2007 Autumn Harvest Journal

Harvest started a little sooner than we expected. After a relatively cool and nearly perfect growing season we were anticipating harvest to start sometime during the first week of October. Until the weather forecasts of rain...rain...rain starting Sunday, September 30th hit. So, the last week of September was a hectic one in the vineyard and the winery. We sampled all of our fruit to determine what – if anything – was ready to be picked. We determined that blocks 10 and 11, our 2 newest blocks planted to Pommard and block 13 planted to Dijon clone 114 were ready. We picked those blocks on Saturday the 29th – at 11 AM –about 8 hours before the rains came in. And did it come – Sunday was a wash out – but thankfully Monday and Tuesday (the 1st and 2nd) were relatively mild with some spotty showers throughout the day and winds of 8-10 mph – just enough to blow away the rain and dry the fruit.

And then we waited...and waited and hoped the fruit would survive the two weeks of wet weather. We were lucky – yes, it did rain each day – but not the torrential rains we feared. From the 29th of September until the 12th of October there were showers each day – but also sun breaks and relatively mild temperatures in the high 50s to mid 60s. The fruit held up extremely well and we harvested and crushed our Pinot noir from the 13th until the 16th. It was all cold soaked and fermented in some 6 stainless steel tanks, 12 macrobins and 2 of the most beautiful French Taransaud wooden fermenters on earth (pictures and more on those fermenters later).

Due to the compressed time frame we had some pretty long days – in the vineyards at 7AM at the break of dawn and shutting down and cleaning up the winery at 3AM the following day. We repeated this process 3 times during the 2007 harvest and our winemaker Robert Brittan tells us we shouldn't experience anything any tougher with future harvests. Let's hope he's right!

Thank goodness we had lots of help this year from family and friends. We could not have done it without all of them. On our first day of crush we were helped by our friends Grae Joor, Paul Sehdev and Mike Wakefield. They did a fabulous job helping us get all of the kinks out of the process as we started our 2007 crush. They were quite effective in helping us process about 4 tons of fruit one afternoon and evening.

The next wave of volunteers arrived and were indispensable from the 13th through 16th and they included our accountant and her husband Betsy and Mike Longacre; our architect Ernie Munch; friends Anita Singh and Leo Jacobs and fellow vineyard owners Jeanne and David Beck. Special thanks to Anita who came to work even after she was rear ended in her car on the way to the winery and was suffering the early effects of whip lash and Jeanne Beck who worked tirelessly on her crutches as she recovers from a broken ankle. And our special volunteer guests this season were my Mom – Joan Morris and my aunt - Ginny Stevens. Mom and Ginny flew in from Boston and worked as our guest chefs as well as on the sorting table.

And then there was the night crew – those who worked late into the night and early morning – Robert, Ellen, Becky and Tom – and of course the professionals Macario and Alberto. Bill and I can’t thank you each enough.

Introducing The Wines of 2007

Those of you who stay close to the wine writers et al – may have already started to hear about the "woes of the Oregon 2007" vintage. We were just days from calling 2007 a near classic growing vintage – those "few days" being the operative words. You see – just a few more days of sun and warm weather the last week of September was what we needed for a near perfect growing season. Instead – it rained. So – we played the odds, as did most of our neighbors, and picked our ripest fruit before the rains so we would have something for 2007. The rest we kept hanging and hoped for the best. In the end, it worked out – the fruit we picked in mid-October ripened further and held up well under the weather conditions. We picked healthy fruit – with lower brix than 2006. We were happy with this outcome as our goal is to produce wine with alcohols of 14% or less. We didn't achieve that goal in '06 – but we expect to in '07.

We also found the color profile of the young 2007 wines to be just beautiful – clear, brilliant and deeper than our young 2006 wines. The flavor profile also seems to be maturing faster. Fermentation was less stressful – we struggled with some stuck fermentations in 2006 – but the 2007s are fermenting to plan. In summary – we LOVE what we're seeing and tasting to date in the 2007 vintage. They seem to be building towards the wines we strive to produce – feminine and elegant Pinot noir.

