GOODFELLOW SPARKLING FUTURES

Offer #1: “the Mikko Tuomi” note: these wines disgorge in the Spring, but do not ship until Fall 2025

3btl Temperance Hill Blanc de Blancs (bottled 5/2023, disgorging 3/2025) Our first disgorgement from the old vine block of Chardonnay at Temperance Hill. Aromatically enticing, the nose has citrus flowers, lemon curd, a hint of struck match, and the stony quality that seems to always show up in the still Chardonnays from this vineyard. In the mouth this has gained a bit of richness from it’s two year slumber in bottle, the palate still shows lemon oil, pastry dough and grain notes, and a direct presence of fresh Meyer lemon, the finish is long, racy, and refreshing. The mousse here is softer bubbles that lift and show the elegance of this vineyard as well as its mineral presence.

3btl Whistling Ridge Blanc de Blancs (bottled 4/2022, disgorging 3/2025) This is the second Blanc de Blanc cuvee from Whistling Ridge, the first disgorgement with 3 years aging on lees in bottle before tirage. It also represents an experiment in lees aging in barrel before bottling. We reversed the normal proportions of the base and reserve wines, using 2019 Whistling Ridge Chardonnay for 62% of volume and 2021 Whistling Ridge Chardonnay for the remaining 38%. Both wines were raised in larger French oak vessels, one 820L foudre and one 600L demi-muid. Additionally, they have 3 years in bottle this spring and continue to illustrate the potential we have for the sparkling wines. The is a wildness here, mingling lemon citrus, autolytic notes, smokey toasted hazelnuts, over a saline seaspray nose with a hint of pine. Checking in on this wine with hand disgorging, this is just delicious on the day 2 and 3, so look to the holidays for a timeline to open the first bottle and several years further to open the last one.

GOODFELLOW SPARKLING (for shipping now-ish):

Offer #2: “the Chris James”

Don’t want to wait for the Fall for your Goodfellow bubbles? These ones can ship via cold chain now, or in the Spring:

2btl Goodfellow Willamette Valley Extra Brut (bottled 4/2022, disgorged 4/2024, 2.5g/l dosage): this wine is really finding itself. The nose is jumping out of the glass with fresh pear, peach blossoms, orange oil, and subtle reminders of wildflowers in a summer field. The palate is clean, delicious, and refreshing. Bright and light at first, with time open it seems to stretch the finish further down the palate. Quite the opposite of the richer oxidative style, this is more like a joyful impressionist watercolor than an attempt at gravitas. Mousse is settling in with time in bottle and I find it to sustain quite bit more at this point than it did last summer.

2btl Durant Vineyard Blanc de Blancs (bottled 4/2022, disgorged 4/2024, .5 g/l dosage) 100% Chardonnay from the Durant Vineyard, split 55%/45% between the 2021 and 2019 vintages. The Durant bottling continues to add layers with time in the bottle. The nose is an alluring blend of baked apples, pastry dough, subtle notes of roasted nuts, subois, pear compote, and lemon zest. Softly textured, with a tranquil but complex nature, very reminiscent of the still Chardonnay from Durant, but with bubbles, and a weightless elegance. Drink anytime in the next 3-6 years.

2btl Tsai Vineyard 2022 Blanc de Noirs (bottled 5/2023, disgorged 12/2024, 1g/l dosage) **NEW release!** The 2022 Tsai is our first release of a Blanc de Noirs, but we are really excited for this wine. We originally planned to use this fruit in the Willamette Valley Extra Brut, but from the very beginning it was obvious that this was a different beast , and deserving of its own bottling. Raised in two 820L Acacia foudres, it has a wonderful jump to the nose, super floral with hints of Rainier cherry, and citrus peel the vibrancy and freshness of this just really sets it apart. The weightless palate is full of flavor right up front and it rolls down the tongue with a lovely texture, rounded edges, but still with a great core of fruit. This one was just disgorged at the end of the year, so give it some time. We suggest either waiting until at least April(still early) or better still July (young, but should be out of disgorgement shock fully), or plan on following over several days (using a good champagne stopper) if your curiosity gets the better of you before then.

