Purely Domestic Wine Report | Volume 9.3

RIDGECREST + RIBBON RIDGE

RIDGECREST

2019 RIESLING, DRY, RIDGECREST ESTATE | RIBBON RIDGE | 12.1% | 192 cs | $24 | 96

2019 GRÜNER VELTLINER, RIDGECREST ESTATE | RIBBON RIDGE | 13.0% | 294 cs | $24 | 93

2019 PINOT GRIS, RIDGECREST OLD VINE ESTATE | RIBBON RIDGE | 13.2% | 244 cs | $24 | 94

2019 GAMAY NOIR, RIDGECREST OLD VINE ESTATE | RIBBON RIDGE | 12.4% | 369 cs | $30 | 94

2018 PINOT NOIR | RIBBON RIDGE | 14.1% | 497 cs | $42 | 92

RIBBON RIDGE

2018 PINOT NOIR, RIDGECREST VINEYARD, ESTATE RESERVE | RIBBON RIDGE | 14.6% | 364 cs | $69 | 95

www.ribbonridgewinery.com

RIDGECREST | 2019 DRY RIESLING, ESTATE The nose offers beautiful ripeness of orange and amber stone fruit, lemon peel, gravel, ocean air and honeycomb. Slightly over one percent residual sugar gives the palate entry a supple waxy white fruit with notes of petrol and florals. The finish offers crisp green apple, grapefruit-like acidity and slippery texture. Superb. Drink 2021 – 2035. 2019 GRÜNER VELTLINER, ESTATE The nose is ripe yellow apple and pear with underlying notes of saline and cardamom. The palate entry is sleek with juicy apple and Meyer lemon leading to fine-grained, delicate acidity in the core. Every once in a while, a wine is just hard to pin down because it is just so damned effortless to go through. Read a book with this on a rainy Sunday afternoon or pour glasses for you and your best friend in the kitchen with a plate of sliced fruit and cheeses. Drink 2021 – 2024. 2019 PINOT GRIS, OLD VINE ESTATE The nose is vibrant, edgy mineral and a bit of white melon rind over a backdrop of dusty slate. The palate entry is full and round with ripe-saturated melon and apple in the core which are well-focused with saline, mineral and textured acidity that give admirable weight without being a singular thread. “Not their first rodeo” certainly applies here. Get the cheese fondue ready. Drink 2021 – 2026. 2019 GAMAY NOIR, OLD VINE ESTATE Own-rooted block of 1.5 acre planted 1985, the oldest in Oregon. The nose is vibrant cassis and herb mixed with macerated plum and raspberry over fresh-cut strawberry crowns. The palate entry is sleek, finegrained vitality of fresh blue and black plum along with subtle violet pastille and underlying black pepper spice. All of this occurs against a backdrop of a beguiling wine that borrows from Syrah, Counoise, Pinot Noir, Grenache and Loire Valley Cabernet Franc. Wines like this represent the small joys of my work. Drink 2020 – 2030. 2018 PINOT NOIR The nose is salted blue plum and sticky taffy with a punch of dusty florals and crumbled green herb against saturated blue and red fruit on palate entry. The core is generously proportioned supple stone fruits that form a velvet-like floral and long fruit presence that persists through the crisp, mouth-coating textured and balanced finish. Drink 2020 – 2025. RIBBON RIDGE | 2018 PINOT NOIR, RIDGECREST VINEYARDS ESTATE RESERVE The color is a darker hue than the Ridgecrest, from 39-year-old vines. The nose has an intense velvet-like appeal – black fruit depth and structure with notes of licorice, purple florals and dried Italian plums. The palate entry is densely packed and youthfully narrow. Time in the glass helps the core open up showing mint, saturated black cherry fruit-driven vibrancy, tobacco, spice. The finish is unyieldingly long silky, mouth-coating plum and cherry. Drink 2022 – 2040

Wynne Peterson-Nedry, Owner and Winemaker


ABOUT THE COVER

I don’t do many covers in black and white. I had a perfectly good color one of Wynne Peterson-Nedry [L] picked out and ready to go. When people arrived in Carlton for their sessions I made sure to get some images in masks simply because someday we might forget what it was like to wear them everywhere and I wanted some reminders. With her dynamic smile hidden, the image of a pregnant Wynne felt very different as full color. Rendered in monochrome, it captures the collective mood of 2020 as a moment in time.

Because of the impact of stay at home orders, many small producers didn’t participate in the report this year and will be back at some point in the future. However, a few new producers did submit wines and they represent some very nice choices. Anthony King’s Ratio Wines – he also makes Asilda, Janis Pate’s Arlyn made by Thomas Savre of Lingua Franca (first commercial reviews) Stangeland, made by Patrick Beall and Fox Farm Vineyard from David Fish.


The purely domestic wine report [ pdwr ] is only available by paid subscription at an annual rate of 50usd for online access, or 100usd for online+print delivery within the united states, or 175usd for international print delivery. Correspondence and Samples: doug wilder, publisher, 398 Rockgreen Place Santa Rosa, CA 95409 doug@pdwr.co COPYRIGHT | except as noted, all content and reviews © doug wilder, purely domestic wine report 2004 – 2021. Images are © studio1529.com 2018 – 2021. Reproduction permission of reviews and images is available by license.

About the images: front cover, Wynne Peterson-Nedry | [p.5] self-portrait | back cover, Jay McDonald, EIEIO

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