Vintage Log
Department of Rugged Individualism and Fashionable Flair
October 24th, 2007: More pressing today. The Dijon 115 and baby Wadenswil from Croft are ready to go. A note on the weather: It's simply beautiful around here. It was up in the high 60's, low 70's for the past several days, and is expected to be positively lovely for the next week or so. This is exactly the weather that we hope for...in the first two weeks of October, not the last!!
October 23th, 2007: Halftime is over. The fermenters are softening up, and yesterday I pressed the Temperance Hill 777. The free run exhibited the classic Temperance flavors, with lots of soil and blackberry notes, a little anise spice. The press run was somewhat complex. The first bit was a major acid bomb...not very appealing. As I increased the pressure to around 0.5 - 1 bar (that's 8-15 PSI), the flavors improved greatly, color deepened, and the characteristics remained positive. For fun, I pressed up to about 1.2 bar, but chose not to include this run, as it was a little too outa control. So, for the first time since the 2003 vintage, I kept the free run and press run separate on this lot, allowing for some barrel time to see what happens to both. Recall Temperance is our coolest site, at 720 ft in elevation. The fruit came in with respectible sugars and moderate acids/ pH. However, we didn't quite get the final ripening characteristics we typcially look for (and never get in a cooler and wetter year).
October 14th, 2007: It's "Halftime" here at the winery. The earlier lots of baby Pommard and an experimental lot of Dijon 113/114 are ready for the press. The fruit is dominant, with good tannins and acid background. It's foggy today, so I'm being lazy and updating the website in attempts to avoid going to the winery and working. The two lots being pressed today will be kept separate, and I will keep a watchful eye on the press fraction to evaluate it's unification with the free run. Today is looking to be our last nice day for a long time...not that it matters as all the fruit is in, but still.
A note on my notes: I wrote down "10 inches from the top [of the fermenter] is as full as you can get it." So this year I decided to not heed my own advice, and I packed in some of the fermenters to about 4 inches from the top (several logistical reasons for this). Naturally, the fermenters are packed solid now that the cap has risen, and the cap is over the top by about 6 inches. If anyone wants a workout, our manual punch downs are enough to build your abs.
Important things: The weather this year was really high pressure. Cool, no real summer, moist and muddy fall, etc. etc. One thing that really amazes me about Oregon Pinot Noir is its resilience, and it's desire to ripen under the harshest of conditions. Of course, good management has a lot to do with it, but the vines themselves are determined to produce full flavors, balanced acidity and sugars. The flavors are what really matter here: without them, we're not making anything really special. Fortunately, holding out through the rains, not getting too worked up over gloomy forecasts, and pretending not to look outside when it was dumping rain all paid off. The vines advanced and the flavors are now in the fermenters. The older vines, in our vineyard designate wines, pushed it to the edge and are offering up their 20+ years of experience and site expression. Gotta love it!
October 10th, 2007: We pulled our baby crop (3rd leaf) of Wadenswil and the Dijon 115 at Croft on Saturday; both came in very clean with great balance of flavors and acids. Both are bleeding deep ruby colors--this is pretty much true for all of the Pinots in the house. After a fun filled afternoon, followed by a clean up and move stuff around day on Sunday, on Monday we pulled the older vine Pommard and Wadenswil from Croft (basis of our vineyard designate wine) and our Dijon 777 from Temperance Hill. The Croft came in probably at the peak, very clean fruit; the skins were fragile, but not overly so, and the flavor profiles are showing lovely depth. Acids are just right to layer in the flavors. Temperance Hill, our coolest site situated at 720 feet above sea level, showed repectable numbers and flavors. I would say the 777 component will provide the bright acidity and some of those anise/ darker fruit flavors we get in our Willamette Valley blend. Early to tell, of course.
On the docket for today: Pinot gris. The weather has been cool, and only slightly moist over the last 24 hours. It is supposed to open up later this week, I am betting for the last time this fall. We're getting the gris off partly for convenience, though we're not expecting any more advancement in the next few days. In fact, we're expecting botrytis to come in hot and heavy over the next few days, so we're pulling the gris to avoid further disease pressures. Stay tuned for the juice report.
October 3rd, 2007: A check today through the vineyards is showing a range of healthy conditions, despite the cool and on-off misty weather (our 90% chance of rain). No signs of botrytis or other nasties. The Croft Dijon 115 is ready to go, and we will be harvesting that with the baby crop of Wadenswil on Saturday morning. Fermenting in the winery, the new plantings of Croft Pommard are exhibiting rounded flavors, and brix are starting to drop. The color is pretty fantastic. This is reminding me of 2005. If the sky falls tomorrow and rains until December, it'll remind me of 1997. Thanks to the Internet and the Pacific Northwest "patternless" weather patterns, I can find a forecast that meets every outcome. I believe I had a telephone that plugged into a wall in 1997 and limited access to the internet. Anyway, I ramble while we wait. Salmon and halibut on the menu for Saturday.
