he and Green wanted to avoid extracting. For the same reason, punch-downs were gentle and sparing, especially with Ribbon Ridge musts; though interestingly, in this cellar the latter tend to be pressed off before reaching total dryness except where the vines are young, in which case some post-fermentative maceration may be employed to help tame the tannins. As every year for the past decade, Anderson and Green rely on a single cooper (Cadus, favoring Vosges and Nevers oak) and employ anywhere from 15-40% new barrels depending on the site in question; and I have yet to experience one of their wines that seemed at all overtly oaky. (For more about their history and general approach as winemakers - which goes back to their collaboration in the 1990s at Torii Mor - consult my Issue 202 introduction.) While their fruit hung in perilously under-ripe condition through early October, 2011, Anderson took advantage of the early 2011 harvest in Burgundy to work with Nicolas Potel and spend some time at Domaine Dujac, learning more inter alia about the potential of vendange entier. Tel. (503) 554-0821