Is Spring here yet?

Here we are, the second week of April, and I have to hear about low snow levels!! Last Sunday I witnessed the most amazing day of precipitation I've ever seen. Rain, hail, and snow all in the same afternoon. That is one amazing trifecta.

The last six weeks have been spent tasting, tasting, and tasting again. Almost endless trials trying to get every blend just right. Some blends are easy and only take three rounds of trials. Other blends are not easy. Our most difficult blend to finalize this year took 7 rounds!! It's hard work, but someone has to do it. We just finished blending the barrels according to the results of our trial tastings. No we can resume racking the new wines from 2007.

We will soon have budbreak in the vineyard. I do love to see the vines coming to life again after a long sleep. The vineyard will soon be abuzz with all types of activity. Shoot thinning, bud rubbing, cultivation of cover crops, mowing grass, fruit estimates, composting, irrigation, mildew control, grafting, and replanting to name just a few. We're also planning to plant a new parcel next spring, so we've already ordered plants and plotted vine rows. We'll be preparing the land this spring with soil amendments and irrigation pipe headers and fence posts and such so we're ready to plant next February and March.

We'll be getting really busy in the winery, too, with bottling. We'll bottle nearly 7,000 cases in three months. Then we'll relax the month of August as we get ready for the next harvest.

Yeah, winemaking is just as romantic as it sounds. And exhaustive.

Winter Wonderland

In case anyone has or hasn't noticed, Southern Oregon has certainly gotten its fair share of fluffy white stuff this winter. I've only lived in Oregon since 2002, but this is without doubt the whitest winter I've endured. Snowy peaks and mountain passes have made travel somewhat sketchy. Fortunately, the temperatures have not been too cold, so the ice issue has remained at least somewhat absent.
Snow and cold notwithstanding, things continue to move along outside and inside. The crews are busy in the vineyard pruning the vines in preparation for the coming season. This activity is the first time the vines are touched during the year and paramount to creating balanced vines and thus balanced wines. The task requires organization of immense amounts of data collected from previous vintages to build a format for the job as well as detailed logistical planning and constant supervision in the field. It's time consuming for certain, but the proof is in the pudding.
Winter in the winery is dominated by tasting. Barrel after barrel after barrel of tasting. Lot after lot after lot of tasting. Oh, the pain, the agony!! What a way to spend a day!! This is one of the most enjoyable activities, but requires the greatest amount of discipline. After all, it's TASTING, not drinking, and I've heard too many horror stories about winemakers who do more of the latter and less of the former. I appreciate headlines, but not in the legal section. Anyway, bottling is pushing its way to the front of the line in the winery and we'll start with the 2007 whites and Rosado then move on to the 2006 reds. I can't wait!!

2007 Harvest Report

Well we'll try to get this going for real now.
I "ran into" an old friend from Florida the other day http://twitter.com/jeromepeters and he basically said I should just put some effort into this. Considering the ineptitude of my initial post I have nowhere to go but up.
Harvest 2007 is in the bag. The whites and Rosado are done and ready (almost) for bottling. The reds are all in barrel, dry, and finishing their secondary fermentation. Great quality this year in Tempranillo, Malbec, Viognier, Albarino, Syrah, and Port. How can I complain about the rain and seemingly endless hours during crush when this kind of quality comes out? The answer is: I can't. Now that we've slowed down it's time to start looking for ducks and steelhead and to check my eyelids for leaks.

Well, here it is. Being a relative idiot when it comes to this form of communication I'll just wing it.