October 2nd, 2007: The baby Pommard is plugging away slow and sure. The color is very nice; flavors are indicating a faboulous fruit nose and dominance, mostly the cherry end of things. The acid structure is shaping up to provide some nice depth. Fermentation on AMH yeast is just kicking in...the glycerol production so far is helping for a velvety mouth feel. All this for a 3rd leaf Pinot! Promise of a bright future, my friends.
October 1st, 2007: Happy Water Year! Yes, it's a new water year on the hydrologic calendar, and the last few days went with a blast. We had over 2 inches of rain to kick out last water year. At this time one year ago, we were concerned with excessive heat in the vineyard and high sugars. This year we don't have those concerns, as we're zeroing in on vine health, sun and drying events, and flavor profiles. So far, everything is looking solid; the initial concerns following rain involves swelling of the fruit, cracking and botrytis. Fortunately, Ray, Dai and Matt have layered in the organic sprays to combat botrytis and the clusters are holding firm and solid. We're probably going to pull some of our Pinot clones Dijon 115, baby Wadenswil, and maybe a little older Pommard out of some of our vineyards by Saturday. The week is looking up--it was very sunny and nice today, though forecast called for showers and rain. Same is predicted for every day this week--probably get hit a bit again on Tuesday. The older vines and those at Temperance Hill are going to hang in there until probably mid October--minutes before the sky falls. I'm still sleeping well. Sort of love the uncertainty of it all, and I'm always encouraged at how the vines persist despite pressures. Oh, and I'm also encouraged and inspired by the vineyard managers that haven't taken a day off in months and manage to keep their sense of humor...
September 30th, 2007: And So we enter the tunnel of cool climate conditions...We're sitting out a period of rain and cool temperatures for the next several days; the clusters are still looking to be "bomber" for the foreseeable future--meaning the skins are strong enough to resist the full-on brunt of botrytis and other nasties. However, this is what makes Oregon have the reputation of a cool-climate site. For once in a long while we are seeing a series of cool weather patterns coming in over the Pacific Northwest, and the vines are resting on the past 7 years of storage reserves to continue the ripening curve into October. The good news is we have most of the factors of ripeness already in place, and this next week or so period is the time where we gain finesse with the skins. The seeds are tan to brown, stems are more-less ready, and the [large] berries are showing nice flavor profiles, good color bleed, and balanced acidity. Our coolest of the cool sites has a ways to go, but the majority of our older vine Pinot (the 1985-1991 plantings) is looking good...cold and wet at the moment, but still in play.
September 29th, 2007: It rained a bit over the last few days, and we're watching closely as we land this vintage ship. All fruit on the vine is tracking well, with healthy canopies and clusters. Rain isn't usually a good thing, but considering the acid profile for the year, it can work to our advantage to help even things out. I'm sleeping well.
September 27th, 2007: The only downside to today is that I missed Dick Dale at Squirrels because we were processing late into the evening. We pulled some beautiful 3rd leaf (baby crop) Pommard clone Pinot noir from Croft Vineyards. These little plants have been so healthy in the 3 years of their lives--the first crop offered a suprisingly well-balanced sugar/acid profile with darker-than-expected color and very nice flavors. This "Baby Pinot" are in the fermenters now, with a slow and steady ferment planned. This, with some baby Wadenswil clone, will make up a multi-vintage run of it's own wine -- this year's vintage may be as much as 200 cases. Stay tuned now and for the next 50 vintages...
September 21st, 2007: Harvest is now at Situation: Code Gris...please tune into the Department of Homeland Noir for details and updates concerning Oregon Pinot Noir harvest and how it affects the citizenry.
September 20st, 2007: Be sure to check out the work-in-progress: The BarrelCam Network provides very important streaming video of wine while it ages. Keep up on the vintage in real time, and impress your friends with first-hand knowledge...All of this comes absolutely free! Hard to believe, I know.
September 19, 2007: Made some adjustments to the website to convert everything to php. For those not in the know, it's much better that what I was using. Also, the vines are cruising right along at about 21-22 brix, with a very good track for ripeness. The clusters are larger than usual, much like 2001 and 2006, though the ripeness curve appears to be more even. I have some cluster samples sitting in the winery to evaluate the native yeast populations, what they're producing, etc. Got a call from Joe at Belle Vallee and Matt at Spindrift in town: We're all ready, but the fruit isn't, so we're thinking of going for a brewski at Squirrels (the local tavern) for lunch sometime this week. Winemaking can be pretty hard work.