2008 Winemaker's Harvest

At the beginning of October we were looking at a disaster and right now at the beginning of November we are looking at a triumph. We were blessed with weeks of beautiful weather, low yields and fruit (for those who were patient) that will make some truly beautiful wines. This was a long harvest (picking began on September 25th and stopped on Halloween); it is also one of the finest.
Tanks are at all points of readiness from going to barrel, fermenting, just starting and cold soaking. We picked uniformly colored fruit this year anywhere from 23 – 27 brix and all had very balanced acids. The weather was perfect (50 – 70 degrees and sunny every day) making this is a vintage very much about the vineyard, not the weather. Although all the wines are concentrated, deep and easily extracted, every tank is different and each vineyard really shows their pedigree and heritage.

After the cold soaks we backed down to only one punch down or less per tank, down from the normal three or four. The wines have plenty of stuffing and tannin. We have, however, for the first time in years, felt that we could wait to press until the cap fell, maybe 20 to 25 days in tank. The wines build in a balanced way with the extra time on the skins as the fermentation finishes out. Also for the first time in years, the natural acids are balanced, pure and give focus to the wines. Unfortunately, we are down 15% - 20% in quantity as we had yields of 1.5 to 2 tons per acre almost everywhere and in some cases less.

The vintage seems to be a cross between 1999, 2000 and 2002. The wines have all the lush fruit and elegance of the 1999 vintage, the structure and concentration of the 2000 vintage and the natural balance, acidity and sense of place that so characterized the 2002 vintage.

Ahoy Matey!

September 19th marked 2008's International Talk Like a Pirate Day. A to Z celebrated in true pirate form to mark the launching of A to Z to cyberspace on PinotNoir.com. Complete with Pirate's Booty, frothy non-alcoholic grog, Jack Sparrow and skeletons; A to Z's launch in to cyberspace was a bang.

Hawk Release

Rex Hill Vineyards was the site for the release of two rehabilitated Red-Tailed Hawks. Throughout the year, the Audubon Society of Portland's Wildlife Care Center releases rehabilitated, injured or orphaned wildlife back to the wild. These two birds were found in our area and we were delighted that the Audubon Society chose the Rex Hill gardens as the release location so that the birds were able to come back to familiar surroundings. Cellar club members were invited to come watch on Monday, September 15. Although the birds were certainly the stars of the show, we poured some wines to celebrate. Deb Hatcher was invited to release the juvenile. The site proved ideal and will be used again this fall for rehabilitated, migrating hawks.

Picnic

The heat wave began to break for the annual all-company A to Z picnic in the Rex Hill gardens on Sunday. The Jesse James Gang presented a great barbeque dinner capped by brownies and sundaes with fresh blackberries. Fun and games galore for all ages!

Waiting for Veraison

Summer Events

Summer is in full bloom and we are enjoying the many visitors to the Willamette Valley.





June 24, we kicked off the summer events with the annual Grower’s Appreciation Dinner held in the Rex Hill gardens and catered by Haagenson’s BBQ of Carlton, OR. The only requirement for attendance from our 70 growers was drawing a pig… with their eyes closed and never lifting the pen.





July 25-27 was the 22nd annual International Pinot Noir Celebration. Rex Hill hosted a luncheon with Craig Hetherington of Taste in Seattle, WA. Excellent dishes including Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho were served. Troops of flamingos led guests to environmental features such as our insectary and employee's organic garden to help them complete their sustainable scorecard.





August 2-3, the Rex Hill, A to Z, William Hatcher, Francis Tannahill conglomerate had the pleasure of hosting Plate and Pitchfork’s first vineyard dinner at Jacob Hart Vineyards. Miraculously in a matter of hours a restaurant appeared in the midst of the vines, without so much as running water.





