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

We have grapes arriving consistently now. Harvest is in full swing! Here are some more pictures of all the great stuff going on at Dobbes these days…

Harvest has begun and fruit is arriving at the winery. Pinot Noir from the Rogue Valley was first and now we’re receiving fruit from the upper Willamette Valley and the Dundee Hills. As fall began, temperatures cooled down and that’s a good thing: The fruit will continue to ripen slowly, developing strong flavors while maintaining a tight acidity.

It’s cooler in our own vineyard in the Van Duzer Corridor. There’s an opening in the coastal mountain range that the cool ocean breezes flow through and thick fog has been rolling in and out in the mornings that burns off by 9:00 in the morning to reveal clear blue skies. The geese have begun to arrive from their winter sojourn in the North, and the flocks of grape-devouring starlings have only recently noticed our bumper crop. We’ve been busy getting our bird protection up and running, placing noise cannons and speakers that play loops of birds crying out distress calls around the vineyard that we have to move on a daily basis.

Because last year there was so little fruit, because the weather during the flowering and fruit set was so perfect this year, and because rain fell at just the right times during the growing season, there’s a lot of fruit this year. In fact, the vines would more than anything like to grow too much fruit, and all over Oregon it’s taken a lot of work to balance the crop load by thinning the number of bunches. For those farmers who didn’t thin their crop, the birds will be arriving too late to do the work they ought to have done. It’s now that vine is producing the complex flavors and aromas that flavor and perfume your wine. With too much fruit on the vine, the resulting wine will be less delicious than what we’re going to produce.

Rain is in the forecast for this coming Tuesday or Wednesday, but there’s only a chance of showers. A few showers aren’t much to worry about, but we’re still a long few weeks away from finishing harvest. We’ve had a near perfect growing season in 2009, and I’m pretty confident that 2009 will go down in the history books as a vintage year in Oregon: a year of abundance and quality.

Our sorting line got a little action yesterday with the arrival of our first delivery of fruit from the Willamette Valley. We received several bins of Pinot Noir from Meyer Vineyard which is located right here in Dundee. It’s official: Harvest 2009 has begun!

Matt’s dumping the fruit into the hopper. 

Gustavo thinks he’s Vanna White here.

More Pinot Noir.

 First sorting table.

 Punching down stems to make more room in the bin.

 Anna, Sarah and James doing the final sort to catch any remaining stems, leaves, green grapes, etc.

 Stacks of bins.

Beautiful Oregon Pinot Noir.

Orzo Salad

4 cups chicken stock or water

1 1/2 cups uncooked orzo pasta

2 (6 ounce) cans marinated artichoke hearts

1 cup grape tomatoes

1 cucumber, seeded and chopped

1 red onion, chopped

1 cup crumbled feta cheese

1/2 cup kalamata olives, drained

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley 1/4 cup chopped basil

Red Wine Vinaigrette (see recipe below)

Pour the broth into a heavy large saucepan. Cover the pan and bring the broth to a boil over high heat. Stir in the orzo. Cover partially and cook until the orzo is tender but still firm to the bite, stirring frequently, about 7 minutes. Drain the orzo through a strainer. Transfer the orzo to a large wide bowl and toss until the orzo cools slightly. Set aside to cool completely.

Toss the orzo with the artichoke hearts, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, feta, olives, parsley, basil, and enough vinaigrette to coat. Season the salad, to taste, with salt and pepper, and serve at room temperature.

Yield: 6 servings

Red Wine Vinaigrette

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons honey

2 teaspoons salt

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Mix the vinegar, lemon juice, honey, salt, and pepper in a blender. With the machine running, gradually blend in the oil. Season the vinaigrette, to taste, with more salt and pepper, if desired.

Yield: 1 3/4 cups

 Recipe contributed by

Chef Sarah Carlson

Red Hare Personal Chef and Catering

503.680.5875

www.theredhare.net

My schedule is getting increasingly hectic as we approach harvest which means less time for play and more focus on work. Because of this, we held our last vintner dinner in the barrel room until our grand New Year’s Eve dinner. Patricia loved the paella we had earlier in the season, so she requested to have Chef Sarah prepare it for us again. It was just as delicious as last time. Thank you to all who have attended our barrel room dinners. Each was a great time. And thank you Chef Sarah for all of your hard work and wonderful food! I look forward to New Year’s Eve!

