Boedecker Cellars

Hang on to your hats

2011-09-28T16:33:00.000-07:00

Here's the time of the year when every grape grower in the Willamette Valley gets nervous. It's the time of impending weather system change.

Here's the snapshot at 4:30 pm from the NOAA satellite. This shows the water vapor over the Eastern Pacific ocean.

Note that the big patch of clear high pressure off the Northern CA coast is starting to disintegrate. If you watch the animated set of images, you can see that the weather systems are still being shunted up to B.C., but weather is starting to encroach, wholesale, on Oregon now. THIS IS NOT a reason to panic.

In 2008, we saw this sort of threatening weather pattern sitting around for 3 1/2 weeks before the rains finally came. We'll certainly get some showers, but the vineyards are ready to take a bit of moisture (leaves pulled out of the fruit zone, last sprays on). I'll just focus on getting the winery ready to go, and see what happens. It'll be fine.

Final prep-work nip and tuck in vyd

2011-09-20T12:44:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, I made one last swing through sites to make decisions on the last tweaks to crop loads, leaf removal, and canopy management before the "Great Wait 2011". The pix below were taken on Sept 16th at four of our vineyards.

Barring a little leaf removal and some light thinning passes that happened yesterday and today, the vineyards are in pristine shape to just sit in the sun and slowly ripen and develop flavor over the next 6 weeks.

Tasting through the 2010 wines last week got me excited for another late fall. Even without calendar days between bloom and harvest, there's something about the late picking years that produces dark, layered, interesting flavors!

Above: The Walnut Hill site high in the Eola-Amity Hills (~550 ft, okay, so it's high for Oregon). Color change at 50-60%. Best guess harvest date Oct 27th.

Above: Stoller Vineyard at the South tip of the Dundee Hills. This block is on the West side of the vineyard. Planted to 667 clone. Maybe 40% color here.

Above: The block of 115 clone at Stoller Vineyard. Much better color progression here. Probably 60-75% on average.

Above: Hirschy Vineyard in Yamhill-Carlton. This is our block of 114 clone Pinot Noir. This was about 95% colored up. This will likely be our first pick of 2011...Oct 23rd?

Above: Wadenswil block at Shea Vineyard. Maybe 50% color. Would expect nothing less from the aromatrically beautiful, but late ripening, clone.

Above: Block 11 at Shea Vineyard (Dijon 115 clone). Note how the clusters are hanging out in the breeze after an excellent round of leaf removal. The airflow in and around the clusters will help the fruit dry out and resist the development of rot if/when we get rain before harvest.

Below: Sometimes I have to defocus a bit and realize the beauty of where I'm standing. This was taken from the middle of one of our blocks at Stoller Vineyard.

Not easy been green - fighting the waves of angst

2011-09-09T10:24:00.000-07:00

After seeing a few bits of color at Hirschy Vineyard on Monday (thanks again, John & Linda for hosting all of us) and after looking at the sunny, warm forecast for the rest of Sept, you might think that my mood might be buoyed....and then I drove out to vineyards again yesterday for a reality check and a dose of winemaker angst.

I hit higher elevation sites and cooler sites and saw a sea of green berries. This IS NOT surprising, as we pick at hot sites like Hirschy usually 3-10 days ahead of sites like our Walnut Hill vyineyard (below).

Still, there's something unnerving about driving in the Willamette Valley on Sept 8th and not seeing any fully colored Pinot Noir. At Stoller Vineyard, things seem equally behind our normal schedule. Stoller Vineyard is a very counter-intuitive site to me. It is fairly low elevation, and the vineyard is on the South tip of the Dundee Hills, with dead-on South facing. However, it's always one of the last sites we pick each year - My theory is that it cools off more quickly in the evening as the cool air from the nearby Willamette River banks up the sides of the vineyard. This slow finish is what makes it one of my favorite sites, but in cool years like this, it's one of the sites that makes me nervous. If we have dry weather into November, I can easily see waiting until Nov 3-5 to pick here.

We really are headed for an Oct 25 + harvest window, even with this bit of spectacular Sept weather. Nothing to do now, but sit back and enjoy the beautiful weather while we wait. No worries - I'm very optimistic about another slow cool finish delivering delicate, beautiful flavors this fall.

Why this one photo makes me happy

2011-09-06T15:11:00.000-07:00

Oh, so this is a little over the top, but that one pink berry in the photo below brings a smile to my face and a huge rush of relief, angst, and anticipation all rolled into one.

That little pink berry was the first Pinot Noir berry I saw with some color this year. For those of you thinking to yourselves, "Wait. I thought they were harvesting in Burgundy?", you're correct. France was very warm and early this year - about as early as we are late. This picture was taken on 9/1. By today, this same cluster should be a mottled harlequin with mostly dark berries and just a few green ones left. Using the standard rule of ~ 50 days from veraison (color change) to harvest, that means Boedecker Cellars will likely start picking on October 25th.

Yes. October 23-25th is likely the start of Pinot Noir harvest in Oregon this year. For those of you, like us, who grew up in the Pacific Northwest, I bet you can count the number of dry, warm Halloweens you've experienced on one hand. Even with the exceptionally nice September weather it looks like we'll enjoy, this year will be a nail-biter in Oregon.

Keep in mind, 2008 (the Oregon "Vintage of the decade") was almost as late, and with the same dry weather this year, we can get the same result - complex, deep flavors combined with fantastic texture. We just need the Jet Stream to keep those Pacific storms pointed at our friends in B.C. (sorry guys) for an extra few weeks this year.

For those who want to watch the developing weather patterns with me, I highly recommend NOAA's satellite website. This is millions of dollars of U.S. tax money at work for you - cool stuff! Below is the current snapshot of water vapor patterns in the Eastern Pacific.

Making up ground at Stanton Vineyard

2011-08-29T12:43:00.000-07:00

As I sit looking at a 70 degree late- August day, I have to think "Well, we could have hurricane-force winds" and wish my cohorts in Virginia and New York's Long Island the best. Late October harvest dates in Oregon are definitely better than grapes blown all over the ground in August.

That said, with last week's even, perfectly mid-80s temperatures, we've finally caught back up to 2010. Sort of. We're on the 2010 pace from the standpoint of physiological progression - seeds are all hardened up, shoot tip growth has almost stopped, and the start of veraison is likely days, not weeks, away. The vines are switching over from growing more leaves to ripening the fruit. From an overall heat unit standpoint, though, we're still behind 2010, and we're still on track for the coolest overall vintage in decades.

It's never boring making Pinot Noir here. I can't imagine anywhere else in the U.S. where we can get completely different seasons every year and still produce wines with fantastic depth and complexity. We are so lucky, we can even go out foraging for Morels while we wait for the Pinot Noir to mature.

STANTON VINEYARD

I spent some time recently in down in the Lorane Valley (SE of Eugene) at Stanton Vineyard. Charlie Stanton's fruit is truly beautiful and unique. The vineyard sits up on top of a little knoll with fantastic clear views from SE all the way to the Coast Range (read "All day sunshine"). The soils are rocky with sandstone subsoils - truly different than all our other Pinot Noir sites.

Here are some pictures of the vineyard right after the final hedging of the year:

Note how nice and moderately sized the clusters are? The higher elevation pushed bloom date at this site into a bit of sketchier weather, which led to a poorer set than other places where we're dropping literally 1/2 of the fruit on the ground. What does the lighter set mean? To some extent, it just means there's less thinning to do at Stanton than elsewhere. As an added bonus, the clusters are a little looser, reducing disease pressure later in the season.

For a last inspiring, sunny photo, here's a shot looking West from the top of the Stanton Vineyard. Smaller vines in the foreground are new plantings that'll start bearing a crop in 2012
.

Time for green harvest 2011

2011-08-24T15:55:00.000-07:00

Well, we now know that we had an absolutely perfect bloom and fantastic fruit set this year. Most of our Pinot Noir is sitting at 5.5-6.5 tons per acre, an amazingly perfect conversion of flowers into grapes. Unfortunately, we couldn't hope to ripen that much fruit in the best of years (especially when we're defining ripeness by flavor). Even our brothers and sisters to the South can't do that. So, what do we do? We go through every vineyard and cut tons of fruit off the vines. This is all hand-harvesting of clusters, so it's slow and expensive...and it makes a farmer cry when all that fruit lands in the dirt.

But this is the price we pay for wanting to harvest before the late fall rains come. Right now, we're anticipating picking the FIRST of our Pinot Noir sometime around Oct 25th. That's about 1 month later than normal and easily 2 weeks past my comfort zone. Late Oct harvests can produce spectacular vintages (e.g., 2008), but I cannot remember too many Halloweens when we hadn't seen substantial rainfall. And that's what we're talking about this year - Picking between Oct 25 and Nov 1!! Hang on to your hats, folks.

Don't get me wrong, this is the type of year I love - It's full of challenge, and it rewards those who make the tough decisions and who decide to put in extra effort to coax delicate Pinot Noir clusters to ripeness. We're all talking to each other and nervously commenting "This vintage will be made in October", but we're all farmers. We'd show an unimaginable degree of hubris if we weren't worried about something. Five years from now, we'll hopefully all look back with much more machismo on how we stood up to the coldest vintage in Oregon since 1976....

