2023 Goodrich
Opening with aromas of plum skin, cedar chest and bergamot, this full-bodied wine is brimming with fl avors of blueberry pie, quince paste and star anise, all supported by grainy, sueded leather tannins.
Vintage
VINTAGE 2023 required experience and patience that was rewarded with essential hang-time and ripening. The growing season started cool, then May sunshine brought an average bloom in mid-June followed by a glorious summer. We enjoyed many classic 80-degree Willamette Valley days, with nighttime highs staying down in the 50s even in August, typically the warmest month here in Oregon. The only exception to these consistent diurnal swings was a single big heat spike in mid-August. We anticipated picking in early September. However, some fortuitous rain events allowed us to push back harvest and we were thankful for the additional hang time.
Harvest came early, but not too early. We brought in beautiful fruit and we were pleased to still be picking Pinot noir into early October. When you have fast accumulation of fruit sugars, cool weather can be a welcome respite with even small amounts of rain helping the grapevines regulate and slow ripening. One of the reasons why Oregon Pinot Noir is so prized is for its freshness of fruit, and you can only get that vibrancy when it’s under 50 degrees during picking.
2023 brought amazing fruit quality, but our production was down, especially on cool climate white wines like Pinot Gris. Being an estate grown winery, we must follow Mother Nature’s lead as we cannot buy fruit to increase production. Smaller yields do mean a smaller crop and less wine, but we embrace vintage variation. Another great benefit of being estate grown is that it’s our decision exactly when to pick. Rather than rushing to bring fruit into the cellar, in 2023 were able to play the odds and wait out the rain on blocks that needed additional hang time to get the flavor development we needed.
Vineyard
Elk Cove Vineyards purchased Goodrich Vineyard in 2014. A 69 acre property planted with 21 acres of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, Goodrich Road sits just outside the town of Yamhill, Oregon in the heart of the Yamhill-Carlton AVA.
Goodrich Vineyard was planted in 2007 with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in highdensity a format. The property boasts the exact same marine sediment (Willakenzie) soil as our Mount Richmond property and lies just a few miles from our Estate Vineyard in Gaston.
This young vineyard has great promise and we were so impressed by the quality of the fruit we decided to make a Single Vineyard Pinot Noir in our very first year of farming the site.
Winemaking
Fruit from Goodrich is fermented in small, temperature controlled steel tanks with a portion of whole-cluster fruit, hand punched down twice daily, and barreled in French oak barrels. After 10 months of aging, only the barrels that are most representative of the Goodrich profile are carefully blended to create an elegant Oregon Pinot Noir.
Viticultural & Enological Data
- Vine Age 16 years
- Harvest Sugars 24 brix
- pH 3.61
- Vatting Fermentation in small open top steel fermentors. 10 months in 26% French oak
- Cases Produced 527
