Two worthy New York Times articles that answer long asked questions

Does the size of the ice you use and how you shake your cocktail matter? "Dilution has become a dirty word."




What is the Traditional Oregon Pinot Noir style really?

Do you agree? I do with the former and not completely with the latter. Never the less these are worth your time.

Pinot Noir Winemaking 101 decision Chart from Oregon Pinot Camp

A few wine terms worth knowing

Saignée
Saignée (the French word for the medieval medical process of bleeding) is used when a winemaker desires to impart more tannin and color to a red wine. The process involves the removal of some almost-colorless juice from the must in the fermenter at a very early stage – it is also known as “bleeding” the fermenter. The red wine is intensified as a result of the bleeding because the volume of juice in the must is reduced relative to the surface area of remaining grape skins. And in some senses, the must involved in the maceration is concentrated. (Typically, the removed juice is fermented separately, producing a rosé wine as a byproduct.)

Destemmers
The winemaker may choose to have some or all of the clusters go through a destemmer that removes the individual berries from the stem. Those clusters go into a destemmer or destemmer-crusher. This is simply a device that tumbles the entire clusters inside a perforated drum, allowing the berries to fall through the perforations and the stems to exit separately out the other end into a bin for disposal. In some machines, the berries then pass between two long, soft rotating cylinders with a variable slot that serves to “pop” varying percentages of the berries before exiting the bottom. Gentleness, capacity, and ease of cleaning are the primary differences in these machines. Some winemakers choose to use a percentage of un-destemmed whole clusters in their fermentation. This is achieved by bypassing the destemmer and simply dumping the chosen amount of clusters directly into the fermenter.

SO2
SO2 is added to almost every must and wine and is one of the most basic and important quality control measures available to the winemaker. SO2 acts as both an oxidase enzyme inhibitor and as a microbial growth inhibitor. SO2 is added to the must early (within minutes or hours) to prevent browning and to inhibit native flora. If the native bacteria and yeast grow out of control, the result can lead to higher volatile acidity (VA), off flavors and aromas, and possibly fermentations that stop with sugar still in the wine (stuck fermentation).

The impact of SO2 additions is strongly affected by the pH of the must. If tartaric acid additions have been made, the acidity and pH will change, affecting the activity of the SO2. Almost all of the SO2 added to the must will be bound up during the fermentation and eliminated at pressing. It is almost always added again at the end of malolactic fermentation to protect the young wine from oxidation during the aging process.

Yeast and Yeast nutrients
Once a suitable environment has been created in the fermenter, yeast can be added to start active fermentation, or yeast will not be added at all if the winemaker has decided to let the ferment go native. There are many types of commercial yeast available to winemakers, all with their own special characteristics, from aromatic enhancement to high alcohol tolerance. The timing and quantity of yeast additions affects how quickly the fermentation starts and how rapidly it progresses.

Yeasts require a wide variety of nutrients to grow and perform their job of converting sugar to alcohol. Acid, high temperatures, and alcohol stress the yeast and can lead to off aromas and yeast death. Grape musts can vary dramatically in the level of these nutrients and are often deficient in one or more essential elements. An analysis can be done to determine whether and by how much the must is deficient in the major nutrients required for yeast to grow and complete fermentation. Once fermentation begins, the required amounts of nutrients can be added to the must. This practice ensures healthy fermentations that go to dryness and produce low amounts of off aromas such as sulfides.

Roto-fermenters are horizontal, closed tanks that can be rotated to mix the cap with the must in a pre-programmed manner. They require minimal attention and are easy to empty, but are very expensive to purchase and can lead to over-extraction.

Pigeage (literally “by foot”). In a shallow tank this involves walking on the fermenting must to mix the cap. In larger tanks, it involves immersing most of your body in the wine and mixing in any way possible as you swim or crawl around. A very low-tech approach, it is the most personal cap management tool.