In the mean time, check out photos of the vineyards below. The upside of the cool, even weather is canopies that are dark emerald green and operating at maximum photosynthetic capacity. We could end up being surprised - All it'll take is a few above-average weeks in Sep, and we'll pull in harvest by a week...which is all we really need.

Shea Vineyard snapshot:

Perfect weather during flowering led to a perfect fruit set. All the clusters are big, tight, and heavy.

Estimates this week were that we had ~ 5.5 tons per acre, even after our 25% crop reduction earlier in the month. We're moving forward with a 40% reduction in clusters this week! Even in a warmer year, we can truly ripen maybe 2.75 tons per acre from Shea (physiologically & phenolically). If we leave the 5.5 tpa on the vines now, we'll end up with a lot of fruit, but it won't lead to complex interesting wines. So, even though we're paying by the acre, on the ground it goes.

Walnut Hill snapshot:

The vineyard we're leasing on Walnut Hill is managed by Stiring Fox and his crew at Stirling Wine Grapes. At this site, the set wasn't quite as perfect (see variation in berry size below), but there's still plenty of fruit.

Here, we're taking a bit more of a manicure approach to thinning. We'll be reducing the number of clusters on the very heavy-set vines mostly by cleaning up "crowded" areas where clusters are bound together or overlapping and by eliminating all of the wings. Again here, we'll come back in 2-3 weeks and drop the clusters that are lagging as we hit veraison and things color up.

Growing season catching up, lifting spirits

2011-07-14T15:48:00.000-07:00

The warm weather we've been enjoying over the last couple weeks is taking a bit of a hiatus today, but the vineyards are catching up very quickly from where we were just a month ago. My own personal barometer in Portland is my tomato garden. I now have little Sun Golds ripening away - This is a couple of weeks earlier than 2010!

I was up in Cherry Grove Vineyard last night, and the progress there has been phenomenal. Third catch wires are all up, and the vineyard is ready for the first hedging pass. More importantly, bloom happened very quickly - Bob Van Steenberg told me that Cherry Grove went from 5% to full bloom within just a couple of days last week. This is great news, as it means we've made up another few days of the schedule.

Even if we have the rather luke-warm summer a la 2010, we still will start harvesting Pinot Noir by Oct 20th or so. If we get the even warmer weather that's currently in the medium-range forecast, we'll be back to a mid-Oct start.

Don't get me wrong here. I'm happy for the cool growing season and late fall. Athena and I have been tasting through our 2010 wines in barrel ahead of summer racking. We're finding a wonderful range of ripe flavors on a light frame with brightness and length. These wines are the poster children for cool climate Pinot Noir - It's why we're here! My heart, however, loves the bit more certainty that we won't start picking in November this year.

Results from mini-vertical of Boedecker Cellars Pinot Noirs

2011-06-27T14:51:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, June 25th, we held a lightly structured mini-vertical tasting of our wines from 2003-2008. Athena and I would like to thank everyone who participated, as you gave us the reason to taste more of our wines side by side than we had ever done before.

Overall verdicts:
- All the wines still had fabulous fruit and amazing vibrancy
- For the "Do wines age in Stelvin?" crowd, yes, the wines had matured similarly to wines in premium cork finish bottles...and not a single bottle out of all 40 bottles was flawed.
- Leave the 2008 and 2007 wines in bottle for a while longer. They're delicious, but still tightly wound.
- 2003 Pinots are finally tasting integrated. The fruit is still huge, and they are a riper style of Pinot, but they are approaching a state of balance now.
- Of all the wines, only the '04s were starting to show those cool flavor notes and aromatics you only get in aged Pinot Noir. I'm very excited to taste these again in 3-4 years when the foreground fruit drops back a little further.
- No one should be in a hurry to drink any of these wines. Certainly, they're enjoyable, but none of the wines are "peaking" yet. (The '05s and '06s are soooo delicious, it's difficult to resist opening them.)

Here's the ranking from 30 people at our "When we have time every couple of years" vertical tasting. Wines are shown in order of crowd preference. [Note: All wines were decanted for 4-5 hours prior to tasting.]

Flight 1: Athena & Stewart Pinot Noirs

2005 Stewart (Athena's personal "right now" favorite)
2006 Stewart
2005 Athena
2004 Stewart (Stewart's personal "right now" favorite)
2004 Athena
2007 Athena

Flight 2: Vineyard Designate Pinot Noirs [all very close in ranking]

2004 Momtazi
2004 Stoller
2008 Cherry Grove
2006 Momtazi
2008 Stoller
2007 Cherry Grove

Bonus Flight: 2003 Stewart& Athena - The wines that started it all
- As I state above, the wines from our premiere vintage in 2003 are just to the point where Athena and I think they are in balance. This was such an atypical vintage for Oregon, we weren't sure how they would age. Pleasingly enough, they are developing nuance with age while maintaining plenty of that juicy, powerful fruit.

Test Google Earth Tour of Boedecker Cellars' Vineyards

2011-06-23T16:10:00.000-07:00

Test run of embedded Google Earth Tour

Ending the blogger's block

2011-06-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

Trying to overcome the internal editor of the mind and just start writing again is always difficult. Especially today when so many others are writing, it's hard to get passed the "someone else is probably already writing about this" blockage. So folks, stick with me as I try to get back on the Vintage 2011 documentation horse.

OK, so how has 2011 been in Oregon so far? Well, it's been wet and cold. Even with summer weather finally arriving this week, we're running ~ 4 weeks behind normal, and even 7-10 days behind 2010. That's a little scary, since we didn't start harvesting Pinot Noir until Oct 20th last year. But, it's early days here in the Willamette Valley, and we can catch up.

Also, if I look at the other recent vintages that ran late into October (e.g., 2008, 2010), I'll take the extra stress about weather if I can get the beautiful flavors and aromatics that we get during the slow, cool years. Although it's overstated, Pinot Noir really is a cool weather varietal. The nuance and transparent beauty we get here in Oregon during the stressful vintages cannot be beat.

More on vineyards and progress to come soon. Also, we're hosting a mini-vertical tasting at the winery this weekend. I'll try to post tasting notes ASAP.

Crop Estimation for 2010 Pinot Noir

2010-09-07T12:46:00.000-07:00

Appologies for late posting. Video upload problems last week:

Aug 26, 2010

While folks in Northern California are actually starting to pick some fruit, we're still about 40-50 days from picking in Oregon. The mild spring and early summer weather led to late bloom and slow maturation. This means we'll begin picking in mid-October this year.

Because we're so late, and likely pushing up against rain at the end, accurate crop estimation and adjustment of fruit per vine is very important this year. Crop load differences of 2.5 tons per acre vs 3.2 tons per acre can be the difference between luscious, flavorful Pinot Noir and bland washed out fruit when we have to pick on Oct 30th.

Ideally, vines grow in balance. The fruit set matches the vine's ability to ripen grapes to an optimal balance of flavor, acids, and tannins. In cool years like 2010, however, we'll work to speed up ripening by dropping 10-30% of the fruit in August. When we're looking at picking in late October, reaching maturity 3-4 days earlier can make all the difference. So we take a bit of a hit on total crop in exchange for quality.
Here's a quick video demonstrating crop estimation in our Three Trees Lane vineyard:

Early-spring in Eola-Amity

2010-08-06T11:43:00.000-07:00

OK, so the post below shows the vineyard in July. Here's what it looked like in March:

It turns out my ability to predict shade hasn't panned out yet...but I maintain by late-Sept. we'll see shadows out into the blocks. Stay tuned here to find out.

July walk through Eola-Amity Estate

2010-08-06T11:37:00.000-07:00

I took a quick walk through our new estate vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills on Saturday. Fruit set looked good, and the vineyard looked pristine. Thanks much to Stirling Fox and the folks at SWIG!

Winter time to write & time to start ML

2009-12-16T14:47:00.000-08:00

Really, I just need to write this on a regular basis, but it's always difficult to get started. Here's my new goal - write a little bit every day regardless of what's happening. Edit and publish the next morning.

For those of you not in Oregon, we just went through the longest, coldest winter snap on record. It's warmer now, but here's a quick indication of how cold it was here (those of you in cold climates, pardon our whining about the cold):

We finally started to heat up the winery this week in order to push the '09 Pinot Noirs through the malolactic fermentation. Most years, we would be well on the way to finished with ML by now, but we delayed the start a bit this year in order to get the winery a bit more cleaned up before the giant shuffle.

At the end of harvest, all the wines are in one barrel room, tightly packed together in the chilly (hopefully) ambient temp. That's all the current vintage Pinot Noir and whites and previous vintage Pinot Noir. Before we start to warm up the barrel room, we have to move all the previous vintage Pinot Noir out to the frigid wintery unheated side of the winery (the fermentation side during harvest). In deference to good winemaking practices, this means that we have to get the ferment side cleaned up, get the floors scrubbed and get the drains cleaned first.

More later on how we use temp control in the winemaking. ...Hopefully some more on native ferments, unfiltered wines, and "natural winemaking"

Harvest 09 Wrap Up Post

2009-11-12T11:41:00.000-08:00

Forgot to post this last week.

