Greetings from the vineyards!!!

This is the first of my regular reports about our vineyards here at Olsen Family Vineyards.  I am Dean Underwood the vineyard manager and I love to share updates, news and concerns with all who are interested in our grand endeavor.

This has been an interesting spring to say the least.  We have had the coolest weather in 40 or 50 years causing bud break to be about two weeks behind when it occurred in 2006 and one week behind last season.  While this has been a great concern for me I am happy to report that we arrived at bloom yesterday (June 24) so I am certain that our harvest will be timely and our grapes have plenty of time to reach full maturity before the fall rains.  Harvest generally is 110 days following bloom which will put it around the first week of October.  That gives us plenty of time to make excellent Pinots.

I am excited in how healthy our vines look.  They have great color and just the right amount of vigor.  The soil water level is full and the clusters that are just starting to form are as nice as one could hope for.  I’m looking forward to a great vintage.  The La Nina weather pattern that has caused our cool season is breaking up and we should experience a normal summer from here until harvest.  I hope to send out some pictures as the season progresses.

We are just completing planting our newest vineyard at our future winery site.  It is going to be a showcase vineyard for the Willamette Valley with its beautiful views and the winery plans that the design team have put together.  I am very proud of how it is coming together.  As I write this the last few vines are being tucked in.  On this site we have 90 acres of Pinot Noir consisting of five clones, 12 acres of Riesling, and 5 acres of Chardonnay bringing our total spring planting to 112 acres of new planting including 20 acres at our new Todd Vineyard.

If anyone would like to see our vineyards just drop me a line here and we can arrange a visit.  There is nothing I like better than showing off our vineyards.  Drinking our wine would be a close second though.  Have a great week.

Dean