Fining and Filtration
Fining and filtration are tools for clarification and for tannin and flavor modification of wine. Wines can have a high volume of suspended solids that will not clarify by settling and need to be removed prior to bottling. Some wines have bitter and unpleasant tannins or other negative flavor compounds that need to be removed or modified. The decision to fine or filter a wine depends on the specific problem that needs to be addressed. The choice of what to do is often based on small experiments called bench trials. The winemaker takes small samples of wine and adds various fining agents or combinations of fining agents to determine their effectiveness in solving the problem. That information is then used to treat the entire lot. The most common fining agents are egg whites, gelatin, milk and whey, and isinglass (protein from the air bladder of a sturgeon). These are often effective in extremely small doses, measured in ounces per one thousand gallons.

Bitterness is one of the more common problems addressed by adding fining agents. As wines age and develop, tannin molecules connect into chains of varying lengths. Some of these are perceived as bitter or astringent and can be removed by adding specific proteins to the wine. Unfortunately, there is no laboratory test to analyze exactly what tannins are causing the problems or what treatments are most effective in their removal. Luckily there are a wide variety of fining agents and the best treatment can be determined by bench trials using specific agents at varying doses. Although effective in removing undesired tannins, fining a wine always removes some positive flavor components. The goal in fermenting, pressing and aging is to end up with all of the extracts and flavors that the winemaker wants and nothing extra. That way, nothing will have to be removed. In certain circumstances filtration is necessary. White wines are commonly filtered.

Oregon's Willamette Valley Sub-AVA descriptions and a soil map from the Oregon Pinot Camp Manual

One of David Lett's original Pinot Noir plantings located in the Dundee Hills

Willamette Valley Sub-AVAs
[Descriptions provided by winemakers from each AVA, independently]

Dundee Hills
The first grapes in the Willamette Valley were planted in the Dundee Hills. It remains the most densely planted locale in the valley and state. Within the 6,500 acres of this almost exclusively basaltic land mass that runs north-south and overlooks the Willamette River to the south and the Chehalem Valley to the north, and which rises to 1,067 feet in elevation, more than 1,250 acres of
grapes are planted on approximately 50 vineyards. It is approximately 30 miles to the southwest of Portland and 40 miles east of the Pacific Ocean, with protection from the ocean climate provided by the higher Coast Range of mountains.

Dundee Hills soils are reddish, silt, clay, loam soils derived from Columbia River basalt flows and, as such, are easily decomposed to provide moderately rich, deep, and good water-holding soils. Soils and climate differentiate this AVA. The hillside planting regions above 200 feet provide good water and air drainage, good frost protection, moderate fertility, and moderate temperatures for adequate ripening, but with acid retention.

Pinot noirs from this AVA are characteristically red to black fruited, with raspberry to black cherry ranges, offering earth, truffle, cola, and perfume aromatics and flavors, with light spices and a core of sweetness on the palate.


Eola-Amity Hills
The name of this AVA is derived from a ridge of hills adjacent to the Willamette River. The ridge is actually composed of the Eola Hills, straddling the 45th latitude on the southern end, and the Amity Hills on the northern spur. The proposed minimum elevation for the AVA is 200 feet

Two of the predominant influences on the characteristics of wines from the Eola Hills are shallow soils and the Van Duzer corridor. The soils of the Eola Hills contain volcanic basalt from ancient lava flows. The basalt is combined with a preponderance of marine sedimentary rocks and/or alluvial deposits. These soils: Nekia, Woodburn, and Steiwer are generally much shallower and rockier relative to most other Oregon AVAs. These shallow well-drained soils tend to produce smaller grapes with greater concentration.

