GOODFELLOW FAMILY CELLARS

BERSERKER DAY 17

Welcome to Berserker Day 17! We appreciate the support and encouragement of the Berserker community year round, and it is no exaggeration to say that the wines that we make are possible because of you. Although the Berserker packages are outlined on the forum, we thought we would take a moment here to offer a few notes on the specific wines.

Shipping is ground $40 flat rate/box up to 12 bottles. Consolidation encouraged, please feel free to remind us if you are adding to an existing order, and of course if you prefer to pick-up. Shipping is weather dependent, please note the offers that are explicitly labeled as futures/shipping at a future date!

Cheers!

Marcus Goodfellow & Megan Joy

and now, for the wines!

GOODFELLOW SPARKLING FUTURES*

Offer #1: “the Keita Miyaki”

*Please note this is a futures package, shipping Fall 2026!

3btl NV Whistling Ridge Blanc de Blancs “Usagi Yojimbo”

The 2022/21 Whistling Ridge Blanc de Blancs represents the only Chardonnay fruit that was harvested from the vineyard in 2022. After the freeze, yields were decimated and we harvested .43 tons per acre from the Dijon clone block and .56 tons per acre from the heirloom clones. The growing season was nearly perfect after the cold event and the tiny amount of fruit was extraordinarily vivacious and flavorful. Paired with reserve wine from the 2021 vintage, a vintage which produced intense fruit with thick skins and loads of dry extract, the two vintages wove together seamlessly. While total production only yielded 155 cases, the quality is outstanding. The expression is the direct, saline and mineral driven expression of Chardonnay. Orchard fruit, Meyer lemon oil, and stony acidity layered over well integrated leesy notes. This bottling is from our second tirage and represents several advances in our understanding of sparkling wine (no filtration, cooler temperatures for secondary fermentation, and increasing mannoprotein formation). Perlage in all of the wines from our second tirage has improved, as have the textural notes and mid-palate, and we really couldn’t be happier with this wine.

3btl 2022 Whistling Ridge Blanc de Noirs “Ogre Citadel”

The 2022 Whistling Ridge Blanc de Noirs is the first disgorgement of Blanc de Noirs fruit from Whistling Ridge. 100% from the 2022 vintage and 3 years on lees in bottle. The House Block is the only section at Whistling Ridge that rolls West, offering extra sunshine to help develop the skins of the fruit. Increased anthocyanins and more developed flavors at low Brix are the calling card of this block. The miniscule amount of fruit we received from the House Block at Whistling Ridge in 2022 was less than .5 tons per acre. The resulting fruit was intense and beautiful, harvested on a perfect morning in early September. This wine was fermented in one older 600L demi-muid and one old 228L barrique, and produced 75 cases. The aromas shows wonderful intensity of fruit, bright red berries, florals, hints of toasted bread. The palate shows more of the same, with a remarkably pure flavor and a lovely textural leesy note. Even after 3 years in bottle this is still youthful and dynamic.

… but what’s with the cuvee names?

Some of you visiting over the years have seen the names on the barrel heads of our white wine ferments. Every year we select a different set of “family names” for each of the barrel ferment picks that come in. It provides a bit of fun in the intensity of harvest, but also makes it much easier to track the ferments and barrels than if we used a numbering system. It also makes it easier to recall the specific vintages and barrels over time.

In our developing the sparkling program we wanted to explore the full potential of the terroirs we work with, by blending across multiple vintages and utilizing reserve wines where appropriate. We are not looking for a uniform expression, but rather the best base wines that we can craft, and so each cuvee is a different wine, with the marks of the vintages and the individual barrel ferments that went into them. Currently the TTB does not allow multiple vintages to be indicated on a label. We needed a different way to differentiate the cuvees on the bottle, but really we already had one, and so going forward each base cuvee will be named from one of the barrels that went into the blend. The Blanc de Noirs base wine in 2022 was named after the different levels in the early 90s video game Quake (Ogre Citadel being one), Usage Yojimbo is a fantastic comic series about a rabbit ronin in a mythic animal version of feudal Japan. (We only had a single 400L puncheon from the grafted Clos Electrique clones of Chardonnay at Whistling Ridge in 2022, so the solitary ronin name was quite fitting.)

