Blog - From the Winery

Harvest 2010

This is Rob’s 30th vintage making wine – and what a year it’s been so far!

After a long and very wet spring, an unusually cool summer, and a rainy September we started picking grapes about 10 days later than usual.  The first grapes came in on Saturday, October 16th and once they started it was fast and intense.  The last grapes came in yesterday, the 28th.

So in just 12 days we brought in 280 tons of fruit from 17 different vineyards. Eventually  that will make about 17,000 cases of wine.  70% of it fruit was Pinot Noir, and the balance Pinot Gris (with a tiny bit of Riesling and Chardonnay thrown in, the latter goes in our Rosé d’Or).

Those numbers by the way, are down about 20% from our usual.  Why is that you ask? Well, two reasons. The first is because of the cool weather I mentioned above – in an effort to achieve the state of ripeness we’re after, the growers drop (cut off) some of the clusters. This allows what sun and warmth there is, to work it’s magic sooner on the remaining clusters.  And much of what wasn’t dropped on the ground was eaten by the birds.  Late harvests often mean more bird damage, and this one was a doozy.  Every grower was talking about running through their vineyard shooting off shot guns to try and scare them away.  Our friends at Tukwilla planted lovely brightly covered, reflective balloons all around the vineyard to scare them away (the result was quite festive when you drove up the driveway – it looked there was about to be a really good party there!). Some of our vineyards lost as much as half their total crop to birds.  Now that’s a sad number.

However, the fruit that did come in is really lovely.  The sugars are right where we want them, and the cool weather also contributed really good acidity – we love that . (The acidity is a big part of the equation that influences a wines ability to go with food.) And the flavors are highly intense and have distinct fruit flavors.  The Daffodil Hill is intense blueberry, the Winderlea is intense raspberry and the Menefee (a brand new vineyard for us) is intense red cherry.  Everyone who tastes the grapes has the same reaction, it’s quite incredible.

Just because all the fruit is in the barn, doesn’t mean it’s over. Oh no. There is still fermenting, racking, lots and lots of punching down, pressing and eventually moving the wines into barrels.

Our stalwart crew still has a long way to go before we can say that the 2010 vintage is finished.  Good thing they’re having so much fun! (And not to worry they’re well fed – 14 Harvest Dinners and many pots of soup so far!)

P.S. These are just a few of the photos we’ve taken. See more here.

The calm before the Storm

Here it is the 15th of October, and we still have not started Harvest 2010.

Because of the exceptionally cool and wet weather we had this year, we are still waiting for the fruit to ripen. We’re in the middle of a long stretch of sunny and warm days right now so things are looking up.  But we’re hedging our bets against the inevitable rain that will set in toward the end of the month, and the extraordinary number of birds out in the vineyards. For some reason, which no one has quite figured out, the threat (and reality) of bird damage is just huge this year.

So it’s the middle of the month, and not one grape has come into our winery.  It’s eerily quiet. By this time we are usually at least one week into harvest, with everything – people and equipment – going non-stop.

All of the equipment in the winery is ready to go, Rob and the interns spend their days roaming the vineyards, checking on the fruit.  I’m roasting pounds and pounds of tomatoes which will be the base for the delicious, rich tomato sauce I use in dishes throughout the season.  And we’re waiting.

Not to worry. The fruit will ripen and we will make wine in 2010. Lots and lots of delicious wine. Just you wait!

Pinot Lover’s Special – 30% off Pinot Noir

To celebrate Harvest and all things autumn we will soon be offering a fantastic deal: The Pinot Lover’s Special.

On Tues., September 14th, we’ll be notifying you of a special mixed case of R. Stuart & Co. Pinot Noir for 30% off (plus free shipping for Wine Club members)!

Let this note serve as an initial heads up, as the deal will only be available for three days: September 14th, 15th, and 16th.

This is the perfect opportunity to celebrate the season, restock your cellar, or do some early holiday gift shopping.

We’ll send an e-mail first thing Tuesday morning to let you know the deal is on!

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A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Recently an old friend who lives in a major metropolitan area and has never been to Oregon asked me what McMinnville was like.  ”It’s pretty much the middle of nowhere, right?”

I struggled a bit with how to answer that question, because yes, in many ways McMinnville does seem to be the middle of nowhere. With only 32,000 people, we certainly qualify as a small town. An hour and change from the uber-hip Portland, we can just barely bask in that limelight.  Even though we are home to the charming Linfield College, four or more world-class restaurants, and arguably the center of the Oregon wine industry, a city girl like me can’t really deny that we are fundamentally a farm town.

So yep, at first glance you might believe that we are stuck in the middle of nowhere, but hang around a little and you will see that this is a thriving community whose vibrancy belies that casual observation.

I was reminded of this quite vividly last Friday night when on a whim Rob and I decided to take the kids to a free outdoor performance of the new Willamette Shakespeare Company’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.  And what a dream it was! At the last minute we threw together a picnic – the centerpiece of which was this zesty Saffron Rice Salad, adapted from The Splendid Table.

Then we whisked ourselves off to Stoller Vineyards where this outstanding performance of the Shakespeare comedy would be performed. The Stollers are so generous – they frequently allow their beautiful property to be used for non-profit and fundraising causes. The ever-so picturesque Oak Grove park that perfectly compliments their vast vineyard was the ideal setting for the play.  It was Shakespeare exactly the way he intended it to be performed.

A wonderful evening ensued complete with outstanding theater, plastic cups of the Stoller’s wine, sharing tastes from our neighbors’ picnic baskets and all the kids alternately watching the performance with rapt attention and running off into the fields when the dialogue got too “Shakespearean”!

As the story progressed and the moon came out, the magical quality of the evening really began to shine.  Another friend told me later that this particular kind of moon is known as a Rogue Moon. We tried to look that up and find out just what it meant, but sadly Google failed us.  Never mind, it does seem to be a fitting description for the kind of evening it was, right here in the middle of nowhere.

42% off Big Fire Summer Sampler Case!!!

Love Groupon(R)? Then we have a special for you! Just like a Groupon, for 72 hours you will have the chance to purchase our Big Fire Summer Sampler Case (4 Big Fire Pinot Noirs, 4 Big Fire Pinot Gris, 4 Big Fire Dry Rosés) for 42% off retail.

For only $109.04 (pesky percentages) you can enjoy your Big Fire case of wine (a $188 value) all summer long. The only caveat? At least 20 cases need to be purchased in order for the deal to be active.

So, tell your friends and family (or anyone who loves great wine for a great price), then go to our online store or call 866.472.8614 starting Monday, June 14th at 9 a.m. PDT to purchase your case (or cases!).

When we reach that 20 case number, the sale will go through. If we don’t make it, you won’t be charged, and we’ll try again at a later date.

Buy Now!

Please note, no other offers or discounts may be combined with this sale.

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