The Van Duzer Corridor essentially provides a break in the Coast Range that allows cool ocean winds to flow dropping temperatures dramatically, especially during late summer afternoons. These late afternoon and evening breezes help provide the cool nights that keep acids firm and are essential for optimal ripening

The wines tend to be bigger, more full-bodied wines. The fruit components tend towards blackberry, black cherry, and plum contrasted with raspberry, strawberry, and cherry flavors, which may predominate in wines from deeper soils. The mineral content of the terroir is often present both on the nose and on the palate. The wines often display considerable focus and clarity of fruit. They also favor primary fruit character over spice, tending toward the darker black fruit spectrum (black cherries and blueberries). Compared to other North Willamette Valley regions, the wines often exhibit brighter acidity and firmer structure, along with considerable longevity, this due to the cooling effect of the Van Duzer Corridor. Wines from lower elevations tend to lean more toward plum and bramble fruit, showing slightly more secondary flavors such as earthy, mineral and spice/herbal tones (e.g. white pepper and dried flowers).


Chehalem Mountains
The Chehalem Mountains AVA is a single uplifted land mass southwest of Portland in the northern Willamette Valley, extending 20 miles in length and 5 miles in breadth. These mountains stretch from the town of Wilsonville in the southeast, snake between Sherwood and Newberg, and reach almost to Forest Grove in the northwest. They include several discrete spurs, mountains, and ridges, such as Ribbon Ridge and Parrott Mountain. The highest point within the Willamette Valley is the Chehalem Mountains’ Bald Peak, at 1,633 feet, which effects weather for the AVA and helps to distinguish it from the adjoining grape-growing hillsides and surrounding lowlands, less appropriate for grapegrowing.

It is the geography and climate that largely differentiate this AVA from others. That notwith- standing, the variety of soils within the AVA helps to play host to different grape varieties. Soils on the southern and western slopes are basaltic (including Saum and Jory) and ocean sedimentary
(including Melbourne and Willakenzie). Soils on the north face of the mountains are wind-blown loess (Laurelwood). Inappropriate heavier alluvial soils are largely excluded from the AVA by virtue of its minimum elevation of 200 feet.

Within the almost 70,000 acres of this AVA are over 1100 acres of grapes, grown in more than 80 vineyards, and 15 or so wineries. The Ribbon Ridge AVA is a sub-AVA of the Chehalem Mountains.

A wide range of Pinot noirs can be produced in this AVA, from more lightly red-fruited, elegant and balanced stylings, to black-fruited, briery, earthy, and highly structured wines carrying brown spice and wood notes, plus most gradations in-between.

Yamhill-Carlton District
North of McMinnville the land slowly rises to the hamlets of Carlton and Yamhill. Low ridges surround the two communities in a horseshoe shape. The free-flowing North Yamhill River courses through the center of a lush patchwork quilt of nurseries, grain fields, and orchards. The neatly combed benchlands and hillsides of the Yamhill-Carlton District are home to some of the finest Pinot noir vineyards in the world.

Historically nourished by forestry and farming, this area is rapidly emerging as a global center of Pinot Noir production. This pastoral corner of Oregon’s northern Willamette Valley creates a unique set of growing conditions. The Coast Range to the west soars to nearly 3500 feet (1200m) establishing a rain shadow over the entire district. Additional protection is afforded by Chehalem Mountain to the north and the Dundee Hills to the east.

The coarse-grained, ancient marine sediments native to the area are the oldest soils in the valley. These soils drain quickly, establishing a natural deficit-irrigation effect. Thus, the vines stop vegetative growth earlier here than elsewhere, leading to more complete ripening, even in cooler growing seasons. This allows Pinot noir to develop deep ruby colors and broad, silky tannins. The mouth-filling wines exude powerful fruit aromas of raspberry, blackberry, and black cherries complexed by minerality reminiscent of pipe tobacco, espresso, clove, and dark chocolate and accented by scents of rose, violet, lavender, and sweet wood smoke. These are alluring, complex, supple gems of Pinot noir to sip and savor.