GOODFELLOW SPARKLING NOW*

Offer #2: “the Michael Hodgins”

*ship timing weather dependent, please specify concerns/requests

3btl NV Durant Blanc de Blancs (NEW RELEASE: 21/22 vintages base)

This new cuvee of Durant Vineyard Blanc de Blancs is electric, with intensity, and fantastic mid-palate texture and weight. Mineral, lemon, lime leaf and lime zest, opening to pear fruits, ginger and fresh brioche dough as it sits in the glass. The wine is 100% Chardonnay with 80% being from the 2022 vintage, and 20% reserve wine from 2021. Yields in the Chardonnay at Durant were exceptionally low in 2022, due to the late spring freeze, and the 800L foudre and 600L puncheon that were produced were topped post-fermentation with the 2021 base wine we had held in reserve. Both are intense vintages, and this might be our singular favorite wine (still or sparkling) to come out of the Durant Chardonnay block. 1g/L dosage, bottled at the start of May 2023, disgorged the end of November 2025.

3btl 2022 Tsai Blanc de Noirs (2nd disgorgement)

The Tsai Blanc de Noirs is just a flat out delicious wine. Orchard fruits on the nose, with apricot, peach skin, florals, citrus zest, grape flowers in the vineyard, and red berries. Juicy acidity and with this new disgorgement, gaining in texture and weight with the additional year on the lees in bottle, finding a seamless length and harmony. Still This was one of the greatest surprises for us to come out of the ‘22 vintage, and the wine has continued to prove its charm and quality. 1g/L dosage, bottled at the start of May 2023, disgorged the end of November 2025.

GOODFELLOW SAMPLER

Offer #3: “the Dan O’Brien”

1btl NV Durant Vineyard Blanc de Blancs

This new cuvee of Durant Vineyard Blanc de Blancs is electric, with intensity, and fantastic mid-palate texture and weight. Mineral, lemon and lime zest, and fresh brioche dough as it sits and opens in the glass. The wine is 100% Chardonnay with 80% being from the 2022 vintage, and 20% reserve wine from 2021.

1btl 2024 Whistling Ridge Field Blend

Riesling, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir and just a few vines of Gewurtztraminer grow together at Whistling Ridge Vineyard. Picked, pressed and vinified together as a single wine. Bright, floral, kaleidoscopic, this wine is delicious, with the acidity and brightness from the Riesling and floral and stone fruits from the other varieties. This is the perfect summer wine every year, but pairs beautifully with all manner of savory dishes as well.

1btl 2023 Temperance Hill Vineyard Chardonnay

Expressive with flint, youthfully bright with lemon oil, iodine, bay, thyme, savory, tarragon and kaffir lime leaf, cool lime water, and wet stones.  Texturally full, precise, clean, intense. This block at Temperance Hill gets the full intensity of the wind funneled through the Van Duzer Corridor from the coast. Compact with flinty chalk, yet supple and mouth filling, lime flowers, great fresh acidity  and a long stony finish.  11.6% abv and 130 cases produced.

1btl 2023 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir

Aromatics of boysenberry, purple flowers, and exotic spice. Just a hint of clean, loamy earth and amaro-esque savory notes. This is still a touch shy in the palate, but shows juicy red fruits, cranberry and pomegranate, fluid and supple, with refreshing acidity and fine tannins. 100% sourced from the Durant Vineyard, on the eastern slopes of the Dundee Hills sub-AVA of the Willamette Valley. 230 cases produced, drink from 2027-2043.