Wow. OK. So my blogging never quite recovered from my sales trip to NYC in the middle of harvest. Lots of grapes, more than we've ever done before. Fantastic!

Here's the final story on Boedecker Cellars Harvest 2009 by the numbers:

Tons of Pinot Noir - 60.5 --> 153 barrels & 2 puncheons & 3 kegs

Tons of Whites - 19.5

Gallons Rose ~ 300

First grapes into the winery: Hirschy Vineyard, Block C - Sep 22nd

Last grapes into the winery: Momtazi Vineyard, Block C - Oct 12th

In comparison, 2008 - PN 44 tons, Whites 14.5

We barrelled down the last Pinot Noir on Nov 6th. White wines are still ticking away.

Vintage of the decade?

Strong words and bold pronouncement, I know. But this was a fantastic year for ripeness. We did more whole cluster Pinot Noir ferments than ever before, as we had great phenolic ripeness. Every bit of PN going to barrel was ripe, complex, and like a sea of bing cherries. Most importantly, warm, even ripening weather allowed us to procrastinate and pick each site at the peak of distinctiveness. In two years, this could be called the vintage of the decade.

2009 White wines will set a new benchmark in Oregon. Flavors were ripe without excessive sugar, and deep, rich stone fruit flavors dominated everything. We took advantage from our "experiment" in 2008 and switched over to 12-18 hour skin contact on all of our Pinot Gris this year. The complex, interesting and overwhelmingly cool aromatics that resulted converted me from a "Oh yeah, Pinot Gris, whatever" person to a "Wow! I love Pinot Gris" fanatic. You'll see later this spring...

The folks at the Oregon Wine Board were kind enough to send out some seed questions for all of us. Below are a few of my reflections from this fall:

2009 Harvest Reflections

How did this year's weather affect you?

The heat spike in August pulled a few things forward in ripeness, so we started on Sep 22nd, about one week ahead of normal. Our last pick came in on Oct 12th, right before the big rains started. (pretty close to average timing for our last pick.) The generally even warm weather through the summer pushed phenolic ripeness with more brown stems and seeds than I've seen in years. We used a lot more whole cluster fruit this year in ferments due to the fact that everything came in looking very clean and nicely ripe.

How are acid and sugar levels?

Sugars on some younger blocks came in a little high due to some raisining induced by the last big heat spike. Overall, the acidity matched the ripe flavors very well, providing crispness and freshness but not hiding the dark, bing-cherry-like flavors in the Pinot Noir. Based on initial analysis of malic levels, these wines will pick up significant richness as they progress through malolactic fermentation this winter.

What are the emerging flavor profiles for the fruit?

White wines are spectacular this year, with everything showing ripe stone-fruit flavors. I'm espcially excited by Pinot Gris (which rarely excites me) and Pinot Blanc. Regardless of site, these wines are showing some beautiful apricot and peach notes. The heat did not seem to affect the acidity much in the whites. Even though the flavors are ripe, the acidity is bright and balanced. 2009 should be a standout year for white wine in Oregon.

Pinot Noirs are inky, dark, and very layered coming out of ferment. Fruit notes are very dark and ripe overall, but the vintage is not as prone to black-fruit and plum notes as, say 2006. Dark cherry and black currant aromas and flavors jump out of the glass right now. Tannins are firmer than 2008, which is a good thing given the overall "bigness" of the wines. Overall, these wines will drink well on release in 2011/2012 and are built for aging , as well.

How would you characterize yields? What is your forecast for tonnage this year?

We came in ~ 10% over projected tonnage. Some was due to larger than forecasted cluster. Some was due to extra fruit coming on the market. When Dick Shea asks if I want more fruit, generally my answer is "Yes, how much can I have?"

Extras
Oh yeah. Here's a quick flic. of my ferry ride from NJ to Manhattan. While I was enjoying this view, Athena and the crew were sortion our last 10 tons of PN, pressing a bunch of Pinot Gris, and barrelling down the first Pinot Noir ferments.

Boedecker Cellars Harvest Day 13

2009-10-12T20:21:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we hit the middle of harvest and, well, just don't quite have time to do laundry. Athena was the first to launch high fashion week in the winery this year.

Seriously, we hit the middle of fruit processing and it's non-stop Pinot Noir every day. All the fruit's looking fantastic, but there are always a few leaves to pluck out of the bins.

Boedecker Cellars Harvest 09 Day 12

2009-10-12T19:58:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, the whole cluster ferments can be impossible to punch down with anything other than feet. Seriously...we tried for 20 mins to get through the cap of this fermenter before someone just went in and took care of it.

Boedecker Cellars Harvest 09 Days 9-11

2009-09-29T08:58:00.003-07:00

Yeah. So I fell a little behind. It's been busy around the winery over the last couple of days. Lots of picking and picking decisions...More details later today.

Last walk through Shea Vineyard on 9/27. Finally decided to pick on Friday morning. Even with this little misting, the fruit is ripe, tannins are great, and it's ready to come in. I'm glad I pushed my original pick date so far out.

On the same day, I took a quick trip down to Holmes Gap Vineyard, too. The vineyard looks great, and we'll be pulling in all the Pinot Noir and the Pinot Gris by the end of this week.
On the winery side of the equation, I took some quick snaps of the sorting line crew while we were sorting fruit from Cherry Grove, Hirschy, and Shea vineyards. In both the Cherry Grove Pommard and the Shea 777, we decided to go with a 30% whole cluster ferment. We still sort the fruit, but you'll see how we pull the destemmer back to let the whole clusters fall straight into the fermenter.

Boedecker Cellars Harvest 09 Days 9-11

2009-09-29T08:58:00.001-07:00

Yeah. So I fell a little behind. It's been busy around the winery over the last couple of days. Lots of picking and picking decisions...More details later today.

Boedecker Cellars Harvest 09 Day 8

2009-09-25T11:08:00.000-07:00

Athena and I took a little break from the action last night and poured some fantastic Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris sangria cocktails at the Jupiter Hotel's Indulge fundraiser for the Ecotrust Farm to School program. Fantastic food and bevs from everyone there!

On the winery side, we brought in another block from Hirschy vineyard yesterday. Fruit is now quietly cold-soaking in the winery.

We'll be busy this afternoon with fruit from Shea, Cherry Grove, and Hirschy. Look for some new pix and videos tonight.

Boedecker Cellars Harvest 09 Day 7

2009-09-24T10:24:00.000-07:00

OK, so change of plans. This is where I drive my ever-patient growers crazy, but it's where we make the difference between good Pinot Noir and great Pinot Noir.

After sampling through Cherry Grove Vineyard last night, I was somewhat sure we were going to pick Block 8 on Friday. After bringing the samples back, however, Athena and I both agreed that the flavors just weren't ready. Since this is such a fantastic block, and since Bob Van Steenberg has kept the vineyard looking very clean, we're going to leave Block 8 for another 5 days or so.

Here's a quick video of me talking smack about how it's ready to go....before I got back to the winery and changed my mind.

It looks like next week is going to get very busy. There is a small amount of Botrytis in most vineyards, and we now have some cold weather and rain/showers in the forecast for mid-week.

Here's my new picking forecast:

Today, Sep 24th
Hirschy Vineyard, Block D (667/777)
Friday, Sep 25th
Cherry Grove Vineyard, Block 3 (Pommard)
- Picking just every other row here
Shea Vineyard, Block 30 (777)
Monday, Sep 28th
Stoller Vineyard, Block 61.3 (115)
Wednesday, Sep 30th
Stoller Vineyard, Block 61.1 (667)

Up in the air (sometime Mon-Wed)
Shea Vineyard, Block 11
Carlton Hill Vineyard
Cherry Grove Vineyard, Blocks 3, 7, & 8

Boedecker Cellars Harvest 09 Day 6

2009-09-23T08:15:00.000-07:00

Abbreviated update again today, as I'm mobile more than not.

Great first day of Pinot processing yesterday with 1.65 tons of fruit from Hirschy Vineyard. Athena posted some good pix on the Boedecker Cellars Facebook page.

I headed up to Buttonfield vineyard late yesterday (great sunset) to check out our Old Vine Pinot Gris. The vineyard looks fantastic (I'd expect nothing less from a vineyard owned and managed by Stirling Fox). Sugars are at ~ 25 Brix, which would usually scream "Pick now", but the flavors are still pretty green. I think we'll try to put off that pick until early next week. I'll head up to resample on Sunday.

Today I'm headed to Stoller and Cherry Grove Vineyeards. More pix, vids, and numbers later today. Athena's in the winery all day with our first fermenter full of fruit!

Boedecker Cellars Harvest 09 Day 5

2009-09-22T10:20:00.000-07:00

Quick update this morning, as we have fruit on a truck right now!

Spent yesterday getting the winery ready to go and worked on a bit of sales. Athena in PDX, me in Seattle.

The fantastic weather continues today. It's nice that the projected heat has moderated a bit. This hot, dry weather will push ripeness along on the blocks that are lagging and won't stress out the vineyards that are close to ripe.

