2015 Pinot Noir Notorious

Jim Anderson walked me through the best collection of wines that I’ve ever tasted from this highly reliable producer since I started visiting and tasting here in 2005. Production here has been increasing steadily over the years (just take a look at how many wines are reviewed here) and he told me that they'll soon begin building a new winery as "this one wasn't built to handle what's going on in terms of size (barrels are stacked high and wide) and construction materials. I've always been a fan of the bang for the buck that's delivered here. Anderson said that it was never the intent here to make collector wines or vinous objects of desire. "It's kind of cool that it's happened, at least with some of the wines, but that really happened on its own. It's cool that it happened but it wasn’t some kind of business plan or goal."

On a sadder, make that a profoundly sad note, Patty Green, the winery's namesake and Jim's wine-growing partner since 1993, passed away in late October, 2017, at the age of 62. She launched her much-heralded wine-growing career in 1986 as a harvest worker at the old Hillcrest Winery, in Roseburg. She quickly moved up to the position of winemaker there in 1987 and stayed on until 1989 before moving to Adelsheim, where she worked until joining the brand-new Torii Mor Winery when it launched in 1993. It's there that she met and began working closely with Anderson and the two of them departed in 2000 to start their own winery, this one, in Newberg at what was once Autumn Wind Vineyard. In the ensuing years Patricia Green Cellars has become one of America's most reliable sources for elegant, detailed and user-friendly Pinot Noir in America. Anderson is emphatic when he says that "nothing is changing because we want to preserve Patty's legacy" but all of this has clearly hit him and their team like a ton of bricks. Anybody who knew her would understand because, while Patty was only a little over five feet all in terms of personality and exuberance, she was a real character and in some ways larger than life. She was enthusiastic, unaffected and welcoming to a fault, with a huge smile and a loud, cackling laugh and the tendency to use it, often, as in really often. But her passion for and attention to winemaking, from vine to bottling, was deeply serious. A passionate gourmand and wine lover, Patty was as comfortable at The Dundee Bistro or at Tina's (where I shared a memorable dinner with her many years ago) as she was at one of her favorite stomping grounds, Dundee’s legendary watering hole, Lumpy's. She was a sweetheart, with enormous talent and realized success as among those who helped to put Oregon Pinot Noir on the map. She was a much-loved fixture in the Willamette Valley and it's awfully hard to accept that she's really gone.