1btl 2023 Whistling Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noir

Beautiful red fruits; alpine strawberry and cherry, tree bark, loamy earth, potpourri, old growth forest, and purple flowers. A wonderful balance of savory and sweet. Pure red fruits, yet so alluring for its ginger and clove spice and the smell of the forest. Crystalline, shines a spotlight on every non-fruit aspect of the wine. Lighter bodied and elegant, with fine tannins and the juiciness that is a hallmark of the 2023 vintage. Whistling Ridge is ridge-top in the Ribbon Ridge sub-AVA of the Willamette Valley. 13.2% ABV, 230 cases produced.

1btl 2022 Pumphouse Block, Temperance Hill Pinot Noir

Warm and inviting with red apple skin, dried ginger spice, red flowers, summer herbs and ripe strawberry. Aromatically harmonious and expressive with pipe tobacco, pastilles, red fruits, small plums, pastilles, and a savory note under the rest. The Pumphouse Block faces east with a SE aspect, catching the first rays of the morning sun. From the second round of plantings at Temperance Hill, in the early 90s, the vines are the first of the old vines to bud out in the spring, and are somewhat less wind affected than the other two blocks that we source from, producing an elegant, red fruited and mineral expression of Temperance Hill, the iconic vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills sub-AVA of Oregon’s Willamette Valley. 115 cases produced, 13.4% abv. This wine is still quite young, and should age beautifully over the next two decades, but with some air is in a great spot now.

GOODFELLOW PINOT NOIR TERROIRS

Offer #4: “the Bill Johnson”

2btl 2023 Raven Block, Durant Vineyard Pinot Noir

Expressive, black and red cherry and blue fruit jump out in the mouth, lots of underbrush, black earth, and a definite backbone of kitchen herb (thyme specifically.) Chrysanthemums, almond flowers and alpine strawberries. The Raven Block is a 1993 planting at Durant, down at the foot of the hill next to our Chardonnay. Its sister block, Heron, we made wine from for years for the Durant family, before they built their own winery. Somewhat restrained when first in barrel, the wine gained depth as it aged, and we are excited for the opportunity to work with the Pinot noir from this part of the vineyard again. 13.4% ABV, 115 cases produced.

2btl 2023 West Field, Temperance Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir

Green tea, forest floor and cedar. Woodsmoke, dark earth, violets, purple and deep red fruits and a hint of lightly roasted coffee bean. Fine tannins, bright and juicy acids, supple nose, alluring. The elegance of the vintage is on point here, nothing is out of place. The West Field in Temperance Hill is a unique terroir. Steep and facing West into the late afternoon sun and the coastal winds coming through the Van Duzer Corridor, the block was first planted in 1983 on the old single high-wire trellis. 12.1% ABV, 115 cases produced.

2btl 2023 Long Acre, Whistling Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noir

The Long Acre rolls off the ridge-line to the southeast, catching the morning sun. It's a massale planting with a wide range of clones interplanted together. Pure red fruits, red cherry, strawberry, and plum, new crop apple skin, damp forest and wet moss. Bright florals and more juicy bright red fruits and mineral. With a day being open adding depth, cedar and woodsy notes. The palate is expansive but weightless, and shows the classiness of the vintage in the refined tannins and the subtle interplay between structure and acidity. While the structure in this wine is very fine, there's no question the wine is tightly coiled at this time. 13.4% abv, 115 cases produced, drink 2030-2055.

GOODFELLOW BEST OF THE VINTAGE

Offer #5: “the Jim Petrila”

2btl 2023 Richard’s Cuvee, Whistling Ridge Chardonnay

The 2023 Richard's is a study in weightless power. Sea spray, wet stones, marzipan, lilies, pear, and seashells. Almond, iodine, salty lemon, lime zest. Aromatically entrancing, tranquil but layered, contrasting cooling flavors with the bright savoriness of citrus zest. In the mouth, it's textural and supple, but the tranquility gives way to a Meyer lemon and kumquat finish. It's very hard to describe what makes this wine so special, but it tastes somewhere between a very good Meursault and a very good Chablis. 11.5% abv and 135 cases produced. 

