Burnin'

Dana Tims at The Oregonian is reporting that Oregon’s wine industry is under intense pressure to change and that big changes are indeed underway.

At a time when recessionary pressures on the state’s $1 billion wine industry are threatening to leave tons of grapes unpicked this year, Ken Johnston, general manager of vineyard operations for Winemakers Investment Properties, is developing more than 550 acres of vineyards west of Silverton — huge by Oregon’s traditional mom-and-pop standards. His business model relies on efficiencies of scale to help keep long-term costs and consumer prices down.

Industry insiders are impressed.

“It’s absolutely a game-changer,” said Joseph Wagner, whose family founded Napa Valley’s Caymus Vineyards, which has relied largely on mechanical harvesting for the past five years. Not only has the method worked, he said, but it has actually increased the quality of the fruit at harvest.

There is no way, he said, to underestimate its potential for Oregon’s wine operations.

On the surface, automation doesn’t sound too appealing. It smacks of factory farms and corporate agriculture. And that’s not Oregon! Yet, a higher yield of fragile pinot noir grapes will drive prices down, and that’s something that desperately needs to happen, if Oregon pinot noir and pinot gris is to become more than a niche product.

Tims’ article also points out that Silverton is nowhere near the Dundee Hills, but a perfect place for pinot grapes nevertheless. This is the kind of news I get excited about. Yamhill County is a special place. But there are lots of special places in Oregon that are ideal for cultivation.

I love Oregon pinot noir, but I do not love paying $25 to $60 for a great bottle of great local wine. I do it because I’m a fiend, but I also look favorably upon Washington state’s broader range of varietals in the $10 to $20 price range. And I discovered a wonderful wine merchant in SE Portland who specializes in unearthing amazing ten dollar bottles from Spain, Italy and France (and California and Oregon on occasion).

Price is important. Quality is important. May the two frequently meet.

Cheers.

We first tasted Pinot Noir from Oregon’s Umpqua Valley a few years ago while living in South Carolina. Brandborg Winery has pretty solid distribution in The Lowcountry and our local wine merchant, Claude, stocked the Elkton-made product. The wine created–as wine will sometimes do–a curiosity about the terroir. This weekend we got a chance to experience it up close and personal.

See more photos on this Flickr Slideshow from the weekend

Brandborg’s tasting room is one of the more obvious structures on the town’s main drag. We found Terry, the proprietor, enjoying his lunch and some wine on the deck adjacent to the entrance. He followed me inside the building after a bit, and said he’d be my host today. I said great, sell me a bottle of your Estate Pinot Noir. After getting me to taste his other two pinots, and telling me about the winery’s recent writeup in The New York Times, he did.

Soon thereafter, Terry’s wife Sue appeared unexpectedly at our table with complimentary cheese, chips and watermelon. Sue also informed us of the couple’s favorite restaurant in Florence, told us about a good six-mile hike in Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area and about house rental options in town, should we want to return. Terry also had nice things to say about River’s Edge Winery down the street, and Bradley Vineyards around the bend.

When we arrived at River’s Edge, owners Mike and Vonnie Landt were there to greet us. Mike said Lucy girl could come inside and enjoy the A.C. with us. We sipped pinot noir and Vonnie mentioned that there was a barn dance in the community center that night. She also said Florence is a pretty cool place if we’re headed to the coast. Mike and Vonnie seem like good people and their wine is one to stock up on, as it has very limited distribution.

Both River’s Edge and Brandborg buy fruit from Bradley Vineyards, so we figured we better head over there too. Bradley is situated on a picturesque southern slope. Unlike the first two venues, here the grapes and the tasting room are situated together. I opened the door to the little cabin and found Bonnie Bradley entertaining another couple, but I managed to buy two glasses of Baco Noir and we found a shaded spot to take in the stunning views of this northernmost section of the Umpqua valley.

After our three wine-centric visits, we headed to a city park and changed in to our swim suits. The Umpqua River is one of Oregon’s great waterways and it’s particularly inviting on a hot summer day. Lucy doesn’t like to swim but she’s a strong swimmer. When Darby and I waded out from the shore, Lucy decided she better join us. What a good girl.