McMinnville District
The McMinnville AVA sits due west of Yamhill County’s wine country home, the city of McMinnville. It extends approximately 20 miles south-southwest toward the mouth of the Van Duzer Corridor, Oregon’s lowest Coast Range pass to the Pacific Ocean. The proposed AVA is a blend of geo-climatic factors that make it unique among Yamhill County’s proposed AVAs. Specifically, the appellation encompasses the land above 200 feet and below 1,000 feet in elevation on the east and southeast slopes of these foothills of the coast -range mountains. Geologically, this region is dramatically different in soil profile from other winegrowing areas in Yamhill County. The soils are primarily uplifted marine sedimentary loams and silts, with alluvial overlays. Beneath is a base of the uplifting basalt. Clay and silt loams average 20–40 inches in depth before reaching harder rock and compressed sediments, shot with basalt pebbles and stone. The uniqueness of the soils for winegrowing is in the 20–40 inch depth.

Climatically, this AVA is, again, in its own class. These primarily east and south facing slopes sit in a protected weather shadow of the Coast Range Mountains. Rainfall is lower (33 inches annually) than sites only 12 to 20 miles to the east. The foothills also provide protection from chilling winds in the unstable air conditions of spring and fall. Winegrowers also have the option of placing vineyards on more southerly facing sites to take advantage of the drying winds from the Van Duzer Corridor. There are presently approximately 600 acres planted in the AVA. Of greatest note is the flavor qualities of the Pinot noir wines from this area. Unlike the wines from hillsides to the east, the Pinot noirs from these soils are highly pigmented, with a strong backbone of tannin and acidity and a massive palate of black fruit and earthy flavors.


Ribbon Ridge
Ribbon Ridge is a very regular spur of ocean sediment uplift off the northwest end of the Chehalem Mountains, comprised of a relatively uniform five square miles (3,350 acres) of land in a breadloaf-like shape. In excess of 300 acres within 15 vineyards are currently planted on the ridge. The AVA is distinguished by uniform ocean sedimentary soils and a geography that shows it protected climatically by the larger and taller land masses surrounding it. Paucity of aquifers forces many vineyards to be dry farmed. The AVA’s elevation minimum is 200 feet, with its highest point 683 feet.

Pinot noir characteristics from Ribbon Ridge include predominantly black fruit (black cherry, blackberry, and black currant), moderate to high structure sometimes bordering on rustic, good acidity especially in higher elevations, and good extraction. Wines contain fine tannins, a range of brown and wood spices, fresh-turned earth and chocolate dependent on vintage. Wines are thought to ultimately age very well.

Willamette Valley Weather and Vintage review from OPC

This is an excerpt from the Oregon Pinot Camp handbook. I would suggest you pay close attention to the 2007 vintage. It's been severely panned by the press however the wines exemplify exactly what makes Oregon a wonderful place to make Pinot Noir. High toned red fruit, medium body and "kung fu acidity"*.

OPC Weather and Harvests: A Vintage Review

1985: The vintage was hot and dry from beginning to end. Harvest was in late September, under ideal conditions. Crop was a bit short. Also noteworthy was frost on May 11th and 12th, which affected many locations near the valley floor. Quality was good to excellent.

1986: The year started early, with buds bursting around March 20th. Bloom was somewhat early. The summer was hot, with the year tracking very close to 85°F until 3 inches of rain fell in September. Good weather returned at the end of the month, but the poor weather during fruit maturation diminished the quality of the Pinot noir vintage somewhat. Some excellent Chardonnays were made. Quality was average to good.

1987: Very hot, dry vintage with a September harvest. Grapes harvested in hot conditions. Sugars sometimes reached maximums before flavors developed. Quality was poor to very good.

1988: The lack of rain in the Fall and early Winter of 1987 led to a peculiar malady in 1988 called “late Fall drought-induced Boron deficiency”. The result was a very poor set and resulting small crop. Nonetheless, 1988 was a classic Oregon Pinot noir vintage, with cool temperatures and a long, dry Fall. Quality was good to excellent.

1989: In the late Winter of 1989, Oregon suffered a severe freeze with temperatures at below -5°F. The consequence was moderate to serious vine damage and bud damage in the Spring of 1989. Crops were significantly reduced. The vintage was characterized by a late budbreak, but a hot Summer and Fall. Harvest was in September. Quality was good to very good and the quantity was short.