GOODFELLOW STARTER 6-PACK

Offer #3: “the Terry Harris”

Willamette Valley Extra Brut, NV Cuvée #1 - (bottled 4/2022, disgorged 4/2024, 2.5 g/l dosage): this wine is really finding itself. The nose is jumping out of the glass with fresh pear, peach blossoms, orange oil, and subtle reminders of wildflowers in a summer field. The palate is clean, delicious, and refreshing. Bright and light at first, with time open it seems to stretch the finish further down the palate. Quite the opposite of the richer oxidative style, this is more like a joyful impressionist watercolor than an attempt at gravitas. Mousse is settling in with time in bottle and I find it to sustain quite bit more at this point than it did last summer.

2023 Whistling Ridge Riesling - Lime peel, stone fruit, tangerine, rainier cherry, and river stones. Raised in an old 820L Acacia puncheon, this is textural and tranquil in the attack, then unfolds like a flower blossom in the palate with soft fruit and florals which give way to juicy, lingering acidity. Tasting this is entertaining, the original tranquility and supple texture suggests one direction, and then the explosion of nuance in the mid-palate reverses course, the acidity is soft and juicy but somehow sustains much longer than one would expect. This is one of my favorite versions of this wine. 11.1% abv and 86 cases produced 

2022 Tsai Vineyard Chardonnay - Saline with orchard fruits, Mirabelle, green tea, sea spray, grain, fennel pollen, yellow peach, green Anjou pear, pear blossoms, and vanilla bean aromatics, finishing with lemon/lime citrus and pith. Tranquil entry, with lovely texture, even at 12.1%. The wine still wants a bit of time to integrate, but has great energy now, mineral, hazelnut, and Meyer lemon as the wine opens up.

2022 Whistling Ridge Pinot Noir - Classic Whistling Ridge. Generous aromatically, with notes of rose petals, velvet, potpourri, strawberry, red cherry, pie spice, leather, and orange peel. The palate is bright red fruits, alpine strawberry, black cherry, more leather, with juicy acidity, darkening a bit as it opens and gaining depth. While the tannins are there, they are extraordinarily fine in this vintage, and the wine and should have an excellent window for drinking early, as well as cellaring in good fashion. 13.0% ABV, 100 cases produced.

2022 West Field, Temperance Hill Pinot Noir - Supple and entrancing, with deep black and red fruits, a hint of caramel and high notes of camphor, anise flower, cedar, iris, sandalwood, and savory herbs. Earth notes, graphite, and spice. On the palate juicy and bright, with pretty purple flowers and boysenberry. Bound up now, but everything in the right place. The West Field is a steep (west facing) block and one of the first planted at Temperance Hill (now with both original, own-rooted vines, and interplanted young vines replacing those lost to phylloxera.) Vines are trained in the old single high-wire trellising, exposed to the sun and the intense wind hitting the hill throughout the growing season.  115 cases produced, 13.3% abv, and drink from 2028-2042.

2015 Heritage No. 4, Whistling Ridge Pinot Noir - This is in a beautiful place, having slept for 10 years it needs air to shake off the stiffness, the bottle bouquet is cranky but only lasts a few minutes. After that it magically adds weight and brightens, showing nuance, poise, intensity, and power. It’s entrancing, almost transportive, as it unfolds the layers of primary fruit and secondary stem character: aromas of black cherries and ripe alpine strawberries, forest floor, dried mushrooms, a hint of cassis, and a deep, savory core. So quintessentially old school Pinot Noir it shows why cellaring Whistling Ridge Pinot Noirs might be worth investing 10, or even 20+ years. 