Veraison is continuing, and in the Pinot Noir, perhaps 80%of the berries have turned a deep purple hue. The Pinot Gris is at around 50%, and the Blanc remains behind at 5. In the darker berries, the varietal flavors are beginning to appear as the sugar accumulates.

As veraison continues, so too does lignification, and the shoots which were once green are turning into wood, hardening off for the winter.

As this occurs, vines show their colors, and we’re able to pinpoint areas of the vineyard with perhaps shallower soil by noticing where vines are showing a bit of stress by the changing color of the basal leaves: pale yellows in the white varieties and blood red in the Pinot Noir.

We’ve finished dropping excess fruit, and we’re now simply waiting for the grapes to mature. We’re spending this downtime trapping gophers, and though we’re more successful and less entertaining than Bill Murray’s character in Caddy Shack, the comparison isn’t too far off.

Our neighbors have plowed the hay and grass fields all around us, and hawks sit on the fenceposts, scouting for easy prey. Elk stroll slowly through the fields to the south. Coyotes jog past in the fields to the west. The Blackberries alongside the creek are fat and juicy.

The vineyard is happy, healthy, and the grapes are getting sweeter and darker every day.

The September issue of Portland Monthly Magazine featuring Oregon’s 50 Best Wines is on the newstands and we are in it! Our Dobbes Family Estate Fortmiller Vineyard Syrah 2006 is number 32. Follow the link to read more…

#32 Dobbes Family Estate Fortmiller Vineyard Syrah 2006

Artichoke Heart Truffles with Goat Cheese, Tarragon and Parmesan served with Dobbes Family Estate Pinot Gris 2007

3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

3 ounces goat cheese, at room temperature

2 teaspoons lemon zest

1 teaspoon dried tarragon

1/8 teaspoon pepper

two 6 1/2 ounce jars marinated artichoke hearts, strained and trimmed to bite size pieces

Mix the Parmesan and parsley together in a small bowl.  Combine the cream cheese, goat cheese, lemon zest, tarragon and pepper in a medium bowl.  Add the artichokes and mix to coat each heart liberally.  Transfer to the bowl of Parmesan and roll to cover completely.  Place on a parchment or waxed paper-lined baking sheet.  Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.  Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.  Can be prepared and refrigerated up to 3 days in advance and brought back to room temperature before coating the artichokes.  

yield:  about 24 truffles

Recipe contributed by:

Chef Sarah Carlson

The Red Hare

Personal Chef and Catering

503.680.5875

www.theredhare.net

It’s with happiness and relief that I relate the good news that Veraison has begun and all around our vineyard, berries are beginning to blush with color and promise. The danger of powdery mildew is still present, but an end is in sight to the vigilance we’ve had to show.

Unfortunately, the color change is some sort of signal to the birds that the seeds are mature and the juice is getting sweet, so while our battle against mildew is ending, soon will begin our struggles to discourage the ravenous flocks of starlings from eating our crop. Starlings are an introduced pest with incredibly discerning taste: they love Pinot Noir. One the one hand, you have to respect their palates; on the other, they’ll eat the whole crop if you let them.

Since the last update we had a significant rain episode followed by the past few days’ excessive heat. The vines have responded by continuing to grow, a good thing to help us get the fruit ripe in the next two months. The heat is probably also helping to speed veraison along. It was around 100 degrees today afternoon, and we sent home the vineyard crew early to avoid the danger of working in the heat. 

We’re still engaged with balancing the crop load by removing excess fruit from all the vines that need it, but we should be done soon enough. It’s a job that requires a good and empathic sense of vine physiology. One needs to understand by looking at the strength that a vine demonstrates how much fruit it will be able to mature. It’s required a lot of personal attention in training our staff, but I think the hard work will pay off with riper fruit for a tastier wine.

Last year, harvest began on this vineyard on October 15, so we’ll be planning for on that date or earlier to be ready to pick.

We had another amazing vintner dinner in the barrel room last Thursday! I was happy to see both old friends and some new faces. Chef Sarah’s Grilled Leg of Lamb dinner was so tender and delicious- cooked to perfection. And the Summer Vegetable Ratatouille was filled with garden fresh vegetables in a sauce so rich it knocked everyone’s socks off. In fact, she had several requests for the recipe, I’m going to ask Nicci get it out to you all in some form or another. I’m sorry to see summer on it’s way out, but looking forward to the mania of harvest which is rapidly approaching!