Dollar Bills Only

So here's what we were told - Patricia Green Cellars had a bad vintage in 2020 (smoke) and rolled all of their single vineyard pinots into one wine, labeling it "Dollar Bills Only."  While our information was generally correct, we can now flesh it out a bit.

Patricia Green was one of the giants in the Oregon pinot business.  She passed away in 2017 and Patricia Green Cellars is now in the hands of her business partner/winemaker, Jim Anderson.  While we have sold their wines in the past, we didn't know how large and rarefied their production was.  If you go to patriciagreencellars.com you will learn that they are the largest producer of bottles of Pinot Noir in the country.  You will also see more than a dozen single vineyard pinots advertised for up to $300/btl.  

Patty Green had a great reputation in this business, by the way.  Her wines were not manipulated to meet what the market expects.  She took what the vineyard gave her and didn't intervene to reconfigure the stuff.  If you look at the color of the wine in the glass it will be the correct garnet or cherry red color, not a darker hue betraying adulteration.

In order to make Dollar Bills Only, Patricia Green Cellars declassified pinot juice from five vineyards; Estate, Freedom Hill, Ridgecrest, Wind Ridge and Risdahl Ranch/Shafer.  We are inclined to think the remaining properties at her disposal were written off due to the smoke taint.  This limited pedigreed fruit was made into a "silky, layered, juicy and pure, ripe cherry and wild berry-flavored" finished product.  Tellingly, the wine's complex fruit and spice flavors build and improve in the glass ending in a long lasting finish.  My mentor would have approved.

Lumpy's is a dive bar in the town of Dundee in the Willamette Valley.  The juke box there has a sign on it saying, "Dollar Bills Only" and that image is reproduced on the wine label.  The significance is meant as a statement about making the best of a bad situation.