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The raw stuff! Michael Etzel, wet from Wednesday's rain, taste tests the first batch of his 2001 vintage, straight from the fermenter.

Ken Wright joins a gang of volunteers on the sorting line, pulling out anything that would harm the integrity of the fruit that goes into the fermenter.

October 2001
by Cole Danehower
Oregon Wine Report

2001
Harvest Updates

"We got full ripeness," said Ken Wright, of Ken Wright Cellars, as the rain poured down on October 10, "that's the important thing!" But it was a close call. Unlike the last three vintages (and more like a typical Oregon autumn) the rains came just as the fruit ripened. That's a good thing, part of what makes Oregon's Pinot noir fruit so fine, but it is also a risky thing as winemakers gamble on the weather in the hopes of getting just a few more days of hang time on the grapes. And this year, for many it was a race to get the grapes harvested in time.

"We brought some fruit in as early as September 25," said Michael Etzel, of Beaux Freres, "but we really worked hard to pick the rest before the storms came in."

And they did come in. Sunday, October 7 saw as much as an inch of rainfall in some Willamette Valley locations. Monday was clear and warmer. Tuesday was cloudier and cooler, but not rainy. Wednesday, it rained all day.

Rain during harvest can have the effect of swelling the grapes with water and diluting the juice. It can also promote mold and rot if the rain is followed by warm, muggy weather. For the most part, neither of these ills seemed present at the wineries I visited and the winemakers I talked with.

"I'm really pleased with the fruit quality," remarked Mike Etzel as he dipped a glass into his first batch of primary fermentation-complete wine to prove his point. Unpressed, the violet colored cloudy liquid, straight from the fermenter, had big assertive and fruity aromas and carried strong and clean flavors----it boded well for the quality of the vintage. "We had sugars at 25 and 26 brix, with excellent flavors" said Michael as he evaluated his first raw wine of the 2001 vintage.

Ken Wright echoed Michael's feeling about the harvest. "Sugars were great and flavors were too," he told me. "The fruit coming in is really clean and looks great, plus we're getting really good quantities; I'm very pleased."

Still, everyone had to work hard and harvest fast. Many wineries, like Domaine Serene and Rex Hill, had been harvesting for days before the first rains. And even though many unharvested grapes went through the two days of decent rain, good weather followed through the rest of the week, helping reduce any dilution and allowing the brix levels to climb back up."

"I'm very happy with the vintage," said Ken Wright.

So, is this the fourth great Oregon vintage in a row? It's too early to say quite yet, but so far all the indications are that we have another winner!

Next week: Harvest round-up from Southern Oregon

October 6

Full, ripe clusters of blue-black berries hung silently from the vines of Broadley Vineyards in Monroe, Oregon, as I stood looking out over the southern Willamette Valley. It was ideal picking weather. Earlier in the week Broadley had begun their 2001 harvest by bringing in purchased fruit from nearby Alpine Vineyards. Now they were ready to pick their estate grapes. I was there to help.

Craig Broadley and Morgan Broadley are happy to get harvest underway.
copyright 2001
Oregon Wine Report

Monroe may not be considered the hub of Willamette Valley Pinot noir country, but the Broadleys have demonstrated that this warm area can produce distinctive and superb wines. Their flagship Pinot, Claudia's Choice, is consistently excellent, and their Reserve bottling is among the best values in Oregon Pinot noir. And, the fact that the winery is entirely a family run, hand-operated endeavor increases the charm and appeal of their wines. Helping out with crush at the Broadley's is about as close to a Burgundy-style harvest that you can get in this country!

Harvest here is a few days before most of the northern Willamette Valley--- it is warmer weather and the grapes ripen a tad earlier. We began on Wednesday with the temperature at 83 and the skies sparkling blue. Early in the morning, while there is still a touch of chill in the air, yellow bins are spread out at the ends of the rows to be picked, and rapidly filled with cut clusters.

