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 Block.”  Watch for a block-designated wine in years to come…

Brijido in charge

 

Justice Vineyard is twenty years younger than the original Bethel Heights estate vineyard, so most of its blocks haven’t developed personal names yet.  By default they are known by the names of their clones and rootstocks:  “667 on RG”, “777 on 3309”, etc.  Until yesterday there were only three with real names:  the Delta block (because of its odd triangular shape), the Schwarzman block (because it is the only block planted on the rarely used Schwarzman rootstock) and the Vlo Block, because it is the block that Mark Vlossak purchases for his St. Innocent Justice Vineyard designate.  Now we have one more.

First report from the lab from samples taken after destemming, said the Brix was between 23.2 and 23.5.  The fruit arrived in perfect condition – no mildew, no botrytis, no shriveling, no splitting, and no bird damage. All of which means the people on the sorting line had a really easy job of just watching perfect clusters go by and waving them into the de-stemmer.

Alanna and Jaime (son of Blanca) on the sorting line

 

If there were any imperfect clusters, they were eliminated by Blanca at the picking boxes, before they got to the winery.  Blanca’s job to is to hand out tickets to the pickers as they dump their buckets into the box, and toss out any inferior looking clusters and MOG (“matter other than grapes” as it is known in standard grape-purchase contracts).  Blanca is a real pro, and not much escapes her.

Blanca (far right) at her post

 

For crush crew lunch on Saturday Marilyn made a fabulous mushroom lasagna, the fruit of her mushroom hunting day, of which you will hear more shortly.

Pat Dudley

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Wine Family Wedding atop Freedom Hill

McKenzie Dusschee was a gorgeous, gracious bride last Saturday, August 9th, overlooking her family’s Freedom Hill Vineyard. I didn’t manage to grab many photos of her, however, as I was too distracted by the dangerous dance moves of Mark ‘Freaky V’ Vlossak.

Continue at your own risk.

Jessie Casteel

Mark and Vickianne, cutting the proverbial rug.

Pat Dudley, shamelessly eavesdropping on Ken Wright, Karen & Mark

Pat Dudley raises the roof while Ted Casteel wonders if he took his heart pills.

Terry Casteel receiving a smallpox-laced blanket from two pilgrims.

Mimi Casteel and Evelyn Casteel Somers

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Steamboat Pinot Noir Conference

 

Terry Casteel and friends admire the press - now a garden decoration at the entrance to Bethel Heights - that he used to make his first Steamboat pinot noir. (left to right: Mark Vlossak (St. Innocent), Ben Casteel, Steve Doerner (Cristom), Terry Casteel, and Steven Westby (Witness Tree).

Bethel Heights has been participating in the Steamboat Conference since the early 80’s. The first year we took a wine to show was 1981. Back then the event was called “The Pinot Conference,” and an attempt was made to alternate the location between Oregon and California. That first year I attended we met at Acacia Winery just outside of Napa, and camped out in Mike Richmond’s house. Meeting in wine country in fact didn’t work.  The northern California winemakers were at best part-time participants because they were all distracted by their responsibilities at work. A few years later it was decided to move the conference out of wine country. The Steamboat Inn was chosen as the permanent location for many reasons, the central one was that we all fell in love with the place and the people who run it.

That first year Bethel Heights was not a commercial winery, but they included our first effort at making wine from our own grapes (albeit amateur) in one of the blind tastings.  Needless to say, I was very nervous, ready to be drummed out of the Pinot noir club before we were even a member.

Just before our flight was tasted, a very well-known California winemaker showed his face for the first time. It was a strong group of wines. Before the discussion started, the California winemaker announced that he unfortunately couldn’t stay, but wanted to offer a parting comment. He said that the two strongest wines in the flight were obviously made by the same winemaker, and the winemaker was probably from the Napa area. He pointed out the two wines and then he left.  Feeling more than a little pre-empted, the group had an abbreviated discussion and then pulled off the bags. The well known California winemaker was totally wrong in his assessment. No one was surprised that the first of the two wines was the Acacia “St. Clair”. We were all (pleasantly) surprised that the second wine was the Bethel Heights amateur offering. The winemakers were quite complimentary. In all the years since as a commercial winemaker, I have never had another wine show so well. I also learned that it is risky to make pronouncements in blind tasting because, more often than not, you are dead wrong: a good lesson learned early.

Terry Casteel

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