What's on Jean's Kitchen SInk this week?
The wines, the foods,
the people and places in NW wine country.
About Jean Yates Jean first worked with the Oregon wine industry in 1989, when she helped develop marketing brochures for wineries in the South Willamette. She then started Avalon, and has supported the industry through her wine shop and web site ever since. Jean enjoys promoting Oregon and Washington wines and bringing Northwest wines to the notice of the wineloving public. Jean used to work in the computer industry, where she worked in market research on the UNIX operating system and co-authored several books on UNIX. She built and manages the Avalon web site and writes the newsletters and instructional materials for the store. Jean has also written for Wine Today, Organic Gardening Magazine, and Byte Magazine. She has nine cats and lives out in the country in an old farmhouse with a big garden, a bunch of computers, and a lot of telephone lines. Heaven. The photo of Jean at age five, in formal tutu for her ballet recital, shows her at her best. |
Drizzle
Drizzle go away- and it Did-
Willamette Valley Harvest Reports
from Beaux
Freres and Willakenzie Estate
9-18-03
| Washington Harvest Update- The news from David O'Reilly, out in the WA vineyards with a cell phone and purple teeth |
So here I was in super-harvest mode, ready to watch people filling buckets of grapes in the fields, sorting grapes on conveyor belts in the winery, cold soaking grapes in big white plastic containers, all ready to taste some ripe grapes, and .... not yet.
Tuesday, September 16 2003 dawned windy and cloudy, with that typical change of season Pacific Northwest weather- if you don't like the weather, just wait 45 minutes and it will be completely different. As I drove north on 99W, the backbone of Willamette Valley Wine Country, there was sun, rain, mist, fog, and everything in between.
The moisture has mixed effects on the harvest, according to Stephen Goff, Assistant Winemaker at Beaux Freres.
Stephen said, "The grapes are not quite ready yet, and of course, with the moisture today, we'll wait. As long as the winds come up and dry the grapes off, this weather is not a bad thing. The crop is looking good, everything is ready, and we're very close."
Down the road at Willakenzie Estate, I arrived just in time to share a brief downpour with winery co-owner Ronnie LaCroute (at right below).
We stood on the flagstones in the Willakenzie garden, still ablaze with red roses and late season flowers, and watched tractors high up on the hills preparing for harvest. The crush pad at Willakenzie is all set up, just waiting for the first grapes to arrive.
Willakenzie
has some new single vineyard wines, and has, according to Ronnie,
reached capacity, with emphasis now on
viticultural research and development for the Estate vineyards, including
one called "Triple Black Slope".
If you are a skier, you will recognize the term"Triple Black" as indicative of a super steep and difficult ski run. Ronnie says the slope of this vineyard is so steep, it rivals Switzerland's vineyards, known for their cliff-like, mountain climbing style vineyards.
Up in the Willakenzie Tasting Room, there's a lot of nice art on the walls. I put a photo of one of the paintings in the photo tour below, and it's well worth a visit to the tasting room to see the huge old carved wooden bar, the French prints and posters, and the view is of of vertical rows and rows of vines.
Driving past Patricia Green Cellars, I saw Jim forklifting fermenters and wooden grape bins, and I sent a silent affirmation up the driveway---- "You have completed bottling all the 2002's!"----- they were finishing up with bottling the 2002's this last few weeks, as unlike the big wineries, Patty and Jim have to get the previous vintage bottled, out the door into storage, and get barrels and tanks empty and cleaned and ready for the harvest. What a lot of work!
At this point, my van's wheel bearing grinding ominously, I limped back home, a date with the mechanic on the top of my list. I'll be back up there Saturday, hopefully, and will report back to you. I'll get some photos of grape juice yet!
Meanwhile, here are some photos of the Willamette wine country as we approach harvest.
Willakenzie Vineyards - the red dots are roses, planted at the ends
of the rows,
a French custom, continued in the Willamette Valley
Sunflowers at the Trappist Abbey outside Lafayette
99W Between Monroe and Corvallis
Between Beaux Freres and Carlton
Across the road from Laurel Ridge Winery
One of the paintings in the Willakenzie Tasting Room-
there's some
very nice paintings, prints, posters, furniture, well worth a visit
Last Week's Column- Harvest 2003 Countdown
9-11-03 Harvest is relentlessly bearing down on
NW Winemakers
Help!
What winemakers are up to today to get ready.