GOODFELLOW 2022 HERITAGE WINES

Offer #4: “the Rodrigo Braga”

3btl 2022 Heritage No. 20, Temperance Hill Pinot Noir - Elegant, fragrant with dark red/black fruits, and floral notes. Blackberry, lavender, mint, fennel pollen, violets, pipe tobacco, orange peel and baking spices. Red fruited and juicy in the palate, with wild herbs, currents, and citrus. As it opens, black cherry, rich red fruit, and cedar wood. Smooth and rich but with grace. Comprised of one puncheon each from the West Field and Pumphouse Blocks. I think Eric Guido really nailed it in his Oregon Report in Vinous: "Rosy florals give way to crushed blackberries and sweet lavender as the 2022 Pinot Noir Heritage No. 20 Temperance Hill slowly evolves in the glass. This sweeps across the palate with herbal-tinged wild berry fruits, offset by a saturation of sour citrus as a cascade of inner florals amasses toward the close. The 2022 finishes structured and long, geared for the cellar, with crisp mineral tones that resonate. This is fantastic, yet patience will be required. 95 points." We could not have said it better. 115 cases produced, 13.3% abv, and drink from 2024-2045. 

3btl 2022 Heritage No. 21, Whistling Ridge Pinot Noir - Beautiful and aromatically expressive in the nose, with room to continue developing. Deep red and blue fruits, roses, peonies, cardamom, dark earth, a hint of coffee and a wonderful savory edge. Silky and currently more delicate on opening in the palate, with lovely light red and blue fruits, strawberry, currant, and cranberry, a hint of underbrush and earth with lovely acidity. It opens over several hours and into the next day. Intensely fragrant, with deeper red fruits and amaro, dried orange peel, thyme, more loamy earth, mineral, strawberries, raspberry and raspberry leaf, lilac, fennel pastilles, holiday spices and more yellow roses. It's so aromatically expressive for so young a wine. I must remind everyone that at very high levels of whole cluster the fruit is tied up by the stems, the amount of body this will gain in the coming years will give it the depth in the palate to match the aromatics. 115 cases, 12.7% abv, drink from 2027-2050.

GOODFELLOW BERSERKER CUVÉE CHARDONNAY

This year’s Berserker Cuvée Chardonnay is 100% from Whistling Ridge, a very neutral 400L puncheon (I bought it used from Antica Terra in 2011. It has been doing lovely work for us ever since) and a neutral barrique dating from the 2010 vintage. This wine is dynamic and expressive in the nose with textural stone fruits and leesy pastry dough components. It’s a seamless wine offering few sharp edges and a bit less struck match reduction than we often have. The pate is light bodied, weightless, and gamine-like at sub-12% abv but seems to have a luscious tranquil side to it as well. The finish is long with good pull to the acidity. It’s a very, very, easy to drink Willamette Valley Chardonnay that reminds me of a good Rully producer.

GOODFELLOW BERSERKER CUVÉE PINOT NOIR

The 2023 Berserker Cuvée Pinot Noir is a product of a bountiful year of exceptional quality. Barrels that we would normally be thrilled to include in the single vineyard program are winding up in AVA tier bottlings just because we do not have the room. Tasting through the cellar we came up with this cuvée, selecting one puncheon each from the Whistling Ridge, Bednarik, Durant & Fir Crest Vineyards. The vintage shows an extraordinary juicy and refreshing quality, the red fruit and spice of Whistling Ridge’s Long Acre are combined with the floral elegance from Bednarik Vineyard, just north of Tsai in the Tualatin Hills AVA. Durant adds a lushness to the blend, and the dark fruit and natural acidity of Fir Crest rounds it all out.

it doesn’t seem like there are enough wines offered here, what about the GOODFELLOW ROSÉ??

The end of the press cycle for blanc de noirs did not offer quite as much color in 2024, BUT we do have just a bit still of the 2023…

2023 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir Rosé 82% direct press from the end of our blanc de noirs press cycle, 18% mid-ferment saignee from 100% whole cluster Whistling Ridge Pinot Noir. As noted in tasting notes on the board and cellar tracker, this is an acid lovers rosé. Refreshing, with loads of drive and savory acidity, the fruit notes have deepened as it has aged in bottle: papaya, green cardamom, ginger, orange peel and just ripe strawberry, with the spice from the whole cluster portion intertwined throughout. Enjoy!