2008 RIBBON RIDGE WINERY PINOT NOIR ESTATE RESERVE RIDGECREST VINEYARDS RIBBON RIDGE OREGON

2008: The 2008 vintage saw one of the coolest growing seasons on record, with 1,976 degreedays of heat during the growing season, versus the average for the last twelve years of 2,212 degree-days, and second only to 1,968 degree-days in 1999. This vintage resembles 1999 in the counterintuitive ripeness of the crop we finally harvested, and both vintages showed very good acid levels and excellent, full ripeness at lower sugars. Look for both whites and reds to excel this year, with very ageable wines, rich and complex from release to old age. Lower croploads, almost half-crop in nature, also similar to 1999, brought some of this richness, with harvest dates that were two-plus weeks later than average but not experiencing significant rainfall.