Picking schedule for this week:

Tues, Sep 22 - Block C (114) Hirschy Vineyard
Thurs, Sep 24 - Block D (667 & 777) Hirschy Vineyard
Fri, Sep 25 - Block 30 (777) Shea Vineyard
Block 8 (667 & 777) Cherry Grove Vineyard
1/2 Block 3 (every other row) Cherry Grove Vineyard

The rest is too far out right now. More sampling tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday.

Boedecker Cellars Harvest 09 Day 4 (Cont)

2009-09-20T17:57:00.000-07:00

I spent the morning and early afternoon out sampling a few more of our sites. Shea and Cherry Grove Vineyards are generally early sites, so I wanted to ensure that I stayed on top of ripening curves at both places.

Cherry Grove Vineyard:

Nice serenades from the bird screamers today as I walked through.

Block 3, Pommard Clone: dark-ish pink color. Very tart cherry flavors. 22.8 Brix
Block 8, 667 clone: Purple color. dilute purple cherries & tea notes. 23 Brix
Block 8, 777 clone: Dark pink/red. Straw notes mixed with cherries. 23.6 Brix
Block 6, 114 clone: Pink. Rich green strawberries/straw. 21.2 Brix
Block 7, Wadenswil: Pink. very tart. 20.4 Brix

Tentative Pick Dates:
Friday, Sep 25th: Pick Block 8W & 8E. Pick every other row of Block 3
I'll go to the vineyard on Wednesday, Sep 23rd to confirm
Tues, Sep 29th: Pick rest of Block 3

Block 6 -- Don't know yet. 10+ days
Block 7 -- Don't know yet. 14+ days

Shea Vineyard:

Block 30, West Hill, 777 clone: 24.0 Brix, Purple juice, brown stems and seeds, green tea notes on rich cherry fruit. Nice brightness in the acid structure still to lengthen flavors.
Tentative Pick: Wed or Friday
Block11, East Hill, 115 clone: 24.0 Brix, dark pink juice, rich cherry and tea flavors, bright acidity.
Tentative Pick: Sun/Mon

Anderson Family Vineyard:

Chardonnay: 21.6 Brix, dark green juice, honey-soaked hay flavors Probably 2 weeks from picking

South Block Pinot Noir: 19.8 Brix, very well-developed flavors for such low sugar levels. This should be spectacular once it ripens. Probably 2 weeks from picking.

First White Grapes?

On top of all this, I got a call from Stirling Fox, whose Buttonfield Vineyard Pinot Gris makes up our Old Vine PG. He's pretty sure his Pinot Gris will be ready to pick by mid-week. I need to get up there now to check it out. This is a bit earlier than I anticipated for white grapes, but it's all good. If the fruit's ready to go, it's time to fire up the press.

Boedecker Cellars Harvest 09 Day 4

2009-09-20T17:49:00.000-07:00

Lots of new info on vineyard status. Charlie Stanton brought up samples from his Eugene vinyard yesterday, and, wow, it's much farther along than I thought it would be, especially the Pinot Blanc.

Stanton Vinyard, 9/19 samples
Pinot Blanc
Brix: 19.1
pH: 3.12
Juice color: dark green
Flavors: honeyed grape stems
The flavor development was much further along than either I or Charlie thought it would be. This is going to be some spectacular Pinot Blanc!

Pinot Noir (4th Leaf section)
Brix: 20.2
pH: 3.38
Juice color: dark pink
Flavors: dark strawberry/cherry

Pinot Noir (5th Leaf section)
Brix: 20.4
pH: 3.35
Juice color: pink
Flavors: strawberry, straw, green cherries

Both blocks of Pinot Noir are showing nice depth of flavor already. I'm really excited about this year in this vineyard.

In other news, we also launched our new wine club at the Open House yesterday. Feel like we're finally able to give back to our supporters. It was great to have a chance to talk to everyone, too.

More to come later today once I test the samples I collected this morning...

Boedecker Cellars Harvest 09 Day 3

2009-09-18T18:22:00.001-07:00

Don't forget to stop by our Open House Saturday, Sept 19th, 2pm-5pm It's the sneak preview of our 2007 Pinots and the last chance to see me and Athena before we disappear into the winery until November.

Quick updates today. Lots of sunshine pushing ripeness. Made a quick run out to the valley to pick up some last minute supplies (fermenters, barrel racks) and check out progress at Hirschy Vineyard.
Block C (Dijon 114): 26.5 Br, 3.59 pH, some raisining. Want to pick this first.
Block D (Dijon 777): 23.8 Br, 3.33 pH, still tart. Want some more sunshine
Block D (Dijon 667): 25.0 Br, 3.31 pH, ditto.

I'm calling the crew right now to set up a Tuesday pick for the Block C fruit and a Thursday pick for the Block D fruit. Hopefully, we can bring in Block 30 from Shea on Thursday, too.

Just of note, the first fruit of the year came into the facility last night. Not ours, but one of our clients, Anne, brought in some Syrah from Eastern Washington. This was a nice surpise, as it allowed us to get the equipment up and running.

Boedecker Cellars Harvest 09 Day 2

2009-09-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

OK, I admit it, Yesterday's rain freaked me out a little. Not that it was too material, but just the fact that it was quite a bit more moisture than originally forecast reminds me that I'm in Oregon during September. The marginal weather makes it one of the top spots in the world for Pinot Noir, but it wreaks havoc on planning. We can go from "Sure, we'll pick that block in 10 days" to "Pick it tomorrow!" or "Well, now we need to wait 5-7 days for it to dry out". It's all part of the fun.

Fall Weather in Oregon

Here's a current satellite image from the NOAA web site: This image shows the water vapor in the atmosphere. Note the dry region South of the Northern Willamette . The swirling high pressure system off the OR/CA border is what keeps us dry (shunts the Jet Stream and most of the weather North to WA and B.C.). As soon as that high pressure system falls apart in late October, it's nothing but rain until April.

Prep work in the winery

While we wait for our first fruit to come in, there's plenty to do in the winery. Athena was working until midnight last night, cleaning, organizing, and getting everything ready to go. Her paranoia about schedule is what keeps us from having to scramble once Pinot starts to show up. The next few days are all about pressure washing, scrubbing, and test firing all the equipment.

Open House this Saturday, Sep 19

We're also hosting our Pre-release sneak preview of our 2007 Pinot Noirs this Saturday from 2-6 pm. Stop by to taste these absolutely stunning wines (we'll be pouring Stewart , Athena, and all 4 single vineyard bottlings). This will be everyone's last chance to taste them until we release them starting in January 2010.

Boedecker Cellars Harvest 09 Day 1

2009-09-16T12:21:00.000-07:00

With our first fruit sampling officially done now, Boedecker Cellars Harvest '09 is "Officially" underway. Athena and I will be updating the blog, Facebook, and Twitter now until the last of the wine is in barrel sometime in November. I'm excited to get harvest going!

2009 is shaping up into a fantastic vintage. The cool nights are keeping acidity bright, and the warm days are pushing ripening along. The most exciting thing is the degree of phenolic ripeness in seeds, skins, and stems. This could be a very lush, round, velvety year for Oregon Pinot. I love this! Vintage variation is why I'm making wine in Oregon instead of someplace easier like CA.

OK, on to numbers and harvest date predictions

Hirschy Vinyard: Sampled Friday, 9/11
Vineyard looking very clean and beautiful
Block C (Dijon 114) 24.1 Brix
Ripe flavors, but a little diluted from the rains. Pretty back notes.
Block D (Dijon 667) 23.8 Brix
Black color! Dark blackberry, oolong tea, and notes. Almost there.
Block D (Dijon 777) 23.7 Brix
Pretty red-fruited notes, cherries, red currant, diluted from rains.
Stewart's Prediction: Picking all of it Tues 9/22 or Wed 9/23

Shea Vinyard: Sampled Tuesday, 9/16
A little bit of raisining due to splitting after the rains. We're picking ahead of next rains, but there's nothing to worry about.
Block 1 (Dijon 115) 23.2 Brix
Green notes on the nose, banana and strawberry in the mouth. Needs more time.
Block 30 (Dijon 777) 24.0, pH 3.24. I didn't sample this, but Drew (Shea's winemaker) was kind enough to share his numbers from the same block.
Stewart's Prediction: Picking Block 30 Wed 9/23 or Thurs 9/24, Block 11 Fri 9/25 or Sat 9/26

Here's a short clip from Shea yesterday:

Walk through Boedecker Cellars blocks at Hirschy Vineyard

2009-09-13T10:05:00.000-07:00

Hirschy Vineyard on Sep 12th.

Athena and I went out for our first afternoon of cluster sampling. Unfortunately, I forgot to check battery level in the Flip before we left, so there's just a short bit of video of us walking through Block C (Dijon 114).

The sugars are definitely developing here, but the flavors are still a ways off. I'm glad for the cooler weather forecasted this week, as I'd like to slow down sugar accumulation and the slight raisining we're starting to see in some sections.

The torrential rains last week definitely plumped up berries and diluted the pulp, too. There are a few split berries where cluster swelling crushed a few grapes, but everything looks very clean. No worries of disease pressure here.

Harvest prediction -- Tuesday, Sep 22. First fruit into the winery!!