Nadine Lew and Michael Davies each led a tour around the biodynamic crown jewel of Rex Hill, Jacob Hart Vineyards. Saturday night, Portland chefs Vito Dilullo of Ciao Vito and Rich Meyer of Higgins cooked a wonderful meal. On Sunday chefs Gabriel Rucker of Le Pigeon and Eric Moore of Victory teamed up to cater for 112 people, with dishes such as lamb’s tongue nuggets and pickled pig’s ears.
Many thanks to Erika and Emily of Plate and Pitchfork for their hard work. Also thanks to Leslie and Manuel of Viridian Farms and Casey and Katie of Oakhill Organics for their delicious, organic produce.

New News Fridays

In any business, in any job, there's the possibility of becoming insular. We do a lot of things around the winery to try and avoid this, from tastings to seminars to market work.

Tasting the same wines day in and day out gives you a palate for a particular style, and the blind tastings we offer our staff help to shake us out of a particular flavor rut, make sure we're not getting too comfortable with our own preferences. Similarly the wine education classes and seminars we offer remind us that there are wine worlds outside of our (albeit beautiful and world class) particular wine region. Which is a good thing to remember right now, in particular, as our stunning valley hosts the International Pinot Noir Celebration this weekend.

• Pinot Plastic Forbes
  According to an October 2007 study from the American Association of Wine Economists, the production and distribution of wine is responsible for roughly 6.3 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions, or nearly 1% of global emissions annually. That's equivalent to the emissions generated by 1 million passenger cars each year, with nearly all of that impact coming from the transportation of the wine, not the production of it.


• Aging Gracefully The New Zealand Herald
  In this age of instant gratification, most wines are polished off within 24 hours of purchase. Few of us now take the time to cellar our wines, but those with the restraint to squirrel away some well-chosen bottles can reap rich rewards in following a wine down a fascinating path from youthful exuberance to mellow old age.


• Route of the Golden Vine – a Chardonnay journey of discovery South African Wine News
  Meredith determined that the finicky and pedantic Pinot grapes (Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris) all have the same DNA. It is thought that the cross-pollination of the two varieties resulted in the first Chardonnay vine in Burgundy, which has been determined as the birthplace of this variety.


• Rosé: A perfect Summer Sipper The Statesman Journal
  Rosé, such a pretty, refreshing, tasty wine, it's no wonder the recent years have seen a dramatic increase in popularity. But is it just a trend, a passing fancy, waiting for the next fad to come along and take its place? Not according to some noteworthy Oregon winemakers.


• Messages in a Bottle: Ode to the Blended Wine Vinography
  Growing up in America cripples us wine lovers from the very start. Sure, we are born into the land of boundless opportunity, where the dreams and hard work of a vineyard worker can result in the ownership of a winery twenty years later. But unless our parents provide us with a very particular upbringing, we grow up thinking that wine isn't wine unless it has the name of the grape on the front of the label.
  America and its wine lovers have a varietal bias.


• Sip and Sup amid the Magic of Marlborough The Australian
  The wineries transmute their grapes into the sauvignon blanc that has seduced the world, chardonnay, pinot gris and pinot noir, methode traditionnelle sparklers and, increasingly, aromatics such as riesling and gewurztraminer, so there's plenty of opportunity to taste the terroir. But there's more, and in particular the good food that goes hand in glove with committed wineregions.


• Oregon and California pinot noirs are very different The Statesman Journal
  The California wine industry begot the Oregon wine industry. And in return, one might say, Oregon's premium pinot noir industry begot California's premium pinot industry. … But California cool, is not Oregon cool. How different are they? Let's explore, comparing two giants of their respective states. … While completely different, and enjoyable in their own right, these two sets of wine are separated by one distinctive characteristic. The Oregon wines have slightly better acidity, making them more food friendly.


• Keeping Close to Home with Eco-Friendly wines from Oregon The Oregonian
  Of the many forms of green-farming being embraced by Oregon vintners, biodynamic agriculture is perhaps the most exciting and least understood. This holistic approach draws its methods from traditional agrarian societies. By treating the farm as a single, self-sufficient organism, practitioners of biodynamics preserve habitat, conserve water and make a negligible carbon footprint.