Freshly harvested grapes in the early morning sun at Broadley Vineyards.
copyright 2001
Oregon Wine Report

Warmed by the advancing sun, biting into the clusters reveals sweet and tasty juice. Spreading the pips across the back of your hand, you can see the brown tinge of lignification, one of the indications of fully ripe fruit---along with Craig and Morgan's approval of the berries' taste. Crush a few more grapes onto a handheld hydrometer to get the brix reading, then taste a few more clusters from a different row . . . Good!. The grapes are ready.

Once filled, the bins are loaded into one of the two Broadley trucks and driven the short distance to the winery in "downtown" Monroe (there is not that much town to Monroe, so most everything there is downtown). If everything is ready, processing begins as soon as the grapes arrive. But if processing of previous loads is in progress, the newly arrived pickings go into a cold room where they are chilled while they wait to help prevent rot and premature fermentation.

At Broadley, they earn their wine: the important stuff is done by hand . . . and foot.

We lift each bin off the truck, move it to a pallet, and bin-by-bin, bucket brigade style, move the grapes up and into the destemmer. The destemmed fruit is shoveled into wooden or steel fermenters where it is left to begin fermenting using indigenous yeast. At least twice a day, the cap (all the seeds and skins that rise to the top of the fermenter) needs to be punched down in order to get an even fermentation. This is accomplished by climbing to the top of the tank and literally stomping down on the cap to break it and turn it back down into the juice.

This is not as fun as it sounds! In the 3-ton wooden fermenters, you have to balance on the thin tank edge (I had to use the aid of a "sissy bar" of wood across the open top) and stomp down hard on the remarkably firm cap--- all while holding on tight to ensure you don't sink down below the surface of the purple goo! The edges of the tank are cool at first, with the harder to reach center having a foot-pleasing warmth of early fermentation. When you are done punching down the cap, though, the temperature at the top is more even, and lots of juice from below has risen to cover the pips and skins.

Claudia Broadley-of Claudia's Choice fame.

The first week of Broadley's harvest was exceptionally smooth. The grapes looked great, the weather was warm, and though there was a hint of light showers in the coming week, the picking pace was steady and productive. Fellow volunteer Jay McDonald, of The Tasting Room in Carlton, and I were treated to Claudia's home cooking, and lunches featuring last year's Broadley wines.

The raw materials that go into fine wine: fine Pinot noir grapes.

In the coming weeks, Broadley will press and move to barrel their 2001 vintage. How good will it be? Too early to tell. But I remember seeing Craig Broadley, when he didn't know I was behind him, turn on the spigot to one of the 3-ton wooden fermenters, and take a taste of the brand new juice. I heard him say, just under his breath, "good . . . really good!"

Next week: we'll check in with Beaux Freres and see how their harvest is coming.

October 1

It rained! The sugars were developing, the colors looked great, grapes were scant days away from full-on picking . . . and then it rained in the Willamette Valley.

Last week for a good two days the rain came down, lightly but steadily. It was by no means a disaster, but it did delay harvest for many wineries.

There are two key problems with rain at this time of year. First, as the ground becomes wet, the vines take up extra water. This serves to lower the sugar levels in the grapes by effectively diluting the pulp with undesirable water. And second, the dampness caused by the rain can lead to the development of molds and fungus that affect the grapes, potentially reducing the size of the crop or even the quality of the juice.

Just how bad these effects are depend on how heavy the rains are, what kind of weather follows the rain, and the overall exposure of the vineyards. Luckily, for most vineyards in the Willamette Valley, the rains were not severe, and a good period of drying weather has moved in.

So far, it seems that the worst result of last week's rains are to reduce sugar levels by a small amount, perhaps one or two degrees brix. This simply means that grapes which would have been harvested at the end of this week, probably won't be picked for another week or so. Hardly a disaster. In fact, not much more than a minor bump in the road, soon to be forgotten as the autumn sun comes back to warm the grapes.

As always this time of year, winegrowers continue to look anxiously at the sky and the long-range weather reports. Now that the early rains have left, and the forecasts look warm and dry, everyone is getting back to normal, testing the grapes, tasting the grapes, and preparing for the final harvest and crush.

More next week!