The drive from Elkton to Reedsport was easy and the scenery was stunning all the way. Just before town, there’s a platform for elk viewing. We didn’t stop, but there was a herd of elk lounging in the meadow. At Reedsport, we turned north on 101 and entered the Oregon Dunes. With fresh water lakes on one side and the ocean on the other, it’s easy to appreciate this remote area of the Oregon coast. Just before the bridge to Florence, there’s a Best Western overlooking the city. Turns out they take dogs, have King beds and rooms with a balcony. I have to have access to the outdoors when I’m in a hotel. It’s a rule (and in Oregon, it’s typically a reality).

The Siuslaw River Bridge to Florence is a classic 1930s art deco creation, and as soon as you cross it and enter the coastal city of 9000, you hang a right and bing, you’re in Old Town. We had been advised to call Waterfront Depot for a reservation, which I did. Matt, the host, told me there were no tables available but he’d fit us in at the bar. When we arrived 25 minutes later, there were no seats at the bar, but Matt said we could sit at his most excellent six top, until the party which had it reserved arrived. Matt’s plan, while bold, worked flawlessly! We enjoyed a cup of chowder, glasses of wine and Manchego cheese with olives and marinated roasted red peppers, and soon enough Matt showed us to a great two-top against the wall.

I don’t often find the inspiration necessary to rave about a restaurant, but Waterfront Depot in Florence totally impressed Darby and me in every way. The food is great, the atmosphere is great, the service is great, the prices are great…we can’t wait to return.

In the morning, we grabbed coffee in Old Town, then headed out to Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, just to the south of Florence. The area is popular with ATV enthusiasts, and we saw some on our way in, but when we reached the spit that runs back toward the mouth of the Siuslaw River, there was no one. We parked, the lone car in a beach access lot. On a beautiful sunny Sunday morning in July! We hiked up and over to the beach and ocean stretching forever before us, seemingly untouched by man.

Last Saturday, Darby and I had the extreme pleasure of finding our way to the heart of the Dundee Hills. After a quick stop at Dobbes Family Estate in town, we motored west and up the hill toward Domaine Drouhin, except we never found Domaine Drouhin. Instead we found De Ponte Cellars.

In winemaking, as in many things, location is crucial to the enterprise, and De Ponte Cellars is on “the hillside” that is home to several of Oregon’s top producers. De Ponte’s slice of this precious hillside is also home to one of the oldest vineyards in the Willamette Valley. This scenic property was acquired by the Baldwin family in 1999 and soon De Ponte Cellars Winery was born.

According to Dundee Hills Winegrowers Association, the location is mostly about the Jory soils.

This special volcanic soil has excellent minerality and drainage. Also, the Dundee Hills benefits from being drier and warmer than many pockets that surround it. All of these factors together combine to showcase unique characteristics found in the best Pinot noirs from this region. Our wines tend to be very focused with great clarity and complexity. Some of the descriptors are bright red fruits, exotic spices, and a gorgeous minerality in the structure.

So, De Ponte has location, soil, climate and family on its side. De Ponte (pronounced Duh Pon Tay) also has winemaker Isabelle Dutartre. Dutartre learned the art of winemaking in the Burgundy region of France where she’s from, and each of her De Ponte vintages reflects her uncompromising commitment to quality and tradition. To learn more about Dutartre, see this video from Wine Is Serious Business.

I think it’s important to note that another one of “the hillside’s” best winemakers is also a woman–Anna Matzinger at Archery Summit. Pinot is a delicate grape and getting the pure essence of this delicate fruit in the bottle is an art and a science, one being mastered by women. But cheers to anyone who can do it well!

De Ponte also produces pinot noir under the Clay Hills label. We tasted the winery’s various offerings, and the 2008 Clay Hill Pinot Noir at $26 turned out to be the wine we were looking for.

See my iPhone picture of “the hill” in question on Flickr.

There are currently eight wine producers in Clark County, Washington. But none of them are familiar to the people of Oregon, because the Beaver State has its own wine industry with hundreds of producers to visit and support. Yet, the Vancouver-area wineries are easy to reach from Portland, and they tend to produce different varietals from their Oregon counterparts, making them a good option for a Saturday afternoon picnic.

Last fall we had a lovely afternoon at Rusty Grape in Battle Ground. Yesterday, we ventured to Confluence Winery, positioned on a high plateau above the Columbia River in Ridgefield. The property is home to maturing pinot noir vines, two horses, a production facility and tasting room, plus the lovely home of the proprietors, Jae and Greg Weber.

