Joe the Winemaker – The Official Blog of Oregon Winemaker Joe Dobbes

Let me just take a minute to say, “Wow!”  The delicious food served at last Friday’s dinner in the barrel room was my favorite yet. We all had such a good time- in fact Dundee’s very own Mayor Sundeen joined us for a second time here at the winery. I’m looking forward to the fantastic menu Chef Sarah will put together for August.

We’ve had nearly perfect weather this season so far, and the vines have responded with an amazing amount of vigor. When the flowers opened, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and because of this, the fruit set magnificently. It looks like we’ve got a lot of fruit out there, and the berries are just now beginning to swell. I’m anticipating veraison in mid-August, but it’s a little early to start predicting a harvest date.

If there’s a downside to the great weather, it’s that my crew and I have been working doggedly to keep up with the canopy management, which involves guiding all the growing shoots into the trellis system to protect them from the wind and passing tractors. Each vine needs to be handled at least twice, and with about 162,000 vines out there, it can seem to take a long time. We’ve got a good, hardworking, temporary crew of 22, some of whom have over 30 years experience in the vineyard.

Last week the temperatures rose pretty high, and the vines are beginning to show just a bit of water stress at their growing tips. There’s been a lot of studies that show that vines that are a little thirsty before veraison produce tastier fruit, but tomorrow we’re going to begin irrigating just a bit, just those young vines we planted last year to fill in some gaps and aren’t yet producing fruit. The more established vines have a pretty strong root system and arent’ showing as much stress in any case.

All around the vineyard all the hay was mowed this past weekend, and with the lack of hiding places, we need to be on guard to chase any deer out. We’ve been seeing a lot of hawks lately, and just last week spotted a Great Horned Owl. A great blue heron flies over every afternoon and sometimes stops to look for the big bull frog that croaks all day in the creek. I’ve found signs of coyotes, but haven’t yet seen one.

A lot of vineyard managers I spoke with earlier in the season were reporting a lot of rust mites, a major nuisance in the vineyard, but we’ve got a really good population of ladybugs, predators of the rust mites, and I haven’t seen any mite damage so far.

With this week’s cooler temperatures and a full moon bringing in a higher moisture content in the air, we’re on the lookout for mildew, but I haven’t found any and am confident at this point in the game we’re on top of things.

We should complete our canopy management by the end of the week. Afterwards we’ll be hedging, removing leaves on the morning side of the vines to help with ripening, and keeping up with any weeding that needs to be done.

Just a quick note to all who attended our early Bastille Day Celebration. Petanque on the lawn was lots of fun. The car show was awesome as well. A big thanks to our “French Features” for taking time out of their day to make ours more special. 

In honor of the origin of our beloved grape variety, Pinot Noir, we are celebrating France’s Independence Day here at Dobbes Family Estate. Bastille Day is the French national holiday, held on July 14th of each year. As a tribute to all things French, we’ll have a Petanque demonstration and Citroëns on display. We have plenty of great Burgundy here, so bring some brei and a baguette and enjoy the show. I look forward to seeing you all here at the winery on Sunday. Berets are encouraged!

Several members of  the Portland Bouligans have agreed to participate in the Bastille Day Celebration and perform a Petanque demonstration. Petanque is a form of boules where the goal is, while standing with your feet together in a small circle, to throw hollow metal balls as close as possible to a small wooden ball called a cochonnet (jack). The game is normally played on hard dirt or gravel, but can also be played on grass or other surfaces.

Citroën is a French automobile manufacturer. Founded in 1919 by André Citroën, it was the world’s first mass-production car company outside of the USA. Citroën had a keen marketing concept-he used the Eiffel Tower as the world’s largest advertising sign, as recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. Today, classic Citroën automobiles are collector’s items and members of the Citroën Club of America are bringing a Citroën to display at the event.

Quick Links:

Portland Petanque Club

Citroën Club of America