2009-09-13T09:54:00.000-07:00

Punchdown Pal demo

Our good friend Charles Alexander has been working on developing a safe, light, and portable platform we can use when doing punchdowns in our small, 1.5 ton fermenters. Here's a quick look at the original prototype and the official Rev 1 Punchdown Pal.

Vineyards - Sep 4 '09

2009-09-07T09:40:00.000-07:00

I made a quick run out to a couple of vineyards ahead of the Labor Day weekend rains.

Momtazi Vineyard - Things are looking good. Veraison seems very even, and the vineyard will definitely appreciate the quick soaking from the weekend. Estimated pick date = Oct 10.

Hirschy Vineyard - Certainly the furthest ahead of any of our sites. The canopy looks fantastic and there's sweetness in the fruit! I'm guessing we'll pick this by Sept 17th if we really get the forecasted warm weather over the next week.

Harvest 09-1 First post in the BC Harvest open book videos

2009-09-01T23:08:00.000-07:00

OK, so I have to come up with a better title for this. Someone help me out here. The idea is that I'm going to post daily video updates (more, if I have time) of everything happening during harvest. No secrets, no hidden winemaker garbage. You'll see everything we do, and I'll try to make some intelligent comments about all of it. Great Pinot is not about secret bs ingredients. It's about great vineyards and not screwing it up in the cellar.

For the first post, since we're not picking for at least a couple of weeks, I have a short video of everyone working tonight in the winery. They're racking (moving) all the '08 Pinots from new barrels over to neutral oak. We like the extra maturity and complexity we get from 18-20 months in barrel, but we don't like oak tea. So we move the wine every summer over to seasoned (previously used 3-4 times) barrels for the last 6-9 months.

Check in at Cherry Grove Vineyard, Sep1 '09

2009-09-01T22:38:00.001-07:00

A quick video of my visit today up to Cherry Grove Vineyard. The place looks fantastic! Bob Van Steenberg has done a great job this year. Every block looks very even, and the canopy is still pumping sugars into the grapes. As I say in the video, we're looking at the last week of September for picking...assuming the cold snap predicted for next week doesn't turn into something major.

Check out the video satellite image of Eastern Pacific water vapor

2009-08-27T13:02:00.000-07:00

I forgot to attach this link to the wider-view Southern Pacific sat shot

First looks at the satellite weather

2009-08-27T12:41:00.000-07:00

It's that time of the year again. Once again, I'll be obsessing over the satellite weather images. To the left is the water vapor image from NOAA's geostationary satellite that sits over the Western Pacific.

Note the streak of clear sky that runs from mid-Pacific off the coast of Mexico up to the Oregon/California coastal border. The terminus point on the coast is where an annual high pressure system sits all summer long, routing the jet stream North toward British Columbia. While this high stays in place, Western Oregon stays mostly warm and dry. The danger point for us is when, sometime during October each year, this high pressure system breaks down. At that point, the jet stream slips down and points every major Pacific storm right at the Willamette Valley.

So between now and our last picking date, I'll be watching for signs that our nice high pressure system is breaking up. When I see that happening, I'll start making calls to growers to set any pick dates I don't already have in place, because once the jet stream slips South, the sun and warmth are pretty much gone.

Boedecker Cellars Walk Through Stanton Vineyard Aug 20 '09

2009-08-26T10:05:00.000-07:00

Stanton Vineyard

This is our only vineyard down near Eugene, and it's also the only site with sandstone substrate below the surface soil. The vineyard's pretty young, but even last year we could see some marked differences in fruit profile from here.

Please bear with the sound levels on this video. I now know that the mic on my Flip is somewhat directional. Charlie Stanton's audio is a bit lost. I'll make some time to get commentary from him in the future, as he'll be joining us for a week or so in the winery this fall.

Boedecker Cellars Walk Through Carlton Hill Vineyard Aug 17 '09

2009-08-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

Another late post. This is a short video of my last visit to Carlton Hill Vineyard, located just outside of the town of Carlton itself. I have a few short bits of conversation with vineyard owner David Polite, but they don't do him justice. He's one of the most entertaining growers I have; hopefully, I'll have more time chatting with him on future videos.

Carlton Hill Vineyard has a gentle, East-facing slope that ensures great exposure and warmth in the morning hours and some protection from the extreme afternoon heat. Because of its exposure, this is usually the first site we pick each year.

Belated vineyard posts from Aug 16/17

2009-08-25T18:34:00.000-07:00

I am sooooo late posting these. I took a quick run through three of our vineyards on August 16th and 17th. Everything's progressing nicely, although seeing these places made me realize that I only have a few more weeks to prep for harvest. Stop by the tasting room now if you want to see me...

Holmes Gap

This is my first trip of the year down to Holmes Gap vineyard (just North of Rickreall). Owner Jack LaRue was just putting on the last spray of the season as I drove up, so I don't have any conversations with him on this video. Next time Jack.

Stoller

Back to Stoller for another quick visit after the first round of cluster thinning. Even at one cluster per shoot, we're still at ~ 3.5 tons/acre, too high to guarantee optimal flavor development. We're taking a second thinning pass through the vineyard later this week to get the crop load down to closer to 2.5 tons/acre. I'm very excited about this fruit, as it's some of the most delicious wine in barrel from 2008.

Hirschy
A first walk-through of Hirschy Vineyard. This is a new vineyard owned by our friends John and Linda Hirschy. This is going to be a SPECTACULAR site! Check out the color in these clusters. John's place is a good 3-5 days ahead of everyone else at this point, ensuring that his will be the first Pinot Noir into the winery this fall.

Carlton Hill Vineyard Aug 17'09

2009-08-20T13:49:00.000-07:00

We started buying fruit from David Polite in 2006. The bulk of the fruit from this vineyard goes into David's own Carlton Hill Wine Company. We usually get enough fruit for one fermenter, and it's quickly becoming one of our favorites each year. One reason Athena and I both love it is because we can usually do partial whole-cluster fermentation with the fruit from Carlton Hill. It's an early ripening site, so the stems are usually lignified enough (brown and crunchy, not green and stemmy) to allow us to bypass the destemmer.

Hirschy Vineyard visit Aug 17th

2009-08-20T13:31:00.000-07:00

Hirschy vineyard is a new site to us this year. John and Linda Hirschy have planted a fantastic new site just North of the town of Carlton. I freaked out a little bit when I saw so much color here on Aug 17th. This will definitely be the first fruit we pick this season!

Anderson Family Vineyard walk 8/12

2009-08-20T13:14:00.000-07:00

August 12th walkthrough at Anderson Family Vineyard (Dundee Hills) with vineyard owner/manager Cliff Anderson. We get both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Anderson Family Vineyard. It's a unique site - depending on the vintage, the Pinot from this site flexes between our Stewart and Athena bottlings. We also usually bottle an Anderson Family Vineyard designate wine from this vineyard each year.

Boedecker Cellars Summer Whites Tasting Notes

2009-08-15T13:36:00.000-07:00

Joint Tasting notes from Saturday, Aug 15

This is a joint compilation of notes Stewart captured while everyone talked in the tasting room.

Tasters: Gwen Goodrich, Joel Strimling, Athena Pappas, Stewart Boedecker

2007 Boedecker Cellars Purity Chardonnay

- Lemon zest and tropical fruits on the attack

- Nice weight on mid-palate

- Dark nuttiness on finish, along with notes of hazelnut/peanut skin

- Lean framework with acidity to carry heavy fish dishes or mushrooms

** Favorite between the two Chardonnays

2008 Boedecker Cellars Purity Chardonay

- Key lime cream pie, marshmallows & citron

- Notes of cotton candy in middle with a touch of perceived sweetness

- Fat on the finish, with roundness that persists

- Great match for Thai food, Kung Pao Chicken, or paella

2007 Boedecker Cellars Old Vine Pinot Gris

- Creamy butterscotch, Werther's candy (nice one Joel)
- Toasted nuts and lemon pith on top of stone fruits
- Very, very weighty for a Pinot Gris (we think this is why Paul Gregutt liked it)

2008 Boedecker Cellars Old Vine Pinot Gris

- In your face fantastic aromatics! Everyone kept adding to descriptors: stone fruit, apricot, honeydew, casava, peaches, yellow pluoct, white flowers

- On the palate, fruit/flower/honey, "vanilla bean in a dirt clod" depth, sweetness carrying fantastic apricot/peach flavors.
- This is possibly the best Pinot Gris I've ever tasted (Stewart)

Boedecker Cellars visit to Anderson Family Vineyard

2009-08-14T18:16:00.001-07:00

Short trip through Anderson Family Vineyard, source of both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and another beautiful place in the world.

Boedecker Cellars White Wines in the Tasting Room this weekend

2009-08-14T16:12:00.000-07:00

Summer's a time for white wines, and we're celebrating by focusing an entire weekend on the Boedecker Cellars whites in the Tasting Room.

We'll post some tasting notes later this afternoon, but be sure not to miss the 2008 Old Vine Pinot Gris. We're just releasing it now and it is killer! -- Ethereal aromatics and the most fantastic texture of any white wine we've ever released!!

