FALL IN THE VINEYARD – THE EQUINOX AND WAITING

The Fall Equinox happened September 22.  That’s my assigned blog day, and though I’m running late, it’s still worth observing.  Walking in the vineyard this time of year, and freezing, canning and drying the bounty of orchard and garden, I am reminded of how blessed we are to live in a place where we can [...]

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The return of vitis sylvestris

They say all modern European winegrapes (vitis vinifera) are descendents of an ancient ancestor known as vitis sylvestris (grapevine of the woods), which used trees as its trellis system.  It grabbed onto branches with its tendrils so it could climb into the sunshine to ripen its fruit, which was much enjoyed by our own Neolithic [...]

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Summer Visiting – not over yet!

Summer is certainly not over yet at Bethel Heights. It started a month late, and we’re going to make it last as long as we can. We’re keeping our tasting room open full time through October, instead of going back to weekends-only after Labor Day like we used to do, and we are continuing to [...]

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Three Rivers Wine Auction….who gets those wine donations, anyway?

I remember when we were first getting started as a winery, and the calls began coming in to donate wine for various causes.  An old timer in the business said to me, tongue in cheek, “you know you can give it all away really easy.” Wow….such an easy marketing plan. 
 Over the years we’ve gotten [...]

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Pinot Blanc appreciation

Our good friend Jacques called our attention to this word of appreciation for our Pinot  Blanc from Bill Daley’s column in the Chicago Tribune on Sept. 3:  
The best domestic pinot blancs I have tasted have been when I visited Oregon. St. Innocent, Witness Tree, Bethel Heights all have pinot blanc, but often they are only [...]

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Geology Covers the Roots of the Oregon Pinot Noir Story

The geological drama critical to the formation of Oregon Wine Country is best seen as a play in four acts. Act One began 35 million years ago when most of Oregon was on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. The two major players, the Pacific plate and the North American  plate, began to collide.The  massive [...]

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Steve, Ken and Mike take a hula lesson

The cellar at Cristom Vineyards, just around the corner from Bethel Heights, was packed with wine country stars a couple of weeks ago, when Paul and Eileen Gerrie put on a Hawaiian style luau to celebrate Steve Doerner’s thirty years as a winemaker, and it was not only the pig who got roasted.  Steve took [...]

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When wine came to Oregon –

Unlike Terry’s tall tale, vines really came to the Willamette Valley in the mid 1800’s, but vinifera was not as popular as table grapes or the native labrusca.  Fruit and berry wines flourished, however, with Honeywood Winery in Salem operating continuously since 1933.  After the repeal of Prohibition a host of “farmer wineries” got a [...]

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Color change is well under way!

In spite of rather cool weather and some rain last week, color change (veraison) is well under way in most sections of the vineyard here at Bethel Heights – as much as 50% in some of the earlier ripening pinot noir clones on rootstock, somewhat behind in the older blocks (as usual).  We’ll start pulling leaves [...]

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