Note From the Vineyard: Classic Whistling Ridge. Generous aromatically, with notes of rose petals, velvet, potpourri, strawberry, red cherry, pie spice, leather, and orange peel. The palate is bright red fruits, alpine strawberry, black cherry, more leather, with juicy acidity, darkening a bit as it opens and gaining depth. While the tannins are there, they are extraordinarily fine in this vintage, and the wine and should have an excellent window for drinking early, as well as cellaring in good fashion.

We are releasing the 2022 Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs (both bottled in March of 2024) and the vintage is a delight. Of recent vintages it seems most like a hybrid between the silky tannins, youthful enjoyment and floral nature of 2016, with a bit more of the grace of 2019. The only downside to this vintage was the early spring freeze, which came just after bud-break in much of the northern Willamette Valley, and for us decimating yields at Whistling Ridge Vineyard and in the Durant Chardonnay. Thankfully Temperance Hill had not budded out yet, and Tsai Vineyard and the Durant Pinot Noirs recovered a bit, but the joy in the excellent quality of the vintage is tempered a bit by our regret at how little we have. That being said, all three single vineyard Pinot Noirs are an excellent look at terroir with juicy acids and firm but fine tannins, folding in with expressive floral and fruit profiles. These are in a youthful window, available for the time being but likely to shut down at some point in a year or two. The block bottlings are more structured but also more expressive aromatically and with more vibrancy of fruit in the wines. The Heritage wines, Heritage No. 20 Temperance Hill and Heritage No. 21 Whistling Ridge are absolutely wonderful representations of Willamette valley wine in the style of old school Burgundy. The Long Acre bottling from Whistling Ridge shows more density and a distinctly darker profile and I would hold this for a minimum of 6-8 years to give it time to close and re-open. Pumphouse Block from Temperance Hill is a tremendous expression of the old vines in that block, but 7-10 years would be optimal.