Vineyard Visits: Momtazi, Stoller, Cherry Grove

2009-08-07T15:59:00.000-07:00

Here are my first experiments with using my new Flip Video camera to document the developmnt in the vineyards. I need to work on my steady-cam stills (scenes are a bit Cloverfield-esque) and naration, but I'm still pretty excited about what I'll be able to do throughout harvest this year.

For the first post, I captured bits of my walk-throughs of Momtazi, Stoller, and Cherry Grove vineyards. I hope you enjoy. I'm going to try to give a fairly continuous stream of updates through the end of harvest this year.
-sb

The June and July heat pushed the vines forward by 3-4 weeks, and now most of Oregon is actually running a little ahead of schedule for the year. If the warmth persists, we'll pick our first Pinot by mid-Sept.

All the vineyards look fantastic. Canopy health has never been so even across the entire valley, and fruit set is very even. Berry sizes are quite uniform, and clusters are quite sizable. We've already been dropping a good amount of fruit across all sites, and we'll continue with that as August progresses.

Momtazi Vineyard - McMinnville AVA

Stoller Vineyard - Dundee Hills AVA

Cherry Grove Vineyard - Willamette Valley, just outside of Gaston, OR

Boedecker Cellars at Wine and Spirits Magazines "Hot Picks"

2008-06-27T12:32:00.000-07:00

Athena and I treked up to Seattle on Tuesday night for Wine and Spirits Magazine's "Hot Picks" tasting where Lisa Rongren of the Herbfarm restaurant was pouring our 2005 Athena Pinot Noir. She and Chef paired our wine with a really nice duck pate...yum!

We were very impressed with the event. The WSM folks did a great job of limiting attendance and kept the feeling very "civilized". Unlike so many other wine events we've participated in, we never felt crowded. The event was held in the Paramount Theater, a beautiful venue (and great for concerts, too).

More fun than the event, though, was the gathering at Quinn's up on Capitol Hill afterwards. Athena and I both flipped on the fantastic food (fries with gooey fontina and demi glace!). A fantastic place. It was also fun to talk to the Seattle restaurant glitterati in a more casual setting, too.

Anyway...More to come soon on our new winery in NW Portland.

Portland Indie Wine Festival Fun

2008-05-06T12:45:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Portland Indie Wine Festival last weekend. Athena and I really enjoyed the huge crowd on Saturday. Indie has been such a fantastic event for us since it's inception four years ago. A smile comes to my lips as I think about our first year, pouring our very first release, our 2004 Purity Chardonnay. We're certainly less nervous talking to people about our wines now, but we get no less of a buzz from experiencing the great reception from all of you!

For those looking for more good Pinot Noir and food fun, join Athena in Seattle on May 20th at Ray's Boathouse for their annual Copper River Salmon and Pinot Noir Extravaganza. The food will be fantastic, and the Pinot Noir will be flowing...Athena's even bringing along a few sneak preview wines for the summer.

For other event news, keep checking on Boedecker Cellars.com

-sb

Sitting in on the Portland Indie Wine Festival jury

2008-03-13T13:10:00.000-07:00

For those of you not familiar with the Portland Indie Wine Festival, back in 2005, Lisa Donahue of LAD Communications and Catherine Healy of Flint Design were brainstorming about how to promote their new, small winemaker clients. They came up with the idea of a juried event for small, independent wineries along the lines of the Sundance Film Festival. This is a fanstastic event!! We have participated since the launch....which happily corresponded to Boedecker Cellars' first release, our 2004 Purity Chardonnay.

Anyway...Each year the wine for PIWF are selected by a jury of wine judges, wine media, and established winemakers from around the US. This year, Athena and I were invited to sit in as "observers" during the judging. This meant that we sat with one of the jury panels and listened to their judging criteria, comments, and debate. It was actually quite enlightening to experience.

The scores are based on a consensus of the jury members, so there were a few quite lively exchanges over a few wines. More surprisingly, though, all four judges rated most wines within one category standard of each other most of the time.While Athena and I didn't taste alongside the judges, we did sneak a few sniffs and sips, and I must say that I would have scored these wines the same as the judges.

Wines were rated Gold, Silver, Silver -, Bronze, Bronze -, Average, or Flawed. No wine in our jury's flight received a Gold -- they really held all these wines from new producers to HIGH standards -- but there were a couple of Silvers and many Bronzes.

Overall, the wines were the range of quality and stylistic correctness you'd expect from new small wineries. Some were great, some were odd, and some were straight up the middle.

The wines receiving marks high enough to enter the competition will provide everyone who comes to the PIWF this year a great experience. Come check it out, and support the growing wine industry in Oregon!

See you there - SB

Checking out a little Pinot Blanc

2008-02-28T12:01:00.000-08:00

What's Pinot Blanc?

This is one place where the Wikipedia entry is pretty lame. Come on folks! To describe one of the great white wines of Alsace (one of my favorite wine regions in the world) as "a full-bodied white wine" is like calling Pierre Robert "a soft, creamy cheese".

At it's best, Pinot Blanc can be either spicy and round or massively flowery and aromatic. True, when overcropped or poorly made, it's a pretty generic white wine....But the same can be said for Riesling, Pinot Gris, or Chardonnay, too.

Why am I suddenly talking about Pinot Gris? Well, we might have lucked into some really beautiful wine that someone needs to unload to generate some quick cash flow. While we normally do not like to work with wines we don't personally make, this is an exception. The nose is hugely expressive, floral, and complex. On the palate, there's a nice balance of sweetness and slightly perceived astrigency - it'll definitely hold up to those late winter and early spring dishes. Likely, we'll bottle this under the Pappas Wine Co. label. Watch for it in May!

Anyway, tomorrow, we're back to notes about the 2006 Pinot Noirs.

-sb

2006 Pinot Noir Futures tasting

2008-02-25T12:25:00.000-08:00

We just held our annual WineSoup&Futures tasting at the winery last weekend. This was the first public preview of our 2006 Pinot Noir blends.

I have to say, the reaction to these wines was phenomenol, even to me (I love them all like children). We had planned for ~ 85 people to attend, but were instead faced with a winery-busting crowd of 105. This lead to a few logistical issues throughout the evening, but Athena and I enjoyed the buzz created by so many loyal customers providing reaction to the wines.

Here's a quick rundown of the 2006 Pinot Noirs sampled:

2006 Stewart Pinot Noir
2006 Athena Pinot Noir

2006 Anderson Family Vineyard Pinot Noir
2006 Momtazi Vineyard Pinot Noir
2006 Shea Vineyard Pinot Noir
2006 Cherry Grove Vineyard Pinot Noir

I'll get some more coherent tasting notes for each wine up later this week as I catch my breath, but suffice it to say that all of these already tasted like finished wines that had been in bottle for 6 months. The 2006 vintage is really amazing - the wines are silky soft from a tannin perspective yet still have the acid structure to remain vibrant. Athena and I have often used "Wow" and "Yum" when tasting during the blending trials.

For more info on the development of the wines, check back here or visit our website (http://www.boedeckercellars.com/).

Pinot in the winery - More on the way for Friday

2007-09-27T15:39:00.000-07:00

First Boedecker Cellars fruit of 2007
Our first fruit of the year came into the winery yesterday! We processed 1.8 tons of Pinot Noir from Carlton Hill Vineyard. This is a beautiful little (6 acre) site in the Yamhill/Carlton AVA. David Polite, the vineyard owner and winemaker in his own right, dotes on his beautiful corner of the world. This is small viticulture at it's best! David personally loaded bins of grapes from his tractor to the Boedecker Cellars F250 after supervising the picking crew.

This year, we received Dijon clone 777 from Carlton Hill, and if this fruit is indicative of the vintage, 2007 is going to be fantastic for Oregon Pinot Noir. Just into the fermenter, we have ripe flavors, great color, and tart, zingy acidity! This will make for some really graceful wine.

Picking Calendar:
We're trying to fight off our urge to pick in the face of the coming rains, as most of the flavors are not really there yet. We do, however, have ~ 25% of the Pinot Noir fully ready to bring in thanks to the efforts of Bob Van Steenberg at Cheery Grove Vineyard. The rest of the dates are very speculative and will have a lot to do with the rain we do or do not get the first week of October.

Friday, Sept 28th: Cherry Grove Vineyard, Block 3 and Block 8 ~ 8 tons
Rain -- Sat/Sun/Mon???
First Week of October (maybe): Cherry Grove Vineyard, Block 6, Block 7
Momtazi Vinyard, Block C
Stoller Vineyard, 115 block
Second Week of October: Anderson Family Vineyard, South Block
Amalie Robert Vineyard, Block 10
Stirling's Vineyard (?)
Third Week of October: Anderson Family Vineyard, Chardonnay
Stirling's Vineyard, Pinot Gris
Fourth Week of October: Aardvark Vineyard, Grenache
Wren Vineyard, Chardonnay

2007-09-25T17:29:00.000-07:00

Well , I knew this fall was likely to be fun, and it certainly is turning out that way. With some significant level of rainfall expected next week, we're making the decision to pull in some fruit this week. Even with the cold weather, we have a couple of blocks that are ready to go today, and we could have another 4-6 tons coming in over the weekend.