1990: Very cold conditions in December of 1989 caused bud damage which led to the third straight year of short crops in Oregon. The vintage resembled 1988, with a long cool year and a dry Fall. Quality was very good to excellent.

1991: A long, cool Spring pushed bloom into late June and early July. The rest of the season was, however, ideal with an extraordinary, long, warm Fall. The crop was good. Because of the late harvest, quality was enhanced by severe thinning. Quality ranged from average to very good, depending on cultural practices.

1992: This was the hottest year in Oregon’s brief modern viticultural history. The harvest ranged from early to mid-September. Fortunately, the heat relented somewhat at the end of maturity, allowing many producers to make wines of outstanding quality. The experience of 1987 may have aided producers in making their cultural and picking decisions. Crop was good. Thinning was required to be successful. (The earliest harvest to-date.)

1993: This may become another classic Oregon vintage. Bloom was in late June. Harvest was relatively late, but the Fall was warm and relatively dry. The crop was average. Thinning generally enhanced wine quality. (The latest harvest to-date.)

Vintage notes 1985–1993 by Ted Casteel, Bethel Heights Vineyard

1994: A highly ballyhooed vintage, this was a short, dry, and warm harvest. Thinning was unnecessary, with most vineyards having croploads under two tons per acre. Alcohols are moderately high, extraction huge and the reception by press predictably strong. Seen as the best vintage released to-date by some, with 1998 rivaling it.

1995: A vintage with rain at harvest ending a good growing season and, unfortunately following on the heels of 1994, received poorly by critics. A moderate to good yield and heavy rains for a week or more in the middle of harvest meant many wines lack the depth of fruit and color that others have. That notwithstanding, the vintage made exceptionally rich, elegantly styled wines at the single vineyard and reserve levels.

1996: The second rain-affected harvest, fruit in this year was closer to fully ripe when a few days of rain arrived, resulting in almost normal size and richness in the Pinot noirs. The vintage yields were slightly below normal levels but not financially threatening as with 1994 and 1998, plus in all years since 1994 more winemakers are chosing to crop-thin to achieve intensity. A fat, rich vintage considered the best of the rain years by critics.

1997: The last of the rain vintages, this year showed great promise until the skies opened. Crop loads promised the largest harvest yet and they were almost ripe when rains came. Unlike the prior two vintages when the rains stopped for post-rain ripening, 1997 remained wet. Botrytis pressure was high and earlier-picked vineyards and those who sorted and crop-thinned fared better. Very good structures bordering on tannic, plus slow to evolve fruit has made this vintage unpopular with critics, although excellent producers made stellar wines just now showing off.

1998: Glorious wines, not much of them. A large 1997 crop and damp, cool weather at bloom doomed this vintage to short crops, but that meant, with a normal ripening season and no early rains, deeply extracted and highly structured wines. Croploads were even smaller than 1994 and the wines, just beginning to be released, are big but require time in bottle to regain their lushness and finesse. Possibly the best vintage to-date. But wait…

1999: A very cool growing season followed a very late bloom period in 1999. A great wine was thought unlikely to arise, considering a full cropload hungin most vineyards and a need for the last two months before harvest to be perfect to fully ripened fruit. Many vineyards were severely crop-thinned as a precaution, but the weather cooperated and all vineyards ripened if owners were patient. Many of the best wines are as good as 1998, some claiming to be better. Great variability can be expected, however, due to earlier than optimal picking by those not trusting Mother Nature. An almost Burgundian level of acidity will make this vintage ageworthy.

2000: The 2000 growing season was almost perfect, starting early in both budbreak and bloom, setting a full crop in vineyards and thus giving a chance to precisely choose optimum yields with crop thinning. During harvest, which started the last week of September and lasted until the last week of October, only 1.1" of rain fell, with very good ripeness and moderate to good acids. Colors and extractions on the Pinot noir cuvees were excellent, acids good, but not as firm as 1999 and fruit totally ripe without disease pressure. Third-in-a-row, with 2000 a good average of the prior two vintages’ characteristics. In a word, a “pretty” vintage.

