Goodfellow Family Pinot Noir 2015 Fir Crest Vineyard Willamette Valley

2015 ranks as the warmest vintage on record for Oregon’s Willamette Valley. The wines are appropriately robust, but have a liveliness and purity to them that belies the heat. I find the 2015 vineyard designate Pinot Noirs to be delicious currently, and the Goodfellow Family 2015 Fir Crest Vineyard Pinot Noir is one of my favorites from the recent hot vintages in Oregon.

Goodfellow Family Cellars is a winemaker owned and operated winery in Oregon’s beautiful Willamette Valley. Founded in 2002, and producing approximately 4,000 cases annually, they focus on old vines planted in unique sites, and are committed to sustainable farming and sourcing grapes solely from non-irrigated vines.

Fir Crest Vineyard sits in the coastal foothills in the far southwest corner of the Yamhill-Carlton AVA. Soils are older sedimentary series, and aspect of the slope is south-east. The wines are deeply colored, intense, rich and powerful, reminiscent of an Oregon version of Clos de La Roche.

The 2015 Fir Crest Pinot Noir aromatics are markedly intense and dark in this wine. The deeply purple hue is mirrored aromatically with ripe plum, blackberry, and woodsy notes from the stems. Hints of smoke and underbrush create a savory base for elegant layers of blackberry, black cherry, and plum. The palate is silky, but possesses substantial weight, and distinct tannic structure to give length to the wine.