New from Patricia Green Cellars!
Patricia Green Cellars
Oregon
Patty Green and Jim Anderson started Patricia Green Cellars in 2000 after walking away from a very successful winery that they had built up since its inception in 1993. As karma would have it they were offered the opportunity, out of almost nowhere, to purchase a winery and vineyard that were located in the area that would become to be known as the Ribbon Ridge AVA. The winery was built on the idea that there were great vineyards in Oregon that could produce uniquely excellent wines if people dedicated themselves to the farming and winemaking necessary to do so. Over many vintages that ideally expanded as experience was gained, the winery grew and the sophistication of the vision adapted to the times.
What was once a goal of simply making the best wine possible evolved into something more important. Patricia Green Cellars still strives to make great wines but within the context of these principles:
Finding and working with the largest collection of historic Oregon vineyard sites ever assembled under one winery roof. Since 2012 the winery has made a distinct point of cataloging, by making wine from, sites that have relevance to the Oregon story of Pinot Noir. In 2021 thirty-six individual Pinot Noirs were bottled due to the diversified array of top-quality vineyards held by the winery.
Minimizing our environmental impact as much as possible. At the farming level this means a commitment to dry-farming as water, especially on the West Coast, becomes not just an agricultural issue but something that crosses many, many lines of demarcation. It means farming and working with farmers that are committed to organic or high-level sustainable farming. It also means purchasing locally whenever possible, using lighter bottles, getting rid of capsules which serve only decorative purposes, recycling the winery’s waste water, using solar power and other endeavors to ensure we are doing what we can to both run a viable business and to respect the resources that it takes to do so.
Committing to providing a work environment that respects the people who work here. Living wages for all employees, real health care paid for in full for all employees, fair wages for seasonal harvest workers (no using interns as free labor), realistic hours even within the context of the time-sensitive nature of harvest, acknowledging and allowing for paid time off for mental health and real world situations that arise in peoples’ lives and, just in general, attempting to create an environment where people want to come to work and feel empowered and respected when they get there.
There is a lot of great wine in the world. We aim to be a great company that produces great wine.
In 2017 Patty passed away. The winery has carried on both in her name and as a tribute to her as a person and an important historical figure in Oregon’s history.
2021
Patricia Green Cellars
Corrine Vineyard
Wadensvil Block
Pinot Noir
Just outside of the Ribbon Ridge Appellation to the east is a contoured hillside that has a bit of a banana belt characteristic to it that separates and distinguishes it from most of the rest of the large Chehalem Mountain AVA. Olenik Vineyard sits nearly smack dab in the middle of this south facing hillside. The vineyard sits on the same type of thin marine soil as our Estate Vineyard. The west-facing and relatively exposed vineyard lies below Lia’s Vineyard and near sites such as Adams and J. Christopher Estate. The vineyard cascades down the hillside but has undulating folds to it that creates contour and gives unique characteristics to small sections within the 25-acre site. The initial block we received fruit from was 100% Wadensvil clone planted in 1991. We also receive a block toward the bottom of the vineyard known to us as The Anklebreaker Block, which is a 2007 planting of Pommard in a uniquely rocky section of the vineyard. The entire vineyard is incredibly diverse in terms of aspect, elevation and soil type with the amount of ancient flood and landslide deposited rock. This vineyard while just outside of Ribbon Ridge to the east sits in a little bit of a banana-belt that gets decidedly warmer and more consistently still than our Estate site just a few miles to the west. This site has a stillness and quietness to it that are quite enjoyable and palpable and it seems to resonate in the wines as they tend toward full, solid, dense wines that are more thought provoking than provocative.
A pretty nose with cherry and raspberry fruit and florals. It's sapid with more red and forest berry fruits, rich and expansive and a bit fleshy, yet not heavy. Youthful.
2021
Patricia Green Cellars
Anderson Family Vineyard
Pinot Noir
This 20-barrel bottling is made up of 12 barrels of Dijon 115 (60%), 4 barrels of Dijon 667 (20%) and 4 barrels of the Pommard/Wadensvil cuvée that are co-fermented. Anderson Family was added to our relatively sizeable selection of Dundee Hill vineyards, because of its unique attributes that both place it in the Dundee Hill family and make it stand out from nearly all other Dundee Hill sites. Due to the rubbly/rocky makeup of the entire hillside/butte these plants have a much different growing environment than do other vineyards within the AVA. While the soil is Jory, the nature of the vineyard is somewhat atypical of Jory soil wines. While there is still a wealth of red fruit and a lush character to the mouthfeel, the wine is better defined by its underlying mineral nature and far more assertive and lean structure. While we do not have older vintages of this bottling our suspicion is that over time the underpinning elements will really come to the forefront and make for a wine with great capacity to carry fruit but with an interesting austerity to that fruit that provides a level of complexity that will be, at the very least, different than our other Dundee Hill bottlings.
2021
Patricia Green Cellars
Hyland Vineyard
Coury Clone
Pinot Noir
This is an historically relevant incredibly well farmed site. This is our milieu. We should, and usually do, make interesting, unique and terrific wines from these locations. This is quite probably the first vineyard planted in what is now the McMinnville AVA. This AVA is known for producing darkly pigmented, tightly wound, densely fruited and heartily structured Pinots. Sometimes to a fault. This wine takes the unique combination of elements; higher elevation, Coury Clone, volcanic soil, organic farming, old vines, gentle handling and molds them into a special wine with great fruit, noticeable tea like spices (completely a mark of the Coury Clone) and firm, back palate tannins and incredibly texture.
Initially, in barrel, it seemed that the 2 blocks were relatively similar in nature. As time went by, malolactic fermentation had completed and the wines began to shake out, it became clear that this original viewpoint was incorrect. The 1989 was exactly what we were expecting and accustomed to, dark both in color and flavor profiles. This wine was meaty, brooding, and thick with tannin on the back palate. The 1972, however, had turned brightly red-fruited and had great acidic intensity as well as a polished texture that gave way too much finer-grained tannins on the finish than the 1989. By combining the best of the barrels from each block, we believe we have crafted a version of this bottling that is still true to the site and the clone while bringing even more to the table than its previous three incarnations while leaving nothing behind. This is a densely fruited yet sinuous and strong Pinot Noir. This will reward long term aging.