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This year's harvest in
the Willamette Valley provided a few rounds of ammunition to the climate change skeptics.
Echoing 2005, fall rains arrived at the end of September and persisted through the first 3 weeks of October. This made harvest conditions difficult for many growers who were unable or unwilling to pick early. At our estate vineyard, the grapes were ripe by the last week of September, so harvesting began in earnest prior to the first serious rain. The balance of the Pinot Noir was harvested during small periods of dry weather during the first 12 days of October, and the bulk of the white grapes (which are generally more resilient to rain) came in during the second half of the month.
Similarities with 2005 fortunately did not extend
to yields. In 2005 we processed a mere 34 tons, but this year we were close to 100 tons!
This will help bring us back to "normal" production levels after the "lean years" of 2004 and 2005. Our Estate vineyard - now in full production - yielded a record 98 barrels of Pinot Noir, complimented by 36 from Murto and 23 from Belle Vida. We also harvested the most Pinot Gris in our history, so availability issues for this popular white should be a thing of the past! On the downside, we lost one of our two Riesling sources, as well as our Gewürztraminer. We will be planting both of these varietals at our estate vineyard in the near future to insure continued supply.
The 2007 growing season began pretty much "on
schedule" in mid-April.
It was followed by a prolonged flowering period during June which set the stage for extreme variability within the vineyard. Coming out of flowering, disease pressure was very high, and continued at worrisome levels throughout the summer. Fortunately, vineyard foreman Marcial Gonzales and his crew did a tremendous job staying ahead of it through intensive, timely canopy management and close-interval organic fungicide sprays. Carefully timed crop thinning allowed us to even out much of the variability in the vineyard, and positioned us well for the rather abrupt end to the season. We were able to harvest most of the Pinot in our estate vineyard at a very respectable 22-23 Brix, with good flavor development, before the first rains on the last days of September.
Our efforts to beat the rain put major pressure
on our winery harvest crew, and they really rose to the challenge!
A huge highlight was the return of Jill's dad, Gary Hambleton, to the team. Gary was an integral part of our crew from 1998 through 2004, but missed the last two years. Also returning from the 2004 crew was Chris Cooper, who just moved to Portland from Chicago. It was great to have them both back! This harvest marked the transition of assistant winemakers from Nicholas Ray (who has made significant contributions to the quality of our wines over the past 3 years) to Sarah Cabot, who recently relocated from Seattle to Dundee to begin her winemaking apprenticeship here. Nicholas's solid experience and Sarah's exuberant enthusiasm both helped make the long days more manageable.
In addition to the "core" crew, several others
generously devoted a week or so of their lives to our harvest campaign.
Bob Mason (our greatly missed ex-neighbor) helped run the sorting line during "crunch time" at the end of September. He was followed by two members of the restaurant trade who dedicated their precious vacation time to join us: Juliette Pope from Gramercy Tavern in New York City and Brad Ball from Social Wine Bar in Charleston, SC both pulled yeoman duty in the winery. Jill's aunt, Verle Waters, kept us well fed during the critical first week of October. Other family, neighbors, friends, and customers stopped by to help as well. Like raising a child, it takes a village to bring in a vintage!
As we wait for the 2007 wines to develop in the
cellar, we have a terrific group of new releases to introduce.
Leading the pack are the 2005 Murto and Belle Pente Vineyard Pinot Noirs, which are as long on character and personality as they are short on quantity. To help ease the pain, we're releasing a delicious new Dundee Hills cuvée from the 2006 vintage. Since you always need a good white wine to precede your pinot, we're proud to offer our 2005 Gewurztraminer, 2006 Pinot Gris, and 2005 Belle Pente Vineyard Chardonnay. Finally, we're thrilled to announce the return of our wildly popular Cuvée Contraire "rosé" - the first one we've made since 2003!
Good times, good wines...bright
futures in cool climates...classic Oregon vintages...renewal and reinvigoration...rising to new challenges, challenging old norms...viewing the past through the rear-view mirror while watching for it's reincarnation
around every curve. Just business as usual here at Belle Pente. Thank you for sharing our journey!
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