We're expanding our portfolio for 2007 – and adding Chardonnay. Our love of Burgundy and its two great grapes (Pinot noir and Chardonnay) has led us to explore Chardonnay in Oregon. We've identified two wonderful vineyards with older Chardonnay nearby. They are the Carabella and Hyland vineyards. To read more about these vineyards and get a peek at them – check out the Vineyard tab on the site.

Here is a breakdown of the wines by lot. Many of you have told me you liked tracking what happened with the lots from journal to journal. So – here goes. You will notice we have more lots this year – in fact twice as many. Our production is more than doubling in 2007 from about 600 cases to up to 1500 including our Chardonnay.

2007 Spring/Summer Vintage Journal

Weather around Winderlea

We are happy to report that the weather has been rather unremarkable this spring and early summer. March and April saw highs in the mid to upper 50s and nighttime lows in the upper 30s to mid 40s. These slightly higher than average temperatures and precipitation made for a rather stress free early spring in the vineyard. May followed with continued slightly higher than normal temperatures and moderately drier conditions, while June cooled down considerably. As July comes to a close we experienced a heat spike earlier in the month and some unusual rain mid month. In terms of heat accumulation, at 1195 degree days through the 26th, this year is looking similar to 2002 with 1218 degree days. 2002 is considered to have been an exceptional vintage, though a lot can happen between now and harvest.

The Vineyard

As reported in our Winter Journal we are evolving practices in the vineyard and using more and more organic methods. During the first week of May, we were very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with "Amigo" Bob Cantisano one of the foremost organic farm consultants on the West Coast. Called the "Eco-Oracle," by The Wine Spectator – Amigo walked our vineyard with us and identified a number of new practices that could help us improve the "tilth" of our property overall and address a small patch of phylloxera in one of our old own rooted vineyard blocks.

Working with our vineyard manager, Andy Humphrey – also a long time supporter of Amigo – we developed a new spray program for the property eliminating the remaining sulfur sprays and replacing them with a variety of organic sprays to address any potential fungal, mildew or botrytis threats. In addition to revising our spray program we also determined a cover crop during the growing season will provide more organic matter to the benefit of the vineyard as well as providing a home to beneficial insects. This cover crop is made up of a specially prepared combination of 26 flowers and herbs including buckwheat, phacelia, bachelor buttons, baby's breath, California poppy, coriander, primrose, parsley, dill and cilantro. The spring/summer cover crop does give the vineyard a different look. In the past, the vineyard was clean cultivated during the summer – leaving each row cleared of any vegetation. Now, when you drive by or walk through the vineyard you will note that every other row has a lovely and beneficial cover of herbs and flowers.

Oh – and in case you missed this story in your May/June 2007 subscription of Vineyard and Winery Management – our Goldschmidt vineyard was rated one of the 10 best Oregon Vineyards. We couldn't be prouder!

Bud Break and Bloom

The spring and summer have been so exciting for us as we watch the vines grow, before our very eyes, for the first time. Two dates that are very important in the growing cycle of the vineyard are bud break and bloom. Bud break marks the emergence of the shoots that will grow to bear grapes. Bloom, which lasts for about 7 to 10 days, starts when the flower cap falls away and ends when the flowers successfully self-pollinate. With luck they will "set" and continue to develop into full-grown grapes. We called bud break on Friday, April 6th – (Good Friday), and bloom on Thursday, June 7th. Based on this rather early bloom date – we would expect to start harvesting on September 15th – 100 days after bloom. For any of you who may be interested in spending some time with us over crush – keep this date in mind.

Barrel Tasting and Blending

The tough work really started in early May with days of exacting barrel tasting in order to start making decisions about blending. If you've been following our vintage notes this year, you will recall that we picked 6 distinct lots of fruit and have them aging in 25 barrels. We are using a large selection of barrels in order to become acquainted with the characteristics imparted by each to different lots of fruit. Each lot of fruit was aged in French Oak Barrels, of which 30% were new barrels, and the balance was divided among once used and twice used barrels. The coopers we are using include Francois Freres, Cadus and Seguin Moreau.

So, how have things aged? We are thrilled with how the wine is maturing. First, the colors are beautiful – they look like Pinot noir. We have been very focused on crafting wines that are not overly extracted. Early on in the process – we will admit - we were a bit concerned thinking the wines appeared too light in color. It is amazing how a couple of additional months in barrel have helped bring the color along to the beautiful garnet they are today.

