As it says in the old commercial- we will sell no wine before it’s time. The 2008 Pinot Noir has been bottled after carefully aging it for just over 12 months in French and Hungarian Oak. (we even tested one barrel of homegrown Oregon oak). The 2008 wines are darker and fuller than 2007- with much more black ripe fruit and vanilla textures. 2008 is a totally different wine – mother nature sure is interesting-otherwise we’d be making & selling the same thing every year- which isn’t as much fun. We will start to release the 2008 vintage around May- after tasting the bottles on a bi-weekly basis to see when they are ready to go….get ready!
But not all barrels are the same. For the 3rd year in a row we are making some fun & fantastic special ‘batches’ of Pinot that are not normally available to the general public. In 2003 we made 4 barrels of “Starling Hill” which we just released this fall. Rich, dark & jubilant! For the 2007 vintage which was generally light & more fruity we made 2 barrels (that’s right – just two) of a really exquisite ruby red which we will release in this fall to our wine club & special guests. This year we convened a fun crew of ‘expert’ tasters to run through our favorite 24 barrels out of the 200 in the cellar. We’ve come up with 9 barrels of lovely, full ‘cherry bomb’ Pinot for the 2008 Kitara Reserve. That’s only a couple of hundred cases of really special wine.
In addition the tasters found out about our special lot from one section of our estate hillside vineyards. Since we keep track of these grapes we know when & where the barrels were harvested, how they were fermented & aged. Well rows 2-11 in the ‘Starling Hill” vineyard have struck again!
Our tasters were fixated on how different- richer, fuller, more unique a couple of barrels were for the 2008 harvest. So we’ve decided to do two special bottlings- each just two barrels or about 20 cases each. These will be bottled in a week to be released in 18 months or there abouts. (remember the wine let’s us know when it’s ready- not us).
The fun thing about having a small family business is that you can do things that people suggest that you do- and have fun with it. Hopefully you will get a chance to come by and taste some of these wines.
Coming up- Valentines Dinner with 5 course wine pairing on Feb 13th
Friday, June 19th, 2009
Join us at our Estate Vineyard & Winery- just 30 minutes south of downtown Portland. We have been working on our 3 tiered amphitheatre overlooking the pond at our winery. Richly planted with roses and herbs it also will host some great casual musical events this summer. A prefect place to enjoy a summer evening- sitting on the lawn in the country, good music and a glass or two of award winning wine.
- Sat July 11th- Jawbone Flats plays NW Roots Rock. They call it “Funk with Flannel”.
- Sat July 25th- Colonel Angus & His Privates- Party Time Rock N Roll
- Sat Aug 8th- Parrot Heads of Portland unite! Cheeseburger in Paradise Party with the Schwing Daddies
- Sat Aug 29th- Rust plays 70s & 80s rock. Makes you want to have a mullet again….
All concerts are from 6-9 pm with $5 fee per adult. Wines by the glass & light food are available. Picnics are encouraged- but no outside beverages please.
Come on out & visit!
Friday, May 1st, 2009
Spring has sprung and the first bud break has hit our vineyards. You may know that when the buds come out on the vines that it kicks off the season at a winery. Last year the ‘bud break’ was really late due to a cool spring. What happened is that less fruit developed – but what did develop was much more intense in terms of both flavor and body. We are currently going through secondary fermentation on our Estate Pinot Noir and 2008 is really shaping up. Lots of pepper, spice and vanilla. I was stuck in the cellar for a couple of days tasting the barrels to see how the process was going. (yes- it’s a tough job but somebody has to do it). Unfortunately I couldn’t decide which barrels I liked the most. We are looking forward to having some folks come out & do some tastings with us. Let us know if you have some friends who might like to ‘help’ out.