2001: This year produced a soft, big vintage. It saw almost ideal growing and ripening weather and less than an inch of rain during harvest. This is not a typical cool climate vintage since acids are as low and ripeness as full, despite above average yields before crop thinning, as we’ve seen since perhaps 1987. The Pinot noirs will be soft, fleshy and early appealing, with moderate colors. Whites will be full and broad, and early maturing. The alcohols are restrained slightly by yields that didn’t force extreme extraction. With perspective in 2004, a lighter, slightly harder and not well- received vintage by critics—some excellent wines, although not across the board, from the weakest vintage of the excellent 1998–2003 string.

2002: An extended, dry and moderately warm harvest put the finishing touches to what may be one of the best two or three vintages Oregon has seen—perhaps best ever for whites, close to best for reds. A slightly early budbreak ushered in a warm, dry growing season with excellent heat summations, but not heat spikes. An inch of rain in mid-late September corrected imbalanced high sugars and low pHs and set the stage for an extended harvest of well over a month for Pinot noir. Harvests of young fruit prior to this only rain event may give some elevated alcohols. Croploads were full, permitting precise green harvesting for full ripeness and extraction. Excellent acidities due to moderate temperatures throughout the growing and harvest periods, make this a richly ripe but structured vintage, both for whites and reds.

2003: This is an excellent vintage, albeit unusual in the fiery nature of the growing season. The same dry and warm growing and ripening seasons held for 2003 as with the past few vintages, only more so, with Region II (not cool climate!) heat accumulations of 2,500 units, average highs of 78F July-October, and half the normal rainfall with 2.75 inches. Fruit was disease free, crop set was generous enough for easy honing to desired levels, and soil moisture was adequate due to good pre-season winter rains. Concerns regarding this vintage center on high sugars and resultant high alcohols, and low acids. Most comparable past vintages, like the excellent 1992, may urge us not to worry.

2004: This vintage started out as a carbon copy of 2003, but thankfully cooled off and got needed rains in late August and then again in mid-September before most vineyards’ final ripening phase. What a difference some rain makes! Young and early vineyards that were almost ready to harvest the first week of September could have done without the rain, but the rest thought it a blessed relief and assured nutrient mobility in the vines. A short cropload due to poor weather at set, extreme temperatures the prior vintage, and vineyard growth irregularities, plus growing season heat (2004’s Degree-Day 2404 compared to 2003’s 2535 in McMinnville) make 2004 properly plump and extracted, but with restraint—average Brix down 1%. An interesting vintage—almost an average of 2001, 2002, and 2003, with perhaps a little more variability in reds and more structured, brighter whites similar to 2002.

Vintage notes for 1994–2004 by Harry Peterson-Nedry, Chehalem

2005: Although moderate in temperature, this was the coolest vintage of the last six years. It got off to a very early start (March budbreak), but the weather turned cool and rainy in late May and June, leading to a late bloom and reduced crop due to poor set. A warm and dry July and August followed. Fall was cool and it rained significantly late in September. Although most winemakers fear rain just prior to harvest, in Burgundy they say a good rainstorm in early September is a basic ingredient of a great vintage. 2005 was a classic example of fall rains providing balance to the fruit after a dry summer. There was almost no damage to the fruit from splitting or rot and harvest followed in dry conditions over the next few weeks. There is significant excitement (and some surprise) over the quality of wines produced in this unusual vintage. The wines are well balanced, have moderate alcohol, good acidity, and supple tannins.

2006: Thanks to favorable weather at bloom and an extended growing season, Oregon’s 2006 vintage was characterized by that rare combination of plentiful crop yields a warm and dry growing season with little precipitation and modest disease pressure. The resulting wines were rich and hedonistic. If there were any issues, they revolved around fruit reaching higher sugar levels prior to developing physiological maturity. Higher than average alcohols resulted. 2003 was the only vintage in recent times warmer than 2006, as measured by heat unit accumulation.