After lots of tasting and discussing – we believe the 6 lots of fruit have developed into 4 distinct blends.

Blend 1 is made up of Lot 1 and Lot 2, which are the 2 lots from our Goldschmidt vineyard. These lots are made up of the Dijon clones 667, 777 and 115. This blend shows beautiful fruit, great structure with silky tannins and a medium to long finish. Blend 1 will be released as our Goldschmidt single vineyard designate.

Blend 2 is made up of Lot 3 and 4 – all Pommard clones from the ANA vineyard. This wine is a bit more intense in color – a deeper garnet with darker berry fruit aroma and pallet, well integrated acid and tannins and long finish. There is a WOW factor to this wine noted by all of us.
Blend 2 will be released as our Inaugural Reserve.

Blend 3 is made up of 80% of Lot 5 and 20% of Lot 6. Lot 5 is planted to the Dijon 777 clone and Lot 6 to Pommard. The color is classic garnet with strawberry, cherry and cranberry aromas. On the pallet we found layers of berries, spice and earthiness. Great mouth feel and finish.
Blend 3 will be released as our ANA single vineyard designate.

Blend 4 is made up of the remaining barrels of Lot 6 planted to Pommard. Frankly, we had some early concerns about this wine, as it didn't seem to show some of the characteristic fruit of the ANA vineyard. We are blown away with what has happened to this wine over the last few months. The fruit has come through beautifully on both the nose and the pallet. It is showing very good structure and a full finish.
Blend 4 will be released as our Dundee Hills Vineyards bottling.

About the Winery

Bottling and Labeling
We searched for months for just the right bottle for our wine. We wanted a bottle that embodied the "elegant and feminine" wines we are crafting. We think we've found it with the Anassa bottle from Saver Glass' Bourgogne Imperiales line. We will be the first winery in Oregon to use this unique bottle.

Our first day of bottling will be on August 18th. We are starting with a very small amount of wine – just Blend 4, our Dundee Hills Vineyards label. The remainder of our wines we plan to bottle after harvest most likely in early December.

Tasting Room
We've been working on a number of other projects in conjunction with the winery. The most significant is finalizing the design plans for our tasting room. We are almost finished with the plans and hope to be breaking ground by late summer or early autumn. A sketch of the tasting room will be posted shortly.

Crush
Many of you have expressed an interest in "volunteering" for crush. So, what does this entail? Well – the day starts out between 7 and 8 am, when it's still cool, and the professionals are picking the grapes. The volunteer Crush staff works in the vineyard sorting out "MOG" (material other than grapes) as fruit is cut from the vines and placed into bins. From the vineyard, you will spend the rest of the day at the winery sorting fruit on sorting tables. You will become expert in MOG, secondary clusters, raisined fruit, and botrytis. You will listen to (and no doubt critique) a wide variety of music, work shoulder to shoulder with people from around the country and the world, talk non stop about wine (and a whole range of other equally fascinating topics), have a beer or two, eat a great lunch paired with the perfect glass of Pinot noir. Oh – and the best part – you'll get to wear a really cool shirt and hat sporting the Winderlea logo!

When is all of this fun???? Anytime between mid-September and mid-October the call can go out. If you have a flexible schedule, drop me an email at donna@winderlea.com and I will keep you posted as harvest approaches.

In Memoriam

We lost one of our greatest supporters this spring – Donna's Dad – Bill (Billy) Morris. Dad died unexpectedly on May 18th – sadly – before he was able to visit Oregon and walk through the vineyard with us. He was so excited about everything we were doing – and always had 100 questions about what was happening in the vineyard whenever we spoke.

He was looking forward to traveling out to Oregon this summer to share in what we are doing – and also to re-visit some of his history at Ft. Lewis, Washington where he spent 6 months in training with the US Army before his tours of duty in Japan and Korea.

I am so thankful that my Dad shared his sense of adventure and desire to experience and do new things in his life with us. His spirit and love for people and life are alive with us.

