Vintage 2008: The season ends in a golden glow

  Last Saturday turned out to be the last sunny day of the season, and luckily it was the very day of our Cellar Club fall party.  Club members got to soak up the sunshine and the golden glow of the vineyard in the full glory of its fall foliage, taste the first wine of [...]

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Vintage 2008: The end of fermentation

Last week the first-picked lots of 2008 Bethel Heights Pinot noir finished fermenting, and on Saturday the first barrels of the new vintage were filled.  Terry and Ted and Ben were having a hard time curbing their enthusiasm as they tasted little beakers full of the new wine (“incredible color,” “fantastic fruit flavors”).  It’s not [...]

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Vintage 2008: Making Chardonnay the Hard Way

Chardonnay is treated just like pinot noir at Bethel Heights – like royalty, in other words.  Thinned right after bloom to two tons per acre, shoots carefully positioned, leaves pulled in the fruit zone for air circulation, and harvested only when it is good and ready. 
The relatively young blocks of Dijon clone Chardonnay on [...]

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Vintage 2008: Not just any old yeast will do

Cruising around the winery with my camera last week I noticed these little strips of tape in four different colors on the wall in the Pinot noir fermentation room.  Turns out they represent four different yeasts. Ben puts a colored strip on each bin that tells people what yeast to add to that particular batch, [...]

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Vintage 2008: Last grapes picked yesterday, and the sun is STILL shining

The last fruit picked at Bethel Heights is always the Wädenswil clone Pinot noir in the West Block.  It’s a late-ripening clone by its very nature, and that is why it is not as widely planted in Oregon as other clones.  I know the Wädenswil clone well, because Ted and I have been living right [...]

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Vintage 2008: Now things are heating up!

Several of the lots of Pinot noir we picked first at Bethel Heights started warming up a few days ago and are now in peak fermentation. The rest are in various stages of getting there.  All the 2-ton and 3-ton tanks and most of the 1.25 ton small bins are full now.  The winery is [...]

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Vintage 2008: Meanwhile back at the crush pad…

There is actually no crushing going on here; the word Crush is a complete anachronism. We learned long ago – back in the 80’s – that gentle handling at every stage of winemaking makes the best pinot noir.  Crushing the fruit just releases unpleasant bitter tannins from the seeds, which you’ve probably noticed if you’ve [...]

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2008 Harvest – 100 tons picked in the last six days

Since last Saturday, in six straight days of picking at Bethel Heights and Justice Vineyard, 90 tons of Pinot noir have been harvested, plus five tons of Pinot gris and five tons of Chardonnay.  Our crew of twenty-four pickers can harvest an acre in half an hour; that’s four tons per hour.  In six hours [...]

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Harvest 2008, Day One: 18 tons of Pinot noir picked under blue skies

Saturday, October 11:  Everything went smoothly on Saturday under Brijido’s leadership. The crew picked 12 tons of Pinot noir from four different blocks at Justice Vineyard. The first boxes delivered to the winery were from the block next to Brijido’s house, all marked with a “B.”  Everyone in the winery is already calling it “Brijido [...]

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Vintage 2008 – The harvest has finally begun!

Saturday, 8:00 a.m.  Well, it has begun!  The crew arrived at Bethel Heights at dawn, and the boxes are filling up with Pinot noir.  Temperatures went down to freezing last night, but no harm done yet – the leaves are still on the vines, and the last two days have been dry and sunny, with [...]

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