Harvest Notes: Tis the Season

The Oregon Grape Stomp Championship and Harvest Celebration this past weekend (September 22nd-23rd) was spectacular, as was the weather. Hundreds of people lined up to stomp grapes and sticky juice covered feet, clothes, and the parking lot! Congratulations to Don and Lisa Soete who took home the grand prize and are off to the World Stomping Championships in Santa Rosa, CA. Our 2006 Whole Cluster Pinot Noir turned out to be the perfect wine for the excited crowd. To quote Wall Street Journal writers, Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, from their September 7th wine column on American Pinot Noir under $20, the 2006 Whole Cluster Pinot Noir is, "Jammy and jazzy, like Beaujolais and just as delightful. Pure, clean, lovely fruit that says, 'Let's party!'" You can purchase this wine through our website or visit us in the tasting room. If you missed the event, but would like to get a play by play, the story will air this Friday, September 28 on 1190 KEX Radio. Times are approximate: 5:12 AM, 12:42 PM and 5:35 PM. You’ll also be able to see video online at 1190kex.com, search word grape.

Winemaker Report:

Harvest is just around the corner and winemaker, Forrest Klaffke, expects to start picking any day. While we still hope for a few warm degree days to complete ripening, overall the vintage is progressing nicely. Cool temperatures are slowing the ripening process but increasing the grapes flavor intensity. Currently, we're about a week behind the last two years in sugar levels. It’s looking to be a classic vintage marked by high-quality, abundant fruit with alcohol levels in balance with flavors. If you head up to the vineyard for the October 14th jazz concert you just might be able to see them picking at our Estate site.

Cheers to a new vintage!

Shelby Zadow
Marketing Coordinator
Willamette Valley Vineyards

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From The Tasting Room: What's the deal with glasses?

FROM THE TASTING ROOM

By Mickey Bellman

So what’s with the different glasses?

Believe it or not but the same wine will taste significantly different when served from particular glasses. I know, I know—I scoffed at this idea, too. How can an inert piece of transparent glass cause a wine to taste different? After all, it is the same wine sensed by the same tongue and only the container is different.

Try this simple test at home or in the winery. Select any red wine and pour some into a large bowl glass and a similar amount into a Champaign flute or small cup. Taste the wine in the small glass first and then the large glass. Be honest and see what you think. Most wine tasters are amazed and become believers in the shape of the glass and the taste of the wine.

Half the sense of taste is smell. With a large bowl glass, it fills with the bouquet of the wine. As you drink the wine, you immerse your nose into the glass and inhale the bouquet. That enhances the flavor of the wine. In a small glass your nose cannot get anywhere close to the bowl and you miss the wonderful smell of good wine.

In the Willamette Valley Vineyards’ Tasting Room we use three different glass styles—a large bowl Pinot Noir glass, a tall but narrow Cabernet-Merlot glass, and a smaller Viognier/white wine glass. Although there are some 27 different style glasses to match each varietal, we have found these three glasses serve us (and the wine) well.

Willamette Valley Vineyards is the Oregon distributor of Riedel glassware. The family-owned company dates back some 140 years to Austria where the glasses are designed and crafted. We are the first winery in Oregon to use Riedel glassware exclusively in our tasting room and showcase WVV wines.

Stop by the Tasting Room for our reserve tasting, pick up a Riedel glass and try six samples of premium Willamette Valley wine for $6. You’ll be glad you did!

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From the Tasting Room: The Cork Story

Cork is tree bark! Several hundred years ago, a French winemaker/monk (named Dom Perignon) discovered that cork bark was a quick and easy way to seal a bottle of wine. Only in recent decades have new synthetic, glass, and screw-top stoppers been used to keep wine in the bottle. But these new methods are not nearly as energy efficient or environmentally friendly as good, old-fashioned, natural cork-the most sustainable agricultural product in the entire world. Cork is actually the bark of an oak tree (Quercus suber) grown in Spain, Portugal and other Mediterranean countries. Once the oak tree is about 20 years old, the outside bark can be carefully stripped from the tree in large sheets. So long as the underlying cambium layer of the tree remains uninjured, the bark will regrow and more bark can be harvested every 10-15 years. Some trees have produced cork bark for over 200 years! Cork is a natural substance that can seal a bottle completely.It can be compressed just enough to fit into the bottle, and then expandand maintain a perfect seal for decades. Unlike metal screw tops orplastic stoppers, natural cork requires very little energy to be cut to the correct size. Metal screw caps must first be mined from the earth and then refined with electricity and molded by machines. Plastic stoppers trace their source to petroleum, and we all know how precious oil has become in this age. Even the new glass stoppers require enormous amounts of energy to be refined and molded. Meanwhile, the cork tree simply converts sunlight and carbon dioxide into cellulose. Throughout the Mediterranean area, there are now extensive forests of cork trees. These forests have become an important ecosystem in the region. While the trees sequester carbon from the atmosphere, cattle, goats and sheep graze in the shade of the trees. The cork trees also provide important wildlife habitat for many native species of animals and birds. The oaks protect the soil from wind and water erosion also. The forests of cork trees are, like most forests, aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Unlike the dense forests of the Pacific Northwest, the trees are well spaced creating a savannah-like setting. More than one cork oak tree has offered shade for a perfect picnic. A bottle of wine, and loaf of bread, and thou'. At Willamette Valley Vineyards we use natural cork to seal our bottles of wine. It is another environmentally friendly way to conduct our business.