Confluence produces big bold Washington reds with fruit sourced from the Yakima Valley region, Horse Heaven Hills and Red Mountain, all in the south central part of the state. Darby and I tasted their Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Petit Verdot, Primitivo and a blend. The Syrah was excellent, but we were intrigued by the Primitivo, so we bought a bought a bottle and enjoyed it thoroughly it with our picnic lunch of olives, cheese, hot Genoa salami and crusty bread.

Originating from Croatia, the Primitivo grape has been grown in Italy for thousands of years. DNA testing now confirms that Primitivo is the exact same grape as Zinfandel, made popular by Californian wineries. The original Croatian name for this grape is Crljenak.

Weber told us his Primitivo fruit was planted from Italian vines and that the growing region in Washington is one of the best in the world for this particular grape. I believe it. At $32 for a bottle of Confluence’s 2008 vintage, this is a special wine that easily lives up to its price tag. The fruit is vibrant in this wine, but it’s balanced by a lingering velvet finish one might find in a powerful Cab.

Confluence wines are only available at the winery in Ridgefield. They do not supply any restaurants nor retail outlets at this time, so you’ll have to head north on I-5 and make your way to the western edge of Clark county. Be prepared to come home with a case, or as much as the Webers’ will sell you.

It’s been so incredibly sunny out we had to go to the western edge of Beaverton on Saturday and drink wine.

We started out by visiting Cooper Mountain Vineyards, where we ran through a flight of red before buying two bottles–their 2007 Reserve Pinot Noir and the 2007 Malbec, a new release Cooper Mountain makes in Argentina. The Pinot Noir was $24 and the Malbec was $20. We opened the Pinot Noir for lunch and it went exceptionally well with the Farmer’s Cheese, salami and olives we toted from the city.

After lunch, I asked inside what nearby winery we ought to visit next and Ponzi Vineyards was the answer. Just a few miles from Cooper Mountain we found Ponzi, and also found it to be extremely crowded. It turned out it was “pick up day” for Ponzi’s wine club.

We purchased Ponzi’s $35 2007 Pinot Noir and enjoyed a glass on their sun deck. When the woman inside the building saw our Lucy girl (on leash, btw), she came out and asked us to put her in the car, which we did. We also put ourselves in the car and motored back to NE Portland.

All in all, Cooper Mountain and Ponzi are not our favorite places in the valley to visit, but they both make highly quaffable Pinot Noir.

Industry group, North Willamette Vintners, is pleased to announce its second annual Wine Trail Weekend, which will take place on April 10-11, 2010.

The Wine Trail leads wine lovers on a journey to 21 neighboring wineries located just minutes from Portland. A full Wine Trail ticket is only $35 ($10 for designated drivers) and entitles guests to exclusive access to all participating wineries. Guests are treated to complimentary wine tastings, food, entertainment and activities at each participating winery.

Some of the 2010 highlights will include terroir demonstrations, an appearance by cook book author Nancy Ponzi, live bluegrass, spring Chinook salmon cooking demonstrations and wine glass education.

Participating wineries include:

A Blooming Hill Vineyard, Cornelius

Adea Wine Company, Gaston

Apolloni Vineyards, Forest Grove

Cooper Mountain Vineyards, Beaverton

David Hill Vineyard & Winery, Forest Grove

Elk Cove Vineyards, Gaston

Garden Vineyards, Hillsboro

Gresser Vineyards and Provincial Vineyards, Hillsboro

Helvetia Vineyards, Hillsboro

J. Albin Winery, Hillsboro

Kramer Vineyards, Gaston

Montinore Estate, Forest Grove

Oak Knoll Winery and Beran Vineyards, Hillsboro

Patton Valley, Gaston

Plum Hill Vineyards, Gaston

Ponzi Vineyards, Beaverton

Purple Cow Vineyards, Forest Grove

SakéOne, Forest Grove

Tualatin Estate Vineyards, Forest Grove

The Register-Guard looks at hometown brewing sensation, Ninkasi, and finds plenty to marvel at, including eye-popping growth. Ninkasi produced 3,000 barrels of beer in 2007 but topped 17,000 barrels in 2009.

The company’s signature brew — Total Domination, a hoppy India Pale Ale — is living up to its name. Last April, 22-ounce bottles of Total Domination were the No. 1 single-serve beer in Oregon, according to Information Resources, a market survey firm. In August, it was ranked as the 10th most popular single-serve beer in the country — even though it was sold in only two states.