Here's the schedule as I know it:

Wed, Sept 26: 1.5 tons Pinot Noir from Carlton Hill (sometime in the afternoon)
Friday or Saturday: 2.0 tons Pinot Noir (I'll know the actual date on Wed)

This first fruit is quite ripe (already 24+ brix) and the flavors are good, seeds are brown, and color looks nice. So we have nice signs of physiological ripeness. On top of all that, we have really zippy acidity! Fruit like this produces bright, razor-sharp wines that show good complexity early and age forever...and it's the type of wine I love! Finally a vintage where we'll produce more wine for the Stewart blend than for the Athena blend - Cool!

Seriously, though, 2007 has all the hallmarks of a world-class Pinot vintage. All we need to do now is pray that the forecasted rain turns into irritating showers next week. Keep thinking sunny thoughts.

Cheers - Stewart

Vineyards looking good, but not quite time to pick

2007-09-20T16:31:00.000-07:00

Athena and I trekked up and down the Willamette Valley last weekend, checking on all of our Pinot Noir sites. We had clouds, we had showers, but we saw fantastic-looking fruit.

THIS IS GOING TO BE A BEAUTIFUL PINOT YEAR! While ripeness is still quite a ways off, the brightness and beautiful acidity present in the grapes right now point to a classic cool-climate vintage in Oregon.

I'm really excited, as this is the kind of Pinot I wanted to make when we started the winery.

All we need now is 10-15 days of relatively sunny weather (or at least not much rain). Sugar levels are between 18-20 brix right now at all the sites. Usually, I'd predict only 7-10 days, but the nights are so COLD and a the days are cool enough that I'm predicting a slower than normal ripening.

More from May 22, 2007 trip to Vineyards

2007-05-24T17:27:00.001-07:00

It was very interesting traveling around this week, if for no other reason than to get some really great photos that demonstrate the difference location makes in Pinot Noir growth.

Amalie Robert Vineyard just South of Dallas, OR. This is a pretty warm site, and Block 10 (my little acre) is quite vigorous. The shoots are 12"-16" long now, and the clusters of buds are well-formed. All shoots had 2 or 3 clusters, and they were monsters. We'll certainly be doing some cluster thinning and shoulder removal after bloom here.

Momtazi Vineyard in the McMinnville AVA. This is another warm site, although Block C is right at the crest of the vineyard (cool night temps) and receives a lot of wind, which keeps the temperatures low early in the season. Here, the shoots are only 6"-10" long. You can see in the picture to the right that the clover cover crop has been tilled under in every other row. This block produces wonderfully cherry-centered Pinot Noir from Dijon Clone 115 vines.

Anderson Family Vineyard at the North tip of the Dundee Hills AVA, right above Hwy 240. The South Block is aptly named. It's South facing, sloped nicely, and warm, warm, warm. This site was the furthest ahead, with shoots 16"-20" long, essentially ready for the first set of catch wires to go up. These vines have always been dry farmed, sending the roots deep into the rocky soil over the last 14+ years.

It's interesting to see how early season growth rates correspond to harvest dates later in the season. Of the three sites, we'll generally harvest Anderson first, Momtazi second (hot days there later in the summer help it catch up), and Amalie Robert last (the Wadenswil clone is a late ripening clone). More on this later, and more info on other sites will come soon.

First trip out to vineyards in 2007

2007-05-23T13:58:00.000-07:00

I took my first swing of the year through the valley yesterday. I have to say, the vineyards all look fantastic! There seem to be few issues with shoot length and inflorences this year (unlike the last couple of years). As I get some time, I'll keep updating this posting with photos from the trip. In the mean time, you can see a couple of shots at http://www.boedeckercellars.com/Cellar%20Updates.htm.

Nostalgia

2007-04-05T17:31:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is our first truckload of grapes ever received. The fruit on the truck was 667 clone Pinot Noir from Cherry Grove Vineyard. Wow! that seems so long ago now.

2007-04-04T13:09:00.000-07:00

Mar 27th, 2007:
Athena and I would like to say THANKS! to our fantastic bottling crews

Without them, we could never have finished the bottling, and we wouldn't have had nearly as much fun putting our 2005 Pinots to bed.

Three days, 1041 1/2 cases, and quite a few bottles of beer...

So thanks to
Ralph and Megan, Charlie and Stacey, Zoe and George, Loran and Cathy, Leif, my dad Mike and my uncle Dan, Jeff Q, Sean and Stacy, Andy, and Eric K the master of the line.
We want to ensure that the rest of the world knows what rock-stars our friends truly are.

Check out upcoming events around the state at www.boedeckercellars.com

Cheers! - sb

2006-09-26T21:01:00.000-07:00

Ripeness racing along...boy are we going to be busy

We brought in our first 1.5 tons today from Carlton Hill Vineyard. Great flavors, and nice, ripe fruit. If it's any indication of things to come, this is going to be one kick ass vintage.

This hot spell is really pushing the ripeness quickly. While we currently have a total of 1.5 tons in the winery today, we'll have 11-12 tons by Friday and 20 tons by Monday night. For those who want to help sort fruit as it arrives, now's the time!!

More pictures coming tomorrow...along with more fruit on Thursday and Friday

We'll get the pix from today online tomorrow night sometime....The winery looks empty now. Soon it'll be crammed full as all the wineries rush to get fruit in before it turns too raisiny.

Here's a preview of coming attractions at Boedecker Cellars (all still tentative beyond Thurs):

Thursday: 7-8 tons from Cherry Grove Vineyard
Friday (?): 2.5 tons from Shea Vineyard
Monday: 4 tons from Anderson Family Vineyard
4 tons from Momtazi Vineyard
Tuesday: 6 more tons from Cherry Grove Vynd

2006-09-24T19:48:00.000-07:00

Weather Looking Good:

Sunshine is in the forecast until around Oct 7th! This is absolutely perfect for this year. All the fruit in our vineyards is creeping along toward ripeness, and if the temperature and sunshine hold, we should have everything into the winery by ~ Oct 3-5.
All this heat will absolutely push ripeness along. Two days ago, I wasn't thinking we were going to pick anything ahead of next weekend. Now I'm sure that we'll have somewhere between 6-10 tons of fruit in the winery by next Sunday. Which leads me to....

First fruit in the winery on Tuesday this week!!!

We are expecting to have our first 1.5 tons into the winery on Tuesday
The fruit comes from Carlton Hill, which is a new site to us this year. The fruit will be a mix of Dijon 115 and 777 clone, and should be dark, flavorful, and in good shape. David Polite (owner and vineyard dude extrordinaire) should be on hand, hopefully.
If anyone's interested in sorting fruit, we're planning on hitting the winery with fruit around 11 am, which means we'll be on the sorting line sometime between 11 am and 1 pm. Please just drop me an e-mail (stewart@boedeckercellars.com) or a call (503.866.6699) if you'd like us to wait to start sorting before you arrive.

Harvest notes on boedeckercellars.com: Please give us feedback regarding my new public bloggish thing (http://www.boedeckercellars.com/Boedecker%20Cellars%20Harvest%20Updates.htm). I'll tweak as I go, but I'd be curious what you, your friends, and/or your mothers all think and what folks would rather see.

Talk to you soon - sb

Waiting for the rain to stop....

2006-09-21T18:10:00.000-07:00

What do you do when it keeps raining?

Well....first of all, you try to remember that you live in Oregon and that this is normal. Then you fight the "AAAHHH, is it ever going to stop?" panic. When you've finally calmed down, you start working on cool, useful things. Athena and our friend Anna spent the day building cool new Tyvek lids for our 1.5 ton fermenters. They did an AWESOME job of getting about a dozen of them cut and sewn...You might ask, "Why are tyvek lids so cool?" Well, they breath (no codensate falling back into the wine), they're easy to clean, and they help us maintain better temperature control of the ferments...basically, it's a winemaker geek thing.

Other Happenings

Otherwise, we're probably over-prepared for fruit now. All the barrels are in the racks, everything's clean and ready to go...and we might actually get the morning off on Saturday.

I'll be in touch with everyone regarding picking dates, and I'll try to get some more interesting info up on the web soon. In a more abbreviated version, I'm also launching a "Harvest Notes" section on our web site - check it out and let me know what you think.

Think sunny thoughts...

Oct 10 Update -- More fruit on the way! Anyone want to help sort?...And other updates from BC

2005-10-10T21:09:00.000-07:00

Hi all! Well, the first couple of ferments are almost finished now (the Cherry Grove Vnyd fruit we picked on 9/29), and we're stacking more and more fruit into the winery every day. Most of the vines are beginning to go dormant, so everything is about as ripe as it's going to get. The only thing to do now is wait for some dry weather windows and pick like mad weasels.

So...We'll have everything into the winery by Friday, and we'll likely have some wine in barrel by the end of the weekend. However, by the time I go back to work on October 24th, there will still be plenty of wine bubbling away in fermenters.

More of today's update:

- Big Thanks to Dave and Ralph!
- The Picking Schedule
- Update from Dave's micro lab
- Margot Arrives!
- More chances to help with the wine-making

Big Thanks to Dave and Ralph
- Huge thanks to Ralph Leftwich for showing up to help sort fruit on Friday! After waiting around for everything to arrive, for lunch to start and finish, etc., we sorted 9 tons of fruit! With Ralph's expert help (who knew that he'd worked in a fruit processing plant?), we got everything into fermenters in around 4 hours! We couldn't have done it without him.
- Dave Shykind has also started his efforts (even with the total lack of focus from your's truly). He's now cooking up agar and slants and getting our baseline micro-biology samples established...More on this below.