2007: This is a milestone Oregon vintage- Beautifully balanced, racy white wines and elegantly structured red wines were produced, in spite of some significant rainfall that occurred throughout the first three weeks of October’s harvest. Bud break and bloom occurred “on time” in the first week of May, followed by a summer of above normal temperatures (by 3 to 4 degrees F!) September, when slightly below normal ‘finishing temperatures” put Oregon onto the path of beautifully long hang times. Then a series of rain fronts progressed weekly across Oregon’s vineyards delaying harvest by as much as 2 weeks. As flocks of migratory birds were ushered into the area with each successive storm front, growers reported using bird netting for the first time in 2007. Growers picked hastily in the dry windows between these weekly weather events. Those growers with their crop-loads well tuned to lower-yields, and well up on their spray schedules were rewarded with balanced and elegantly ripened fruit: Great colors and ripe tannins combined with layers of complex and subtle flavors. As of this writing, many of the white wines are released and achieving critical acclaim; the Pinot noir wines are still resting in the barrels having only just completed M/L.

2008: Hailed by many as the “best vintage of the last 20 years”- Oregon’s 2008 started with a very late bud break- almost a full month last. However, the finishing weather of October was a God-Send: very little precipitation fell in the early weeks of October, just enough to keep the vines from shutting down. 78 degree days and 45 degree nights allowed fruit to ripen slowly and evenly, with very little disease pressure. Surprisingly, the vintage ended with very little accumulated Growing Degree Days- a mer 1976. This resulted in extremely well balanced wines with complex fruit flavors, yet still with relatively low sugars (therefore lower potential alcohol levels compared to recent vintages such as the 2006, or 2003).

*Kung Fu Acidity- a term created by Matt Olson

Is Oregon getting ahead of itself with it's AVA system?

Before reading this piece I would have said no! However this article by the very respected Bill Hatcher is convincing.

Sub-AVAs Undercut Oregon

A closer look at the fragmentation of an industry

By Bill Hatcher



And here is a response from Ken Wright and three other winemakers who don't agree with Hatcher at all.

Oregon's Willamette Valley: Featured on Grape Radio

They've done it again! Graperadio.com ,one of the internet's most informative wine resources, has put together a benchmark feature show on the Willamette Valley.

This couldn't be more timely with little boy's and girl currently packing their bags for Oregon Pinot Camp! All I can say is I'll be sportin' my pinot camp jacket next winter!

Oregon AVA Map

Sourced from Oregonwine.com

Adobe map of Dundee Hills AVA

Some words on the AVA system from Bill Hatcher, owner of A-Z and a few other Oregon brands.

Patricia Green on the 2007 Vintage in the Willamette Valley

"Of the eight vintages we have farmed, harvested and bottled here at Patricia Green Cellars this will likely be the most difficult one to WRITE about. Why? Well, it was far from a textbook vintage, no doubt many of you have seen an unusual number of “Oregon Pinot Noir Roses” on the market and maybe have experienced some less than thrilling Pinots from the vintage. It’s always easy to write that whatever you have to sell is the “best vintage ever” or the “best vintage since…” but there is a line you can cross where people simply don’t believe what you have to say if it runs to much counter to their actual experiences. There is no question that the 2007 harvest was tough. It rained and it rained more than just a little bit at times when we really don’t want it to rain at all. There were sleepless mornings when at 3:30 AM you lie there wondering why you ever put your life, beliefs and financial future in the hands of Mother Nature. The first 26 days of October (we finished picking on the 26th) were some of the most gut-wrenching and harrowing days we have spent deciding what to do and waiting to pick fruit that we have endured in a long, long time.

