Thanksgiving Weekend and Beyond

What a weekend. We met some very enjoyable people on our tours this weekend. I sure appreciate you all joining us for Thanksgiving Weekend. I hope you tasted some wines that you maybe didn't know about and found something you loved. The weather was certainly cold, but other than that, very nice. It was sure better than the last two years. I can't remember past that...
I really want to thank our friends at Owen Roe and Styring for being such awesome hosts. They both do such a fantastic job and are such nice people and make such nice wines. I really enjoy those wineries.
We had several vans out on Friday and Saturday and I think that every year that we do this I learn a little more. I think that when Memorial Day weekend comes around I will do specific tours. A high end Pinot / Red wine tour, a more fun tour featuring places with great foods, live music, gifts, etc..., and a more custom tour. Any comments on that? I find that sometimes I try to just focus on the very high end, small boutique wineries which also have higher prices. Some people are out more for just the fun of it and not to just taste the best wines necessarily.
Now it's time to look at getting some wine for the Christmas dinner and for presents. Don't forget to think of us when your family comes into town for a wine country tour. We also do gift certificates in any amount. You can buy someone an all inclusive wine tour with a wine makers dinner or $100 towards a tour or what ever you like. I want to try to provide an easy alternative for you for that hard to buy for wine lover or a special treat for the love in your life. Don't forget mom and dad, they love wine too.
Have a fantastic holiday season everyone. Now go open up a nice bottle of wine and enjoy a festive holiday show on tv with someone you love.

Cheers,

Ron

Winter Wine Tours

I am constantly getting calls asking if we do tours on Sundays or tours in December or.... The answer is YES! I'm open all year for wine tours. The best days are Wednesday through Sunday and honestly, I think the winter months are an excellent time to go wine tasting because the tasting rooms are less crowded so you get much more one on one attention from the tasting room staff. Every time of year has pros and cons so overall, the winter months are a good time to get out and enjoy some fantastic wines.

Cheers,

Ron

Oregon's Wine Harvest

Well this has been an interesting harvest in 2007. Right in the middle of September when everyone is almost ready to start picking, the rains came... At this point, I'm sure that all of the wine makers are on the phone with the other area wine makers asking, "we'll are we going to pick or wait for the sun to come back...?" You see in Oregon, we usually get a beautiful Indian summer, but when and will it actually come are the key points there.
2007 will go down as a year of the real wine makers. This will separate the men from the boys and the women from the girls. Those who are good, will make some exceptional wines and those who aren't... won't... I've already heard some very interesting stories of what some are doing in the wineries.
I guess you'll just have a book a tour to find out who's who...

Cheers!

Ron

It's Fall in Oregon???

Well, it sure seems like fall anyway. Here is a shot I took on Sunday, Sept. 9, 2007 at Bethel Heights Winery outside of Salem, OR. They have a beautiful location and some great wines. They are one of that areas first wineries and one of the earlier wineries in the Willamette Valley.
It's been a bit of a cool summer. The grapes are looking fairly good overall, but we just need a couple weeks of solid, warm, intense sun to finish these babies off. Quantities are good too so this has the potential to be a very good year. Tours have been very busy and we are taking out a lot of very interesting and enjoyable people. I've taken people out this summer from all over the country and world. I think people are really catching on and finding out about our wines here. They are good. We went to the Salem area again today and visited some excellent wineries. One in particular, Firesteed, is really a great stop every time. Michael, the tasting room manger there is honestly one of the best, most well informed tasting room staff anywhere here in the valley. If you ever stop in to Firesteed Winery, you will see what I mean. People just like Michael are exactly why I became so pationate about wine. He really makes the experience a good one. It is still a joy to go to a tasting room at almost all of the wineries here. You find very well informed staff, very excited to talk to you about wine and where to eat, the next winery to go to or which wine would be best to buy to enjoy with their lunch out on the patio.
I am a very lucky person to do what I do here in Oregon. We really do have a lot of very excellent people here who really love wine and sharing it with others.

Cheers!

Ron

Wine Facts

I'm often asked how many clusters of grapes make a bottle of wine or things like that. My answer is usually "I don't know"... I hate saying that, but I don't know everything and I don't want to lie to you either. So I decided that I would put that information out on the blog along with the link to web site that I found all of the information on. This is a lot of fun stuff so I hope you enjoy it.
There are about 400 species of oak, though only about 20 are used in making oak barrels. Of the trees that are used, only 5% is suitable for making high grade wine barrels. The average age of a French oak tree harvested for use in wine barrels is 170 years!
As of this year (Sept. 2007) the average cost of a French Oak wine Barrel is $900 each! The price can go a little lower and a bit higher, but that's a good average.
The figures below are adjusted for Oregon Pinot Noir so to reflect this area. Also remember these are averages...