In surpassing the 15,000-barrels benchmark last year, Ninkasi became the first Oregon brewery to gain status as a regional craft brewery in more than a decade, said Brian Butenschoen, executive director of the Oregon Brewers Guild. As of October, Ninkasi’s production ranked sixth among Oregon breweries, according to state records.

Founders Jamie Floyd and Nikos Ridge said when they started Ninkasi, they wanted to establish the brewery as a regional presence in the Northwest and create a flagship brewery identified with Eugene, such as Rogue in Newport, Deschutes in Bend and Full Sail in Hood River

“That’s pretty much what’s happened,” Floyd said.

In this episode of WineLibrary TV, Gary Vaynerchuk pits a 2008 Evening Land Pinot Noir against the 2007 Beaux Frères Pinot Noir in a blind taste test.

As you can see he’s blown away by the results.

Oregon Business is running a lengthy profile on Domain Serene in its December issue.

The title, “Evenstad’s Island,” clearly hints at what’s to come in the article. While the Willamette Valley winery puts out highly-rated wine, the owners, Ken and Grace Evenstad, suffer from a damaged reputation. They’re seen as wealthy hobbyists from Minnesota and are said to be totally removed from the local wine-producing community.

For instance:

“Ken and Grace have been quoted as saying they’re responsible for the entire wine industry and winemaking techniques going back to Jesus,” says Harry Peterson-Nedry, founder of nearby Chehalem Winery in Newberg. “And that’s probably not far from what they believe.”

Indeed, both Ken and Grace Evenstad say that what differentiates their wines is unique methodology and an unusually high attention to detail. They insist on dry farming — meaning they do not use irrigation — because this method produces stronger tap roots and healthier vines. They also strive for a very low yield: around 1.78 tons of grapes per acre (the industry standard is 2 to 2.5). And they do 4-5 hand passes per year through the vineyard, green pruning, removing small clusters so the larger, robust ones have more space and food to grow.

Domaine Serene ferments each grape separately — not only according to the type but also by growing conditions such as elevation, direction and amount of sunlight — which means working with more than 200 individual Pinot Noir fermentations. Domain Serene also ages all its wines on-site for at least 15 months. According to the Evenstads, this combination of world-class winemaking practices was unprecedented when they arrived in the region 20 years ago. And they claim to have developed a unique system for making white wine (“Coeur Blanc”) from mature red grapes. Others in the region scoff.

“This kind of wine was made by an Italian producer long before it was made by Domaine Serene,” says Ken Wright, the Evenstads’ original winemaker who worked with them for their first 10 years. “If you like, I can send you the link to prove it.” (He did, and it did.)

Sadly, the story doesn’t end there.

In September, the news broke that the Evenstads were suing Tony Rynders — the man who worked as their principal winemaker from 1998 to 2008 and created many of their most highly rated wines — for leaving their employ with proprietary information, especially pertaining to the methods for making Coeur Blanc.

Rynders would not comment because the case is still under way. But others in the community are avid to speak on Rynders’ behalf. Ken Wright, for instance. He insists the Evenstads’ lawsuit is simply a battle for power. “It’s typical of Ken and Grace,” Wright says. “Look at it this way. They just celebrated their 20th anniversary in business and nobody was there who helped them make wine for the past 20 years. I actually kind of feel for them.”

Of course, the great irony here is that Domain Serene is well known outside the state for carrying the flag for Oregon pinot. “Only Oregonians want to strip them of their status,” notes Ann Bauer, the Seattle-based journalist who wrote the story.

View on Flickr

We joined the festivities at Portland’s 14th annual Holiday Ale festival in Pioneer Square yesterday. I tried to keep a running tally of beers sampled on Twitter as I went from tap to tap. Here are my notes from the event:

Tasting Sled Crasher by Collaborator #HolidayAle

Drinking Mama’s Little Yella Pils by Oskar Blues #HolidayAle

Tasting Kronan the Barbarian from Hopworks Urban Brewery #HolidayAle

Tasting Holy Herb by Upright Brewing #HolidayAle

Tasting Stone Brewing’s Bourbon-Barrel-Aged Arrogant Bastard #HolidayAle

Tasting Great Divide’s Hibernation Ale

Tasting Cascade Brewing’s “Sang Noir”

@HolidayAle nice fest dude!

Tasting Double Dry Hopped Gordon by Oskar Blues #LiquidOregon

Opening Holiday Ale Fest with Unconventionale from Ninkasi

The best beer I tasted–Double Dry Hopped Gordon from Oskar Blues–wasn’t actually a holiday beer. But it was incredibly fragrant and tasty.