Okay, so that all does not sound so great, huh? The counter to all this is that we were mostly running ahead of a “normal” schedule when unsettling weather settled in so we had good sugars if not necessarily physiological ripeness fairly early on, the science and art of vineyard management is so much more advanced than it was 10 years ago it is almost not even possible to recount what things used to be like and what likely would have happened if 2007 had happened 10 years ago and we have learned through experience that you can wait weather out if you have taken care of your vineyards as well as possible and that there is some sunshine to be had at some point. And there was sunshine. Late October was actually beautiful in Oregon, far nicer than early October. We had windows of opportunity to pick when things had time to dry out and finish the last march toward perfect ripeness.

Did that mean everything was perfect? No, of course not. In 2006 we had the unprecedented experience of declassifying none of the wine in the cellar save for one barrel that had developed a problem due the barrel it was in. In 2007 we declassified about 6% of the cellar. That’s a pretty big chunk to take out of your label and sell off at a loss but we do what we have to do to ensure that wines that say Patricia Green Cellars on them come up to a level of quality that is fairly high.

What we began to see as the wines evolved in barrel after a long and cold winter (we have a passive cellar in the winter so you know what that means) was that we had extremely precise wines with more oomph to them than we imagined they would have. There is an extreme level of purity in these wines. We don’t mean that they are all crystal clean and one-dimensionally fruity by that statement. What we mean is that these wines have as great of a sense of the place that they are from as any wines we have ever produced here. For makers of Pinot Noir that are uniquely attached to place, hence all the many bottlings here, this is almost the best thing we can hope for. We want, for instance, Dundee Hill wines to taste like they are from the Dundee Hills and Ribbon Ridge wines to taste like they are from Ribbon Ridge. We want Ana Vineyard to taste the way we feel Ana Vineyard tastes. We work hard in every vintage to do as much as possible to bring the unique attributes of each site to the forefront. This is why we use native yeast fermentations, don’t have extended macerations or fermentations, don’t use heavily toasted and aggressive barrels, etc. Sometimes though the vintage is so dominant that these subtle differences can be obscured or dumbed down. While the 2006 Pinot Noirs we made we find to be exceptional for their ripeness, sweetness, density and flavor we would not, in general, hold them up as the best examples of terroir we have ever produced. For whatever reason the 2007 vintage really exposes the nature of each site beautifully.

On top of that naked purity there is also the fact that these wines are very, very good. They remind us a lot aromatically of the beautifully scented and underrated 2001 wines but with acid and tannin structures that probably have not been seen in such conjunction since 1999. For newcomers to Oregon Pinot Noir or Pinot Noir in general these wines are likely to take you by surprise. Pretty much every vintage since 2001 has been robust and mostly full-bodied with lots of ripeness and sweetness being the resounding themes (with the exception of 2005 which was still pretty darned ripe but certainly not as flashy as the other surrounding vintages). These wines are much more demure, definitely more medium-bodied and absolutely lower in alcohol than wines from the previous five vintages here in Oregon. They are not light wines though. There is a ton of substance in all of these wines and some of them will eventually border on being quite powerful when all their disparate elements come together.

We are certainly proud of every wine we put out but these wines we are that much more proud of because it was not easy. 2006 was easy. 2007 was hard. It is hard to expend the time and effort late in the growing season to get out to each vineyard and make sure that every detail is being taken care of so that the fruit we get in is going to be of the highest quality possible. It is hard, very hard to wait and wait through one weather system after another to get to the point you want to with your fruit. It is hard to instruct pickers and winery workers to throw stuff out but you have to do that to ensure that what goes into fermenters is only the highest quality fruit. And, we guess, in a world of ever-increasing convention and invention it is hard to go the old, tried and tested way and not bring to bear every gizmo and gadget designed to concentrate, intensify and “make your wine better.” Hey, sometimes having to get through a challenge makes you better, tougher, smarter and more capable. The harvest of 2007 was a physical and mental challenge but the wines are gorgeous and we hope that you will appreciate them along with the effort that went into them."

Patty Green and Jim Anderson are well worth the making the time to see if you're anywhere in the northern Oregon area! Their web site is also worth checking out.