2 grape cluster = 1 glass
80 grapes = 1 cluster
6 clusters = 1 bottle
40 clusters = 1 vine
1 vine = 10 bottles
1200 clusters = 1 barrel
1 barrel = 60 gallons
60 gallons = 25 cases
30 vines = 1 barrel
400 vines = 1 acre
1 acre = 2 tons
2 tons = 132 cases

Another question I'm frequently asked is what the different sized wine bottles are called. I know the first couple, but you would be surprised how big they can get.
How big can a wine bottle get?
Capacity (Liters) followed by the number of standard size bottles contained:
Standard (.75) 1
Magnum (1.5) 2
Jeroboam (3) 4
Rehoboam (4.5) 6
Methuselah (6) 8
Salmanazar (9) 12
Balthazar (12) 16
Nebuchadnezzar (15) 20
Tell me... How does Nebuchadnezzar rate anyway?

Some more interesting stuff.

What is the ideal temperature for wine?
Whites: chilled (45-55 degrees F) for a few hours in the refrigerator.
Reds: slightly cooler than room temperature (about 65 degrees)
Sparkling Wine: thoroughly chilled; refrigerate several hours or the night before serving.
Dessert Wine: room temperature. (I prefer it ice cold myself).

Chilling tones down the sweetness of wine. If a red wine becomes too warm, it may lose some of its fruity flavor. Just don't put an ice cube in your red wine. OK?

Well there is some interesting facts for you. Hope you enjoyed it. Now go open a nice glass of Pinot and enjoy!

Cheers!

Wine Tours

I guess if you are looking at this blog then you probably found me through my web site. First of all, thank you for checking us out. I do hope that you find us to be the right service for you and that you give us a chance. We do appreciate your business.
I've only been doing this for a little over three years now and we have honestly learned a ton. I am constantly doing continuing education because I feel it's important to you. I want my guests to be able to feel comfortable in the tasting room, learn a little about wine and to have a great time.
Some tours really want to learn a lot about wine, the vineyards and gain in knowledge. Some tours want to go out and drink wine and have someone drive them around safely. Some tours are on day outings through work and really don't care. Honestly, I do prefer the first group. I love to share with you the things that I am passionate about. But I also know that all three groups are still out to have a fun day and I want to make sure that I do everything I can to make that happen for you. I love what I do and feel very fortunate to be able to provide our service to you, no matter what category you fall in.
We have such wonderful people here in the Oregon Wine Industry and you find many exciting things happening all the time. This is a wonderful industry to be part of and I really want to share that with you, our guests.
I recently read a little advertisement about us and was a little taken back by what I read. I won't tell you where it was. They wrote the little article without talking to us at all. They said that we are a family run business which is true. My wife and I own Oregon Wine Tours together. They did say that we are a "no frill" tour company and that I have to argue with. Well, I've never run my van off the road and I've never had a fight break out in my van and we've never seen alien space vehicles while out touring a vineyard so maybe that's what they meant? We do provide very customized tours which can include wine makers dinners / lunches. We can do side trips, we provide full winery tours at select locations to show you how the wine is made from vineyard to tasting room. We do what ever you want of us, within reason. It's your day and we want to cater to your needs. As much as possible anyway. We've even played disco on the stereo and had rousing sing-alongs. That was a long day! We have excellent relationships with the wineries and can get you into many places that are by appointment only. We don't think wine is so special that it can't be shared by all. We just want to have fun and make sure you do too. It's really that simple.

Cheers,

Ron

What's an AVA?

