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93 pts Dunnuck/Fricke:
The medium golden 2021 Chardonnay Tsai Vineyard is ripe with forward aromatics of preserved Meyer lemon, toasted spice, pineapple rind, and gunflint. Medium-bodied and silky on the palate, it has great balanced energy as well as a long, clean finish, with notes of lemon custard on the back palate. Drink 2024-2030.

91pts Vinous Media
The 2021 Chardonnay Tsai Vineyard opens in the glass with a delicate blend of white flowers, spice and crushed yellow apples. Its softly textured with brisk acidity and a cascade of mineral-tinged orchard fruits. This finishes savory and long, leaving hints of sour melon and a lingering tactile mineral sensation. The Tsai Vineyard Chardonnay gains in volume and depth the longer it sits in the glass. Drinking Window: 2023 – 2027 – ByEric GuidoonJanuary 2024

The Goodfellow Family wines deserve attention and patience, even though the average consumer is often unprepared to wait for Oregon Pinot Noir to mature. Over the last decade, warmer vintages and the push toward ripeness have created a paradigm for immediately enjoyable wines. These are not the wines that Marcus Goodfellow seeks to create. Readers can open a Goodfellow Pinot Noir or Chardonnay on release, but they would miss the magic that will be revealed with time. Burgundy and Barolo are the inspiration behind the portfolio is, but more the Burgundy and Barolo of twenty to thirty years ago. Goodfellow commented, We tend to make a style that is focused on structure and acid, plus lower alcoholhearty wines, which he truly succeeds at. The lineup is focused on single vineyards and the blocks within them, showing the unique characteristics that minor changes in soil and exposition can bring. Also, this is a house where whole cluster fermentation is the norm, along with long macerations and a low reliance on new oak. As mentioned, alcohols are low, usually in the 12 – 12.5% range, which Goodfellow attributes to their philosophy of no-tilling. Both reds and whites are worth checking out, as some of the most exciting Chardonnays I tasted from 2021 were in this lineup. The dry extract in the 2021 whites is phenomenal, Goodfellow added. These are some of the vintage’s most mineral-driven and texturally intense wines, yet with a core of stimulating acidity bringing lip-smacking balance. They are not to be missed.

Note from the Vineyard: The 2021 Tsai Vineyard Chardonnay is yellow fruited, floral, with pear, apple skin, cream, pie crust and a minty hint of bright herb. Medium full on the palate but fresh, with lovely acidity through the back end and finish. The vineyard is located in hills behind Gaston, in the north-west corner of the Yamhill- Carlton AVA, with deeper, Jory, volcanic soils and a south facing aspect. Chardonnay was planted here in 2001 and the vines have the maturity to produce fruit with layering and depth.

The 2021 Vintage is unique. In mid-June, just after fruit-set in the Willamette Valley, the entire Pacific Northwest experienced a heat dome that rocked temperatures into the hundred and teens for three days in a row. Unheard of for our area, to say the least. It had rained just before, and so the vines at our vineyards all came through undamaged, and thankfully the fruit had no sunburn. This was because the heat spike came at one of two points in fruit development when the vine responds to cues from the environment by thickening the skins of the grape, and June weather in the hundred-teens points to the need for very thick skins. The ensuing weeks were warm to hot, but not extreme in any way, and then into the start of August the weather shifted and we had a very pleasant and cool end to the summer, preserving acidity and juiciness, and keeping alcohols low. The result is a vintage with extremely expressive aromatics, intense tannic structure, great acidity and dense flavors.