2btl 2023 Heritage No. 22, Durant Vineyard Pinot Noir

Our block at Durant sits mid-slope facing the morning sun in the east. It's sheltered from the hot part of the day and gentle breezes come through to cool things down in the afternoon. The deeper volcanic soils hold moisture well and these vines are cooled by water evaporating up out of the ground during the dry Oregon summers. Planted in 1998, the vines are fully mature and site driven. This is our, lucky, 13th vintage with these vines and 2023 suited them very well. Modest sugars, bright acidity, whole cluster fermentation, and succulent fruit flavors combine to draw out a lovely and vibrant expression of the vineyard. Boysenberries, black caps, kitchen herbs, dark loamy earth, a hint of pie spice, and peonies. The palate shifts a shade darker with blackberry, boysenberry, dark earth, exotic spices, and a fine line of edgy tannins that resolve quickly into the bright acidity. Very fine and perfect with braised pork, carrots, potatoes, and herbs de Provence. As is often the case with Durant, this is the most ready for early enjoyment of the 2023 wines. 13.3% abv, 115 cases produced, drink from 2025-2055.

2btl 2023 Heritage No. 23, Whistling Ridge Pinot Noir

Even young and tight this is a profound and intoxicatingly perfumed wine. Transparent and ethereal nose with layers of dried roses and chamomile, cranberry and alpine strawberry, conifer and forest floor. Red currants, new crop red apple skin and amaro notes, the palate gives layer upon layer all while maintaining tension and energy. It has depth without weight, fine tannins, elegance, and persistence. Taken entirely from the Beloved Acre at Whistling Ridge, this block is on the north side of the vineyard, almost flat in its ridge-top exposure, with a slight roll to the north on the far side of the rows. Clive Pursehouse of Decanter named it one of his top 20 Pinots of the vintage, Erin Brooks of the Wine Advocate gave it 96 points, John Gilman 94 points, and Eric Guido at Vinous gave it 96 points as well. All of them also suggested some patience with the wine… 13.4% abv, 165 cases produced, drink from 2030-2060.

GOODFELLOW 2024 BERSERKER CUVEE CHARDONNAY*

*please note this is a futures package, shipping is weather dependent, after late-March bottling

Sourced entirely from a set of 2024 Durant Vineyard 228L barriques with effusive charm and balance, this is bright and floral, with citrus and seashell. Briny like cool vintage Chablis, bracing and perfect for oysters on the half shell. Refreshing in youth, this should be worth seeing at 8-10 years in bottle as well.

GOODFELLOW 2024 BERSERKER CUVEE PINOT NOIR*

*please note this is a futures package, shipping is weather dependent, after late-March bottling

An equal blend of 2024 Durant Vineyard and West Field (Temperance Hill) Pinot Noirs, raised in neutral 500L puncheon,100% whole cluster. The ‘24 vintage is simply beautiful, so very supple, silky fruit, and fine but firm tannins. This cuvee leans a little darker in the nose, the classic boysenberry of Durant layering with the earthiness and dark fruit of the West Field. Think classic vintage Santenay or perhaps even Clos Vougeot. This will have a lovely early window, but it’s well worth putting 3-4 bottles away for 6-10 years.

GOODFELLOW 2025 ROSE OF PINOT NOIR*

*please note this is a futures package, shipping is weather dependent, after late-March bottling

Aromatic with floral notes, bright red fruits, and citrus. Thirst quenching, like a boost of liquid sunshine. This is a blend of direct press Pinot Noir from the end of the press cycle for fruit picked for Blanc de Noirs base wine, combined with a small amount of 100% whole cluster saignee pulled off at the early-mid part of the ferment, to bring texture and savory nature to the rose.