Of course, Darby tasted a whole different set of beers and I got a few sips in on those too. I remember one standout among them–Eel River Brewing’s Holiday Spiced Baltic Porter.

I love to eat fish. Fresh fish, frozen fish, you name it. But the eco-conscious consumer in me wants to know which is better for me, and the environment.

Order flash frozen Alaskan salmon from Jerry’s Meats & Seafood in Juneau

According to Abby Haight of The Oregonian, frozen is better for the planet because it takes so much less energy to make it safely to your dinner plate.

“We said, ‘Eat wild salmon,’” said Astrid Scholz, vice president of knowledge systems at Ecotrust. “But it made me a little uneasy…. There’s something wrong about catching an Alaska salmon, putting it on a helicopter, and then putting it on a jet to Moscow and then to New York so someone can eat their $50 dinner of fresh Copper River salmon.”

Salmon that are flash-frozen at sea can be transported by freighter or train, which uses significantly less fossil fuel than jets. Troll-caught fish burn diesel fuel as ships chase fish across the seas. An Alaska salmon caught by a purse seiner, however, has a low carbon impact, Scholz said.

megnut and Ninecooks both have articles on cooking flash frozen fish.

Darby and I both had yesterday off, so we headed out to wine country to retrieve our two Collector’s Club magnums at Sokol Blosser. Given that Sokol Blosser is located deep in the heart of the Dundee Hills and surrounded by other excellent wineries, we decided to drop in on Tori Mor and Archery Summit, as well.

Tori Mor makes a respectable product, no doubt. But when the nectar served at Archery Summit hit our palates, we knew we’d left excellence at the gate for another realm where adjectives fear to dwell. Of course, that hasn’t stopped mortals from describing Archery Summit’s wines.

Wine Spectator says, “Archery Summit has established itself as the Rolls-Royce of Oregon Pinot Noir.”

Tamara Belgard of Sip With Me says, “I think they (Archery Summit) just might be the Princess Diana of Oregon Pinot Noir; elegant, graceful and classy yet still somehow strong, warm and approachable.”

Clearly, winemaker Anna Matzinger has two hands, her heart, mind and soul in this, along with the requisite volcanic soils and micro-climates where the grapes are grown.

Willamette Live says Matzinger is “unassuming for someone who just had her 2006 Red Hills Estate Pinot Noir named the best wine in Oregon by Portland Monthly Magazine.”

Here’s a passage from the Willamette Live piece:

Archery Summit uses the most sustainable and organic processes possible while producing their vintages.

Matzinger views pinot grapes as the ones best able to express the terrain on which they were grown. She prefers to get out of their way over fiddling with something that isn’t broken.

From the fermentation tanks, the wine flows down to settling tanks and then down again to one of the winery’s more than 600 barrels – all of which are stored in man-made tunnels excavated for the task of storing the wine at a constant temperature.

“We have a great facility, but its job is not messing up the fruit coming in from the field,” she said.

Sean in guest relations at the winery explained to us how Archery Summit prunes its vines by as much as one-half to maximize the flavor in the remaining fruit. This also helps explain the steep prices per bottle, as the winemaker is removing plenty of good fruit in order to pursue her annual masterpieces.

According to Dana Tims of The Oregonian tough economic for the economy times are taking a toll in the Willamette Valley wine industry.

Softening consumer demand and downward price pressures, combined with increases in equipment costs and reluctance by distributors to take on new accounts, are adding up to huge new headaches for many of Oregon’s nearly 400 wineries.

In some areas, particularly the northern Willamette Valley, growers appear to be taking even bigger hits than vintners. For the first time since the recession-plagued 2001 harvest, significant amounts of grapes were left on the vines.

“There simply wasn’t an adequate market for everything that was grown,” said Kevin Chambers, chief executive of Oregon Vineyard Supply in McMinnville and owner of Resonance Vineyard in Carlton.

In the first week of September, independent growers without long-term contracts were demanding $2,500 per ton for pinot noir grapes, he said. By season’s end, only weeks later, that price had collapsed to $900 per ton.

“I can’t think of a time in the last 10 years,” Chambers said, “where we’ve seen that precipitous a drop.”

Leaving grapes on the vine is a bummer. I wish I, or someone, was in a position to buy the overage and make wine with it.