October 23, 2008 – 10:30 am
We are testing out this new harvesting machine this year
Last week, we heard from Bill Kremer, Olsen Family Vineyard’s wine maker. This week, Dean Underwood, our vineyard manager weighs in. In addition, check out Olsen’s new “harvesting machine.” We are testing this new machine this year, and will ask Dean to give us all the details. Personally, I think it looks like something out of Star Wars. In the meantime, this is what Dean has to say about the 2008 grape harvest so far:
Greetings from the Vineyard!!!
As I write this update we are well over half way through with harvest and feeling a bit tired but also invigorated by the quality of the fruit we are harvesting. We start picking at 7:00 am and Dave my assistant delivers the bounty by 8:00 -10:00 pm to the winery. These are long days but this is what we look forward to all year long and I get a sense of accomplishment with every cluster we harvest.
This has been a year of challenges with a very late bud break which in turn makes this a later than usual harvest. The late harvest has brought in birds by the thousands that desire the ripe fruit as much as we do so much of our time is spent driving from vineyard to vineyard chasing the birds out.
Our fruit quality is exceptional this year. The flavors have developed very well and I believe 2008 will a red letter year for us. Having Bill Kramer our new wine maker helping judge when and how to harvest has been a huge advantage for us. He has been out in the vineyard with me tasting and sampling on a daily basis for the last several weeks. The juice we have in the tanks was picked at the optimal time and the flavors show this.
The crop this year is lighter than expected. This is due partly because with the late bud break we dropped more of the fruit on the ground to assure ripening before the winter cold and rain shuts the vines down. This has had a payoff in quality but at the expense of some quantity. I believe the biggest thing the Oregon wine industry has going for it is the world class wine we produce and without that quality Oregon couldn’t compete with other regions which produce a high volume of wine. Quality is the name of the game for us.
I’ll check back in later and report on how the harvest ends.
Cheers,
Dean
October 17, 2008 – 3:34 pm
Bill Kremer, Olsen Family Vineyard’s expert wine maker gives us his take on the harvest so far:
The harvest began on October 1, 2008 with both Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir harvesting. The PG came from the NW section of our vineyards ZigZag and East section of Entropy block 3, both were 146 clones. The PN came from Entropy block 3 and block 2, both were clone 777. Fruit quality and chemistry were great. We picked at pretty much ideal analysis numbers; fruit flavors and color were also ideal. Fermentations are progressing on them and the PN should be done fermenting by the end of this week.
We continued harvesting on October 12th, and throughout this week. Most of this harvesting has been PN from Entropy with grapes from all three blocks. We will complete harvest of Entropy PN by Saturday. Also this week were the harvests of PN clone 23 for a rose’, and PG clone 3 for a sweet wine.
We anticipate the remaining PN and PG vineyards will be harvested by next week, with Chardonnay possibly coming in after that.
Overall I am excited about the quality of fruit and feel it will translate to very high quality wine for 2008. Yields were slightly lower than expected from the summer estimation, but with young vines it is hard to accurately estimate. The weather has cooperated nicely since the brief wet spell we had in early October. We have had quite nice mild moderate weather for the grapes to accumulate sugar and moderate the acidity naturally.
Thanks,
Bill Kremer
October 15, 2008 – 12:36 pm
Olsen Family Vineyards would like to take a moment of pause to acknowledge the passing of Oregon wine industry pioneer David Lett, from Eyrie Vineyards.
David Lett, along with his wife Diana, came to the Willamette Valley in the mid 1960s. Settling in the beautiful Dundee area, the Lett’s set an early standard for quality Pinot Noir production in the Willamette Valley and were the first to plant and bottle Pinot Gris in the U.S. With David’s strong vision and ability to promote our region as a premier wine growing area, he helped lay the foundation of where we are today. Olsen Family Vineyards was, and remains, humbled and inspired by his lifelong efforts, consummate professionalism and support of the wineries here.
The Lett family has issued a statement, along with information on where to send condolences and memorialized gifts to David’s favorite causes. More information can be found on the Eyrie Vineyards Website.
David Lett will be dearly missed, and our hearts go out to the Lett family and friends during this time.
October 11, 2008 – 1:04 pm
Ok, there are two things you need to know about the folks at Viridian Wine. 1. We love food! We love to cook it, dine out and talk about it. Number 2. We love entertaining, even if it is a simple meal of cheese and crackers around a campfire or a large casual company picnic with potato salad and burgers.
All these shared meals around here have me thinking more and more about the art of pairing wine with food. Hey, it’s a tough job, somebody has to do it. Opening a bottle of Virdian Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris or Rose to “taste test” along with some new recipes I’ve been trying out on my husband and the rest of the Olsen Family Vineyards crew is hard work, but really rewarding!
So what have I been finding out? All kinds of neat stuff, such as some great resources for learning more about wine pairings. Here are three books I can really recommend:
Everything You Want to Know About Pairing Wine With Food by Robert and Virginia Hoffman. This book is on sale for less than $10.00, but it is chock full of practical advice and is easy to read. The funniest chapter is on pairing wines with fast foods like Kentucky Fried Chicken and Nachos! Ha, Take that wine snobs!
Perfect Pairings: A Master Sommeliers Guide to Practical Advice for Pairing Wine with Food by Evan Goldstein. More expensive, but much more detailed than than the above listed book by the Hoffmans, I like this book because it is very comprehensive. This book also includes 58 recipes and wine suggestions for each as well as six seasonal and special occassion menus. Highly Reccommended!
Food and Wine Pairing: A Sensory Experience by Robert Harrington. Amazon.com has this to say about this HUGE 336 page book. It is sort of the bible on food and wine pairings:
- Lays out the basics of wine evaluation and the hierarchy of taste concepts
- Establishes the foundation taste components of sweet, sour, slat, and bitter in food, and dry, acidity, and effervescence in wine, and looks at how these components relate to one another
- Discusses wine texture, and the results of their interactions with one another
- Examines the impact that spice, flavor type, flavor intensity, and flavor persistency have one the quality of wine and food matches
- Includes exercises to improve skills relating to taste identification and palate mapping
- Provides a systematic process for predicting successful matches using sequential and mixed tasting methods
- Gives guidance on pairing wine with foods such as cheese and various desserts, as well as service issues such as training and menu/wine list development
Anyway, next week I’ll tell you about some of the wine pairing websites and blogs I’ve been reading. I hope this is helpful information for you. I can’t wait to get back in the kitchen and start experimenting some more.
