The Ponzi Wine Bar crew visits Patty Green, spring 2009

Wow, what a morning! The wine bar staff along with our colleagues from the bistro met out at Patricia Green Cellars for a morning of 07 Pinot tasting as well as a preview of 08’s out of barrel. We started with their finished Pinot Noirs, 07 Balcombe , 07 Estate, 07 Four Winds. Three distinctly different soils and very different expressions of Willamette Valley terroir. The Balcombe was red fruit tinged, bright and lovely as usual, with an intriguing undercurrent of black fruit. The estate was deeper and darker, with much more coffee, and spiced plum flavors. Four Winds showed a flavor spectrum somewhere in the middle. Very, very nice wines! Oh, and we also tasted a preview of the ’08 Sauvignon Blanc out of tank. Bright, crisp and loaded full of gooseberry and pink grapefruit. It’s gonna be a great summer indeed!

I brought along a ’98 Torii Mor Balcombe Vineyard Pinot Noir to crack open and enjoy with the group. Pretty special stuff since this was the last wine that Patty and Jim made and bottled with Torii Mor before launching Patricia Green Cellars. It was showing incredibly well with still quite a bit of sweetness to the fruit, primarily red raspberry and cherry with bright, refreshing acidity. What followed was a rare history lesson of some lesser known vintages led by Patty and Jim; 1997 Balcombe was showing much more mushroom and tea aromatics and a solid backbone of acidity. 1997 White Rose was also showing much of the same with just a bit more sweetness to the fruit. Then a big surprise came… 1985 Rex Hill Maresh Vineyard Pinot Noir. Showing its age a bit but surprisingly still intact. An orange tinged rim gave way to delicate strawberry notes and a nose of rich forest floor compost. What a treat to try an Oregon Pinot from a legendary year!

So, I can safely say that we all came away from that outing on a high. We’re excited to continue selling the phenomenal 07’s and are very much looking forward to those amazing 08’s!