Wine grape production occurs in predominantly five regions of Oregon: the north Willamette Valley, south Willamette Valley, Umpqua Valley, Rogue and Applegate valleys, Columbia Gorge, and Columbia Valley. Within those regions, Oregon now has 15 AVA's. Big whoop you say! It's a good thing actually. A.V.A. stands for American Viticultural Area. Some of the requirements necessary to petition for an AVA are evidence that growing conditions such as climate, soil, elevation, and physical features are distinctive. Obviously you have to have very distinct boundries outline on a map. Petitioners are required to provide such information when applying for a new AVA.
Once an AVA is established, at least 85% of the grapes used to make a wine must be grown in the specified area if an AVA is referenced on its label.
State or county boundaries — such as for Oregon or Napa County — are not AVAs, even though they are used to identify the source of a wine. One twist that will daze and confuse you I'm sure is that A vineyard may be in more than one AVA.
For example, there are many hills and valleys here in the Northern Willamette Valley that have very different soil or climatic zones than the areas around them. The Red Hills of Dundee for example has red clay-loam soils that were deposited here by ancient floods. Jory soils are typically 4-6 feet in depth and consist of a brick colored silty, clay loam. Also, the Dundee Hills benefits from being drier and warmer than many pockets that surround it. The Red Hills is also in the Willamette Valley AVA.
The Chehalem Ridge is Oregon's newest AVA (just approved on Dec. 27, 2006). It's home to over 31 wineries and has over 1600 acres planted on it. The Chehalem Ridge stretches for almost 20 miles from as far South and East as Wilsonville and as far West and North as Forest Grove.
As of February 2006, Oregon viticulture comprises more than 14,000 planted acres, 314 wineries, and 15 American Viticultural Areas (AVA’s). The first vineyards in Oregon were planted in the southern part of the state in the late 1800’s in Jackson, Josephine, and Douglas counties. Not until David Lett planted Pinot Noir on the Red Hills outside of Dundee in 1966 had anyone thought about planting any grape vines this far north however. Boy if I could go back in time and buy land in that area then... Of course I don't think the sale would have been legal since I didn't even know how to spell my name at that time.
All in all, AVA's are good. They designate a wine to a specific growing area. Once you know your growing areas, you start to taste a difference. You start to see areas that are best for growing certain types of fruit. You can't grow a good cabernet here in the Northern Willamette Valley but the Umpqua region can grow very good Cabernet. Honestly though, I prefer the Cabernet from the Walla Walla AVA. That's what AVA's are all about. Giving you more information to help you choose wines you like more than others. We have all gone into a wine store and looked at all of those labels and just wondered which one to pick. This is just one more piece of information to help you out. Now all you have to do is memorize and become familiar with all 235+ AVA's in the United States and you are well on your way to becoming one of the foremost experts in American Wine. Good Luck!

Cheers!

Ron

Bud Break / Spring Time / Soil Types, etc...

I've been out in numerous vineyards over the last couple of weeks and just the last few days have been seeing some of the vineyards experiencing bud break. The vines go into dormancy over the winter months and when the warmer weather and longer days come, the vines will come back to life. You can look at the shoots and begin to see the little buds popping out. Now is when all of the vineyard managers start to get excited and a bit edgy. It's imperative that we don't get any bad frosts or heavy cold rainy weather. That's what causes the years when they don't have a lot of fruit or poor quality fruit to make the wine with. At least one of the causes. This is farming after all. The weather is now in the drivers seat. There is only so much we can do to the crops to bring them to the perfect fruit that we all desire.

The elevation and soil type are also huge factors which I didn't understand when I first got into wine. There are several types of soil just here in the Willamette Valley. The soil is a large part of what the French call Terroir(tear-wahr). In Burgundy, which is the area in France where they grow Pinot Noir, their soil is a limestone composition. Ours is much different. Vineyard acreage here is mainly divided between hillside sites on basaltic-origin, clay-loam soils yielding grapes with intense fruit character, and lower-elevation sites on sedimentary, silt-loam soils providing grapes with great structure. To simplify that more, think of the higher elevation sites as having fruit that is rich with red fruit (strawberry, raspberry, etc.)characteristics and the lower elevation sites have more black fruit (spicy black raspberry, blackberry, dark cherry) characteristics.
Of course these are generalities. There are several soil types and varieties of each that are unique. That is exactly why there are AVA's. American Viticultural Areas. I'll go into more detail about that at another time.
The elevations are also key because small elevation changes not only effect soil types, but growing conditions. The higher you go, the cooler it gets. Even from 200 feet elevation (the valley floor is around 100-150 feet above sea level - generally speaking) to as high as 1250 feet. Those vineyards don't always produce fruit because they are not able to fully ripen. The days don't get as warm and the growing season is just a tiny bit shorter. I tend to really like the higher elevations sites for several reasons. One they tend to produce fruit that is a little more earthy in character because the vines have to go down so far to get water. Those vines then pull much more of the minerals from the soil which also produces those rich red fruit characteristics I mentioned.
Do I have you confused yet or do you think you understand a little more about wine? Let me know. I would really love to know what you think. The main thing and most important, just enjoy the wine that you enjoy. Don't let anyone else change your opinion of what you like. Wine Spectator is not the end all to what are the best wines. That's only some people's opinion, not necessarily yours! I know I've had people tell me they didn't like a particular wine or winery and I let that influence my opinion until I, later, tasted that wine again and thought to myself, I really like this wine. I may know more than some on wine and there are plenty of others that know way more than I do. Just because someone else knows more doesn't mean that you will agree with "their opinion". Amen. Now go drink some wine!

Cheers,

Ron