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

While the harvest all around Oregon is winding down, the grapes on our estate vineyard continue to develop. Located in the cooler climate of the Van Duzer corridor, our grapes are ripening more slowly than others and the cool nights and warm afternoons have meant that a natural, bright acidity is maintained while the complex flavors of Pinot Noir slowly develop. I’ve spent a lot of time during the last few months visiting vineyards with Joe, and I’m pretty sure our grapes are going to be some of the tastiest in Oregon.

One of the things that Joe has noticed is that the grapes in our vineyard seem to have the thickest skins of any other vineyard we’ve visited this year. This is a good thing, not just because you can make fun of them and they won’t mind, but also because by the time this update has been published, the rain will have begun to fall. Were our grapes not in as good of condition, much of which is attributable to the thicker skins, we’d have been forced to pick earlier than we’d have liked, worried that the rain might bring Botrytis, a fungal disease of the vine associated with wet weather.

If you could have woken up before dawn to meet me in the vineyard for the sunrise this past week, you’d have been cold but you would have seen from atop the hill that thick fog covered everything until the sun rose. As the fog flowed down the valley and away, the bright sun of cloudless days lit up rainbows in the fog. With the sun, the rainbows, and the grapes becoming more delicious by the minute, now is a good time to be a vineyard guy.

But it’s been a lot of long days without rest to get to this point. The bird pressure is increasing, and the struggle against the flocks of starlings has begun in earnest. Until the grapes are harvested, they are our foes and as I tear after them on the ATV, I sometimes wonder if they are laughing at me as they lift into the sky and fly away.

Although we haven’t yet harvested our bumper crop, we’re already planning our strategies for future vintages. We prepared the soil for seeding our winter’s cover crop, and have engineered a special blend of grasses, grains and legumes for biomass, nutrients and plant diversity. I’ll mow and disk these crops into the soil, where they’ll compost into richer soil.

I’ve been demarcating the soils that are thinner or have higher clay content by taking advantage of the more pronounced fall colors in the canopies of stressed vines. We’ll prune the vines in those areas back a bit more this winter, and in the spring I’ll cultivate the soil. In a year, I’ll seed those areas with a cover crop, and over a course of years, the vineyard will gracefully balance itself, providing more consistent ripening.

Pinot Noir is the most genetically complex of all grapevines, and the one most likely to mutate into new forms of grape. Pinot Gris is a lighter-colored variety, and Pinot Blanc its mutant. We have a few vines of Pinot Gris that spontaneously mutated into a new form of white grape. So far, I’ve found three vines in our 200 acres. I flagged and marked them so that when they’re pruned, I’ll make sure to save their cuttings, which I’ll preserve and propagate them in the spring. Smaller in size than and differing in taste from the Pinot Blanc we have planted, it’s going to be a very interesting thing to see over the next few years how these grow and what sort of wine results. My guess is that because the change occurred in our own vineyard, it will be a vine that’s suited to the terroir of our site and perhaps bet expresses its unique nature.

That’s all for now. I’ve got starlings to go beat up. Wish me luck.

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.

Last Saturday night several of us from the winery attended the Dundee Dance which was held at Argyle Winery. The proceeds benefitted Dundee Civic Association, Dundee Fire Department, Dundee Parent Club, Promise Pantry- Dundee Food Bank,  and Dundee Womans’ Club. Not only was the event to raise money in support of several of our community organizations, it was also a great time! Here are some pictures of the night. I look forward to the next Dundee Dance and hope to see you there!

The Belles of the Ball! From left, Pattie Holder, bookkeeper and office manager; Lynn Gourley-the one responsible for bringing Malia into the world; Malia Lamoree, Executive Coordinator; and Patricia Dobbes, my lovely wife.

If Mother Nature keeps smiling like this we’ve probably seen the last of the frost and hopefully bud break will happen in the next week or two. With 2008 secure in barrel we’re already looking ahead to vintage 2009: day-by-day and week-by-week.

Last week was our first of many Monthly Wine Dinners here at the winery. This dinner was prepared by our friend Sarah from The Red Hare Catering. I think that the Griffin’s Cuvee Pinot was the star of the night.

I’m unashamedly proud of our wines, but I have to give credit and say that Sarah’s food got nearly as many compliments as my gorgeous, sexy, perfectly-balanced, flawless wines: From the killer mushroom bisque, heirloom beet salad, and the lamb through to dessert- Sarah knocked us out! All of our future guest-Chef’s will have big shoes to fill…

Charles and Michelle made for a seamless night of service. With that kind of talent on staff- we’re very confident that we’ll host many more dinners. We dined in the barrel room and it was a fun mix of guests: Club Members, Vineyard Owners, Custom-Winemaking Clients, two Wine Retailers, Patricia and myself. It was 15 happy campers, lots of wine, lots of jokes and many hours of camaraderie.

There were many who wanted to attend, so we’ll host monthly wine dinners until we get close to crush. Our wine dinners will be available for the first people to respond to the email invitations. Please check your emails early and often- this dinner sold out in less than 90 minutes- I’m sure that future dinners will, too!

We’ve had a wonderfully busy weekend, and only now can I sit to write about our April First Thursday “Local’s Night”. Patricia and I were there throughout, and the room had a good feel to it. It is always nice to see our members there- and it was doubly nice to see so many new faces! Patricia was the unofficial “Madame du Chais” of the evening, and she encouraged everyone to try the 2005 Cuvee Noir Pinot by the glass. It was probably because the wine is absolutely stunning, and probably not because that wine is going to be renamed as “Patricia’s Cuvee”! Local guitarist John Harr entertained us, playing classical guitar. If you listened closely, you noticed that he sometimes threw in a classical interpretation of a rock ‘n roll song- that’s thinking outside the box! All wines were available at the Member’s Discount of 20%, for Member’s and Locals alike. Everyone saved and savored, and most attendees took a bottle or two home with them… Malia, Michelle and David were busy all evening. Rather than limit our guests to a handful of selections, we had every wine (and we mean every wine) available buy the glass and by the bottle. It was so successful, that we think we’ll make that the standard format for Local’s Night: we will serve flights (which of course are complimentary to Members) until 6pm, and then after 6PM we will serve glasses and bottles ONLY (at Member’s discounts). That will allow us to better serve all attendees to our increasingly popular Local’s Night Events. Thanks again for all of your support- please join us for flights of Dobbes Family Estate and Wine By Joe every day until 6, and for First Thursday Local’s Nights for 20% off ALL bottles and glasses.