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International Pinot Noir Celebration

When informed that I was responsible for planning attendance at IPNC you can imagine my delight. Like a gift from the wine god, this one-time hick from the sticks would be attending the finest Pinot Noir festival in the world where hundreds of enthusiasts, writers, chefs, top-notch sommeliers, and the earth’s best Pinot producers descend on the heart of McMinnville. The long days, starting around 9am and sometimes lasting until midnight, are chuck full with things to do. From panel discussions with world class winemakers, to gourmet lunches prepared by the finest NW chef’s- I seriously could get used to this kind of living. The only unglamorous element in all of this is the spitting- however, this is an absolute must for truly enjoying all this event has to offer.

This year was very special as it included an AVA tasting focus. By chance I was put on the bus bound for Witness Tree. Located in the heart of the Eola-Amity AVA, I learned a bit more about the new sub-appellation, and thus a bit more about our new fruit source, Elton Vineyard. This September we are bringing in our first fruit from Elton and are now wholly responsible for the farming. I happened to run into owners, Dick and Betty O’Brien, several times throughout IPNC. They are enjoying retirement and ready to celebrate a 40th wedding anniversary this fall! What an amazing job they have done all these years tending the vines. At Saturday’s traditional Salmon Bake, where fillets of salmon are slowly roasted on stakes over an open pit, I was able to taste the ‘99 Fiddlehead Pinot Noir that was made from Elton fruit. It was a fabulous wine and the dark fruit, spice and earthiness of the AVA shown through. In the near direct path of the Van Duzer corridor, this area is exposed to some cool evenings as the coastal winds funnel through. The wines are typically complex, expressive, and notably well balanced, especially in hot years when the rest of the valley sees spiking sugars and alcohol levels. After practically tackling the sommelier to get the wine I was able to pass it around to several eager faces all while happily relating the story of our new long-term contract.

As is traditional at the bake we also brought along some of our own wines to share. While Meg Hursh, wine club coordinator, weaved through the tables with a magnum of Pinot Noir Port, I donned a magnum of ‘02 Estate and worked my side of the crowd. The flowery perfume and spicy resinous aroma’s of this vineyard were in full bloom and the wine lingered with a lovely, velvety dried bing cherry finish. After sauntering between salmon bakers, pouring my magnum for several prominent sommeliers, wine writers, and winemakers the bottle was nearly drained. I felt completely content and accomplished. I had eaten the best food, period! I learned an enormous amount about Pinot Noir (and its secret life of sparkling). I made a few new friends and quite a few new business connections, sometimes both. But most importantly I had a chance to taste some of THE BEST wines this world has to offer and then was able to share one myself. At this point it was late in the evening, my feet hurt, and I was all talked out. It was a beautiful star lit night in the oak grove and as I sat and listened to the laughter wafting on the breeze I decided to enjoy the last bit of the ‘02 Estate …this time careful not to spit.

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From the Tasting Room - Screw Top Lids

Screw Top Lids

So what about those convenient screw-top lids?

Anyone who has been around for four decades knows that cheap wine comes with screw top caps and should be drunk while camouflaged in a brown paper bag. Indeed, most of us started with the sweet, inexpensive wines to which we added ice cubes and mixers. Today, a revolution is underway in the wine industry. No longer does screw cap mean cheap wine. Many Australian, California, and even some Oregon wineries are using screw caps on premium wines that cost as much as $140 per bottle!

The screw cap is an extremely consistent and efficient method to seal a bottle of wine. It is also inexpensive, but this technology is still young. There are no 20-year old Bordeaux wines or even 10-year old Oregon wines to attest to the historical success of the screw cap. No one really knows how the screw cap will affect the wine long term.

Panels of expert judges have taste-tested the same wine sealed with natural cork and screw caps. There is no clear consensus as to which is better. Some experts claim to taste a difference while others do not.

Bottles sealed with natural corks have a failure rate of 1-3%. A defective cork may allow air into the bottle to spoil the wine and/or wine to leak out. The industry recognizes this fact but simply accepts it as a cost of business. With screw caps the failure rate is about nil.

There is another indisputable fact--romance, ambiance and tradition surrounds the opening of a bottle of wine. When the waiter approaches your dinner table with the chosen bottle, the evening takes on a magic essence. The waiter brandishes his cork screw and carefully removes the cork. The cork is carefully examined and sniffed while the wine is poured into a glass to be examined, sniffed and tasted. The moment of truth is at hand....

Compare that to—Creeek! Glug, glug. Your wine, sir. Ever try sniffing a plastic and aluminum screw top lid?

Tune in next decade, folks, for the next thrilling episode....

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