Bottling and another early harvest at Vincent Wine Company

It's the end of August so it must be bottling time, and with a warm growing season the grapes are going to be ready for harvest maybe by the end of next week.

I spent this afternoon arranging all my barrels of 2015 Vincent wines for racking the next two days. That's when I'm assembling my blends, mixing these barrels and those barrels to come up with my various bottlings of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and finally Gamay Noir.

Blending is the art of finding barrels of my wine that I think most reflect what was great in each particular vineyard where I have vines. I look for barrels with good intensity and the right acid and tannin structure that creates harmony in a wine, literally how it feels.

With the 2015 vintage, I will produce six different single vineyard bottlings, more than any year ever. This fall I'm releasing my annual Armstrong vineyard designate from Ribbon Ridge. Next spring I'll release 2015 vineyard designate wines from Zenith, Bjornson and Silvershot (renamed Crowley Station).

Then a year from now I'll have two special bottlings from 2015 that I haven't mentioned much yet. One is from old vines at Temperance Hill that I got in 2015 but am not a lock to get it every year going forward. The other is a late bottled wine from Armstrong based on one fermenter of special grapes the grower and I selected, aged longer in older oak to showcase the elegant power of this vineyard.

Bottling happens this Friday, and then we'll quickly be getting fermentation bins and other harvest materials ready to go. Last year was my earliest harvest ever, starting Labor Day weekend. We might top that this year, just hope for cool, dry weather right at harvest. That makes such a difference.

I usually begin picking Pinot Noir at Armstrong on Ribbon Ridge before anywhere else, sometimes then Silvershot though lately Zenith and even Bjornson have been coming in beforehand. We'll see about the Gamay at Bjornson, it's a later ripener but the Gamay vines are still young here and that means they could ripen earlier. Then I have my cool sites for later ripening Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc, which should come in last though who knows at this point.

Something will surprise me I'm sure.

Harvest epilogue

It took nine years to get to Pluto. It took about that same amount of time to realize my dream of working full time in wine.

I finally caught a glimpse of it this past summer, just when Pluto came into better view. I was inspired by the excitement, accomplishment, relief everyone who worked on the project must have felt.

The view down Eola Hills Road across the Willamette Valley

So too with me.

The latter part of 2015 became the entry to a new life, a beginning of sorts even if things are clearly somewhere in the middle.

Harvest was the entrance, the first season where I could devote myself completely in a way I never had before.

Autumn moon

I learned some things, some of them things I knew but know in a new way now.

You can't be demanding of others if you aren't demanding of yourself.

You can't be too serious, but if you're not serious about things that matter to you, what do you expect to happen?

And I'm all in with my wine production, no matter what. I'd rather have great and bad than only good. I'm committed to that.

When harvest was done, it came time to ship mailing list orders

In the end, I'm left with one simple wish - please don't let this be all there is. It's that good.

I suppose the next years are all about making sure that wish keeps coming true.

This harvest, we saw visitors of all kinds, including Winnie.

Last days of harvest

My harvest started on September 5 and my last fruit came in September 28. I'd already drained and pressed a few fermenters by then, so already the peak of activity had passed, the fruit sorting equipment put away and the last days of harvest work upon us.

Draining one of the last fermenters of 2015

 This year those final days were a bit sad. Instead of the relief of past years, where I could relax and now worry about how yet another harvest was going to fit in with my day job, this year was the first time I felt sad harvest was ending.

Aerating the new wine to settle for two days before barreling

I wouldn't miss the countless hours at the winery, every day, seven days a week for several weeks. This year I was just able to immerse myself in the harvest like never before. I loved it, even when it was hard. I didn't want to say goodbye but there was no choice.

Freshly filled barrel of Pinot Noir

So it was days of draining fermenters into clean bins to let the wine settle out a bit before filling barrels, then loading the press with a shovel, squeezing out the rest of the new wine, then cleaning the press and reloading.

After one false start, definitely the final punchdown of 2015

Then it's barrel washing with a hot water pressure washer and a special fitting to create a super strong stream of water to clean every inch inside the barrel. Then filling to the top and being careful to not overfill.

When I say handmade and I do the work, here you go

The work is physical, not overwhelming but requiring endurance. Long days followed by long days, one shovel load at a time until all the fermenters are empty and all the barrels filled.

Last barrels filled this year, Temperance Hill vineyard Pinot Noir

The last barrels to be filled were Temperance, the unexpected fruit this harvest that I'm so thankful about. It's been a few months and this wasn't my first harvest, so I can't quite recall that moment when I was done. Totally done, all in barrel and leaving the winery knowing harvest is over.

But it was nearly October 20, several weeks from the start. And I know it was sweet. It always is. Always.

Unexpected fruit

Was a beautiful day on September 28 when we picked at Temperance Hill

Sometimes unexpected things happen, for the good.

One day in the middle of September I was delivering some of my 2014 Ribbon Ridge Pinot Noir to the bar at the SE Wine Collection and ran into Tom Monroe of Division Winemaking Company.

Hey, are you looking for any Pinot Noir? Tom asked. No, I replied. This harvest was large and I'd already turned down several offers of extra grapes.

What if it were special Pinot Noir, Tom persisted.

What does that mean, I replied.

Temperance Hill vineyard. Flat Block early 1980s plantings of Wadenswil clone.

Um, yeah was all I needed to say.

What a stroke of luck. Here was a vineyard that I'd known about since the 1990s. I'd give almost anything for a chance to work with Temperance fruit.

Here's the deal. There's a wait list for Temperance, but Tom has had a block for a few years. When extra fruit came available, Tom couldn't use quite all of it and thought of me.

I focus on the Eola Hills and just moved my production there. I'd love to feature the wine I make here in a single vineyard bottling, but I do have an Eola-Amity Hills AVA bottling that I can work it into if needed.

Freshly destemmed Temperance Hill vineyard Pinot Noir

Temperance would only be a one time thing. I'd rather work with vineyards year over year, but the chance to work with special fruit like this is reason to make an exception.

Free run Temperance Hill vineyard Pinot Noir after 18 days of fermentation

On September 28 we picked the grapes, late for this year but the fruit was still in such great condition. Sugar levels were modest, 21.6 brix, with acidity still bright at 3.39pH after soaking for 24 hours (I'd estimate it started at 3.25pH but I didn't have time to measure it).

Press wine from Temperance - notice the color difference from the free run

I got 1.1 tons of fruit, enough to fill three barrels. The wine fermented wonderfully and is beautifully dense but restrained. It shows what I can only only describe is an old(ish) vine savory richness without adding heaviness.

Gorgeous evening drive home after processing the Temperance fruit

I'm super excited about this wine and hope somehow I can continue working with this vineyard. Stay tuned to hear more about that, but even if there were all there was for me from Temperance, I'd say a dream came true.