September 29

It's Harvest Time in Oregon! What will the 2001 Vintage Bring?

by Cole Danehower

There's a slight chill in the morning air, long shadows finger their way down the vine rows, and outside the vineyard yellow billowy maple leaves float across the rural roads . . . it is Autumn . . . it is harvest time in Oregon's wine country.

Oregon's Harvest

If you are only familiar with California wines, this may come as a surprise to you. After all, many California varietals have been harvested since August. It is surprising to many, but being only one state further north gives Oregon a significantly different growing season than California. And in the Willamette Valley, the heart of Oregon's Pinot noir country, its location along the 45th parallel (roughly the same as Burgundy) means the region harvests 3-4 weeks after California.

This year's harvest is beginning (or began, depending on when you read this), generally at the end of September. By the middle of September some Oregon wineries had already received their first fruit: Syrah from Southern Oregon or vineyards in Washington and Oregon's Walla Walla and Columbia regions.

For instance, Ken Wright Cellars, one of the most respected Pinot noir producers in the state, had crushed and was ready to ferment small quantities of Syrah by September 20. Similarly, Domaine Serene at that time was well along in their Syrah fermentation. But, these are generally sideline grapes for Willamette Valley vintners; by the last week of September, most Pinot noir wineries were beginning to receive their first Pinot noir fruit of the 2001 vintage.

Harvesting on the Edge

Unlike winemakers in California, Oregon producers tend to be a nervous bunch around harvest time. You see, Oregon's northerly location means that it is at the edge of the climate for growing varietals like Pinot noir. So, just as the grapes are reaching their optimal ripeness, the weather is starting to change. In some years, the difference between a great crop and a mediocre one might be the change in weather on a single day.

Harvesting the best fruit is always a variable enterprise, with each winemaker using their own experience and judgment to decide just when to pick. And when the weather can change on a dime, all of that experience can go to nought, turning what the winemaker thought was "great hang time" into "soaked, diluted grapes."

"In 2000 it started raining on October 9," recalls Ken Wright, "and we had finished picking our last grapes on October 8!" Imagine if he had delayed harvesting by even a few days!

The 2001 Vintage: Promise and Problem

As I write this, it is still unclear just what kind of a vintage it will be. Most wineries are still a few days away from picking their grapes, and so far the weather continues to be sunny and reasonably warm. If it changes within the next 7-10 days, it could turn a promising vintage into a poor one . . . or, if it stays warm and bright, it could produce another great year for Oregon wine.

There is one problem to the Pinot noir vintage, however, that weather at harvest time won't solve.

In early August, temperatures in the Willamette Valley suddenly spiked upward, with highs above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Though they didn't stay that high for long, the heat did cause damage to the grapes that many winemakers had never seen before. By some estimates, 20-50% of the Pinot noir grapes ended up becoming shriveled and desiccated due to the high heat . . . an unprecedented development. One winemaker told the Oregon Wine Report that "in 23 years of making wine I've never seen this before!"

So is this a disaster for the vintage? Not necessarily. Grapes that were not affected by the abnormal heat seem to be in excellent condition. But the challenge for winemakers will be finding ways to exclude the damaged berries from the final fruit they use to make their wine. Likely, this will mean a tremendous emphasis on hand-sorting, careful picking, and a smaller effective crop of usable grapes. But, those healthy grapes look to be as fine as anything we've seen in the last few years.

Like so many other Oregon vintages, 2001 presents winemakers with a unique set of variables. And like all vintages, there will be no single description of the vintage that will apply to all the wines. Depending on where the grapes come from and how carefully the winemakers approach their task, there is every reason to believe that 2001 will provide consumers with great wines . . . on a par with the best from the last three of Oregon's great vintages!

Come See the Harvest for Yourself!

Many people are understandably reluctant to travel right now, but a pleasant car trip to the Oregon wine country may be just what the doctor ordered for those of us upset by recent events.

Many Oregon wineries welcome "amateur" help during harvest time. Call ahead and ask if you can pitch in and sort grapes (and take a direct role in improving that quality of the vintage!), haul totes, or simply lend a hand during the harvest. It can be a great way to get closer to the wines you love.

And, for more reports on the Oregon harvest, check back soon, since I'll be updating this as we know more about Vintage 2001!