Our tasting impressions
Compared to the 2022 Zenith, the nose here seems fuller, richer and more dark-fruited. The added ripeness of '23 also is apparent in its vibrancy and potency.
Ribbon Ridge typically produces Willamette's biggest and most structured Pinots. Vincent's Armstrong is no exception. He calls this one for the cellar. Problem is, it's so damn tasty, how does one wait? Sure the tannins are pronounced and a bit hairy now. But this wine is mesmerizing. It's the Full Monty. My initial tasting note last June was one word: COMPLETE!
About this wine
The Pinot Noir was planted in 2007 in the Armstrong vineyard on Lewis Rogers Lane in the Ribbon Ridge AVA of the Willamette Valley. It is owned by Doug and Michele Ackerman. Vincent works with four parts of the vineyard, each planted to Pinot Noir 114, 115, 667 and Pommard clones. The soils in Ribbon Ridge are marine sediment, old seafloor that’s sandy and drains exceptionally well, giving generally a lovely chalky, even worsted wool texture to the red wines.
A mix of whole cluster (less than 1/3) and de-stemmed fruit goes into 1.5 ton fermenters. Native yeast is introduced and malolactic fermentation occurs., Only a few punchdowns and pump overs during the three week maceration. The wine ages 18 months in French oak barrels - one new - in order to finish natural malolactics. Bottled without fining or filtration & only minimum effective SO2. Only 100 cases produced.
About the Grape
Pinot Noir is an ancient grape from eastern France. Notoriously challenging, it thrives in cooler climates. Intense popularity resulted in plantings all over the world. It's typically light in color and body but can develop significant tannin.
Vincent's Vintage Report
In short - a special year that gave concentrated, age worthy wines across the board. Spring came in very slowly with late snows in the Willamette Valley and then spring rains that kept the vines from budding until later April, a week or two later than usual. Then in May, we had weather more like July, and by early June the vines had more than caught up and were ready to flower, a week or two EARLIER than usual. It was the shortest time from bud break to flowering that I've seen. Weather was favorable in early June at flowering, which is when the fruit sets and begins to grow. Dry, still weather gave us a nice healthy crop. Summer weather was warmer than usual but not blistering, just nice, consistent conditions that made for low disease pressure. After August, weather remained warm and we began picking Pinot Noir at Ribbon Ridge on September 12, a bit earlier than normal. Conditions were glorious and fermentations smelled incredible across the board. I wish all harvests could be as textbook as 2023 was. Stylistically, the wines remind me a bit of 2018, ripe but well structured and cohesive.
Vincent Wine Company and its owner/winemaker, Vincent Fritzsche are, in so many ways, a natural fit in the VDLT portfolio:
Perhaps the only departure from our usual suspects is that there is a group of wine cognoscenti who have discovered Vincent...in a big way. There's not a ton of press about him but in specific circles, he has achieved superstar status. As a result, his wines are distributed more extensively than many other VDLT partners.
What started as a hobby/sidebar in 2009, blossomed into a real Willamette Valley business 6 years later. He moved into a new cellar in Amity recently and had space to welcome in his friend Saul Mutchnick of Championship Bottle (one-stop shopping for VDLT visits).
While his wines are natural-ish, he is not looking to make natural wines. He uses the minimum effective sulfur, so the wines are stable. If you want to learn how to identify grapes in blind tasting, practice with Vincent's wine. Their transparency and purity are palpable.
Two of Vincent's wines are bottled with a different brand name - Fritzsche. They are both Cabernet Sauvignon, which he purchases from an elite Napa Valley vineyard and bottles in Oregon.
We are delighted and excited to climb onto Vincent's bandwagon. We also are entirely confident that once you taste the wines, you will understand and embrace the buzz.