The Picking Schedule
There's lots of fruit coming in this week! If anyone would like to help out for an afternoon, please just give me a call (503.866.6699).

Tuesday
--> 1.5 tons of Pinot Noir from Justice Vineyard in the Eola hills
--> 1.2 tons of Pinot Noir from Maresh Vineyard in the Dundee hills
Steve K. is showing up to help - What a great guy!!

Wednesday
--> 3 tons of Pinot Noir from Stoller Vineyard...Uncertain schedule, as TONS of people are picking and sorting on Wednesday, but this will likely be an afternoon affair. This block from Stoller Vineyards delivered some of our most beautiful wine in 2004.

Thursday
--> Rest day...If you'd like to show up and help with the "in between" winemaking tasks, feel free.

Friday
--> 0.5 tons of Pinot Noir from Anderson Family Vineyards
--> 3 tons of Pinot Noir from Momtazi Vineyards
If you'd like to see fruit coming into the winery, this is your last shot for the year. Other than a little bit of Chardonnay later next week, after this, we're all in!

Update from Dave's micro lab
Dave stopped by on Sunday afternoon to collect samples for the beginning of our micro-biological studies. We're trying to figure out what levels and species of yeasts and bacteria are coming into the winery on the fruit, are resident on the winery equipment, and are present in my cooperage. This should be really great, as Dave has the best scope and camera set up to capture images of what he finds. He's already talking over my head! I'm psyched! Stand by for update photos.

Margot arrives!
Tomorrow, our new part-time cellar hand, Margot, arrives. I'm very excited, as I'm pretty old and out of shape, and I can really use the help! We're sharing Margot with Patrick and Lee from Dominio. I'll be sure to you all when you stop by.

More chances to help with the wine-making
If anyone wants to see more “behind the scenes” activities like pressing or sending wine to barrel, let me know, as Athena and I can always use an extra set of hands, and everyone can be useful. Just give us a buzz or send an email!

Info on media for culturing samples

2005-10-06T18:56:00.000-07:00

Dave - Sorry it took me so long....I've been slacking. For some reason, I can't respond to your last posting; it might have something to do with the fact that my interface crashed as I was trying to post a response...

Here's the info on growth media. We'll need two different types of media. The first is a generic growth media for grape must - this'll highlight the good and bad yeast, as well as the other bacteria growing in the fermenter. The second will be a Brettanomyces-specific media that will not grow Saccharomyces (the good yeast) but will allow the Brett to grow.

An ideal sampling protocol would be as follows:
- One day after destemming into the fermenter, we'll pull a sample to see what survived the initial dose of SO2. This'll let me know if I'm taking any risk letting the native population of yeast take off or if I should innoculate with a cultured strain.
- As we drain off to barrel, we'll pull another sample to check for Brett on the way to barrel. This'll let me know the risk level and management I need to do in barrel.
- About 3-4 weeks after the wine's in barrel, we'll pull a sample from each lot (not each barrel) to check for any Brett growth. Again, this'll help determine if we need to pull any special tricks to control contamination.

One question for you - Do you have a filter housing that we can use to filter a large (300 ml) sample of juice through a .45 um filter? It's pretty easy to get quick growth from smears made from the concentrate on the filter surface. If you don't have one, how about BC funding some capital equipment for your lab? Think about it, and let me know.

Here are the media recipes:
(Everything below is from "Wine Production and Analysis" by Bruce Zoecklein; in the BC library)

General grape juice growth media:
- Mix 20 g of agar (YM) in approx. 800 ml of grape juice diluted 1+3.
- Fully dissolve agar by holding in a boiling water bath and bring to 1L volume with reserve juice.
- Sterilize by autoclaving

Brett selective media:
- In approx 600 ml of deionized water, add the following:
2.4 ml Bactoglycerol (or equiv)
48.3 g agar (wort or YM)
50.0 mg actidione (cycloheximide)

Actidione is what kills off the Saccharomyces while leaving the Brett happy to grow. It may be incorporated directly into the water used in making he agar.

Let me know if any of the ingredients are expensive, as you now have the open BC expense account for lab supplies. Keep in mind that I can by pre-prepared culture plates (either standard or Brett-selective) for ~ $1/plate from Vinquiry or Millipore...We can always go that option, too.

Thursday, Oct 6th update from BC Harvest

2005-10-06T08:39:00.000-07:00

Two weeks into vacation...two weeks to go...Not a single fermenter close to finished yet, and 80% of the fruit still in the vineyards. It looks like I'll be pretty sleep-deprived once I get back to work - The winery should still be crammed full of bubbling fermenters that will require attention before and after work.

Things are moving slowly, but they're still moving...I still don't have any pictures ripped off the camera, but I SWEAR that either Athena or I will do it soon and get some visuals up. We'll be slowly bringing fruit into the winery over the next few weeks, and should (hopefully) have everything in barrel by Halloween. Lots to see and do, so come on out and join us!

- Update on Ferment '05
- Latest Update on Friday Picking
- How's the weather?

Update on Ferment '05

So far, things are looking really good (despite the weather that's been giving me a heart attack...www.accuweather.com). Fruit quality continues to look good, and the long, slow ripening is allowing lots of flavor development while maintaining the acidity.

We've still just picked one lone block of Clone 667 Pinot Noir from Cherry Grove Vineyard. The two lone fermenters in the winery are being heated today to get the yeast off to a strong start after a long cold soak. So far the inky black color and sweet flavorful juice are making me happy...if only I can get the ferment started today.

Latest Update on Friday Picking

Since the rain's taken a bit of a holiday (showers just bum me out, but don't really affect things that much), the fruit out in the vineyards has had a chance to ripen up. We're picking ~ 7 tons of Pinot Noir tomorrow:
Cherry Grove Vinyard: Block 3 (Pommard) ~ 3 tons
Block 7 (Wadenswil) ~ 1 ton
Block 8 (777) ~ 0.5 tons
Shea Vineyard: Block 11 (115) ~ 1.5 tons
Anderson Family Vineyard: South Block (115) ~ 1.5 tons

So far, Ralph's confirmed that he can help out - Thanks Ralph! For anyone else who wants to show up, come on out. We'll likely be sorting fruit off and on (as it comes in) from ~ 11-ish until ~ 6 pm. Food and bevs. will be provided to all helpers.

For those of you with more traditional schedules, let me know if you'd like to come out on a weekend sometime, and we can plan some work for you.

How's the weather?

While I would certainly have picked cool, sunny days over the off/on showers/rain we've been having the last couple of weeks, the vineyards are holding up remarkably well. No signs of disease pressure, no split berries (yet), and mostly green, leafy canopies. The flavors I'm tasting in the samples are great, so other than my cardiac health, this looks like a fantastic year for Pinot Noir!

media recipes

2005-10-03T19:39:00.000-07:00

speaking of culturing juice...you mentioned you had a recipe or two to try for selective media. shoot them over to my email when you get a chance, I'll try to prepare some slant tubes for friday...

BC Harvest Update Oct 5 -- Anyone want to work in the winery on Friday, Oct 7th?

2005-10-03T16:52:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update from the Harvest '05 crew at Boedecker Cellars.

- Thoughts about the rain
- Help needed this Friday at the Winery
- Micro work on the way for Dave

Thoughts about the rain
Well, I'm sitting here watching it rain, but breathing a quick sigh of relief that the weather forecast looks better moving forward....

So far, we've picked one block from Cherry Grove Vineyard in Gaston - That's a grand total of 3 tons (out of a planned 20 tons) in the winery so far. I've been filling my time with worrying about the rain, wondering when everything else is going to ripen, worrying about the rain, thinking about other things I can do while I wait for fruit to ripen, worrying about the rain, etc.

Honestly, I was out in the vineyards today, and other than the water that the grapes have taken up over the last few days, there isn't any significant damage at this point. It's going to be a great year!

Think happy thoughts of nice looking grapes

Help needed this Friday -- Fruit sorting!
It looks like we're going to have a big picking day on Friday - We'll pick another 3-5 tons from Cherry Grove, pick ~ 1.5 tons from our block at Shea, maaayyybe pick our block at Stoller (another 3 tons), and probably pick our Chardonnay from Anderson Family, too.

--> If anyone would like to come and help sort fruit (it's really fun, and we feed you...free beer), this Friday would be a wonderful time! Even if you can only make it for part of the day, we'll definitely be able to use the help.

For those of you who are interested, just send me an e-mail (stewart@boedeckercellars.com)

Latest micro work for Dave!
I've taken the first juice samples for Dave's mad lab! For those of you who don't know, Dave Shykind is our unofficial microbiologist and photo-microscope guru. I'll soon have some really cool pictures of yeast cells up on the web site from Dave! Right now though, Dave has graciously offered to help me culture some juice and wine samples to ensure that all of my ferments are clean and free of any nasty little organisms.

Until later!