As a way to always have him in the vineyard with us – we are dedicating the first and oldest block in our vineyard to him – Block 1 – which will now be known as "Billy's Block."

2007 Winter Vintage Journal

Weather, Pruning and Tasting - these are the things that have occupied us over the last several months since we completed Crush. Here is a quick update on the status of each.


The Weather

We have experienced the range of what Mother Nature produces since October. An unusually dry, mild and sunny October changed suddenly on November 1st to a wet, wild and windy month. The record setting wet weather in the first 10 days of November gave way to a major wind storm which knocked down trees and closed roads but fortunately had no negative impact on our vines. If the rain and wind weren’t enough – November also brought us an unusual (for November) low elevation snow front. The vines were blanketed in a dusting of snow for a day or two, as you will see with some new shots of the vineyard.

Following the very wet conditions in November, the dry and mild first week of December was a welcome relief. That changed quickly with mid December bringing the strongest windstorm in a decade and a rainstorm that wreaked havoc in the valley. Again, we are happy to report the vineyard prevailed and looks no worse for wear. The rest of December remained wet leaving the area with above average precipitation for the month.

For those of you on the East Coast who recall the balmy 50 degree days of the first couple of weeks of January – the Willamette Valley struggled with 20 and 30 degree days and some record snow falls. We are now happy to report that the last several weeks have been unusually warm, dry and blissfully sunny. Views of Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson have been clear and splendid. And stories of pruning in driving sideways rains are unknown to us so far.

So – what is the bottom line on the weather? It is good with plenty of rain and precipitation for the health of the vineyard. In fact, the locals have told us that by January we had enough precipitation to get us through the entire 2007 growing season.







The Vineyard

You’d think there wouldn’t be much to do in the vineyard during the winter but there is a surprising amount of work. Winter is about putting the vines in a position to produce fruit during the growing season. There is also an opportunity to learn more about the health and vigor of the vineyard this time of year. This brings us to the topic of winter pruning.

Winter Pruning, also known as Dormant Pruning, is done to begin the process of regulating the size and quality of next year’s crop. Pruning can be done at any time after the leaves have fallen from the vine and before bud break in the spring. Fruit grows from shoots that grow from one year old canes. When pruning, we are choosing the canes that will produce fruit in the coming year. We try to retain a cane that has 3 to 5 buds per foot. This determines the number of shoots that will be produced and thus the potential crop level and leaf canopy. Our goal is to have vines that are in balance so we get about two tons of perfectly ripened fruit per acre.

As a non-scientist, I can only say that this all seems somewhat complicated and, as a result, facing my thirty year old vines with very sharp pruning shears can be quite daunting. As our esteemed vineyard manager, Andy Humphrey, says, “People either get pruning or they don’t.” I fear I may be in the latter category.

Our predecessors did a wonderful job improving the quality of this vineyard. Now that we have taken stewardship, we feel a great responsibility to continue trying to make this site as good as it can be. Recently, we applied for the Low Input Viticulture and Enology Program (LIVE)™. LIVE™ promotes sustainable farming, biological diversity, and responsible stewardship. You can learn more about LIVE™ at www.liveinc.org. It is our hope that by participating in LIVE™ we will not only create a healthy ecosystem for our site but that we will also become more intimately knowledgeable about our vineyard. As most winemakers will tell you, the wine is made in the vineyard so a healthier vineyard should produce better wine.




Barrel Tasting

As February winds to a close – our wines have been in barrel for nearly 4 months. During that time we have had 2 formal barrel tastings in order to follow closely the development of the wine. The importance of these two tastings is to determine if the wines have completed fermentation, to establish if there are any technical issues and finally to start making some decisions about pairing certain lots with different barrels. The first tasting was Thursday, November 30th and the second was Tuesday, February 13th. We tasted each of the 6 lots of fruit, which are aging in some 25 barrels.

Visually, all of the wines in the 6 lots were cloudy in November (which was expected at this early stage) and cleared considerably in our February review.

The first two lots we tasted are from the Goldschmidt Vineyard and the remaining four blocks from the ANA Vineyard.

Goldschmidt Vineyard
Lot 1 is made up of the Dijon Clones 667 and 777. The nose on the wine is classic violet, cherries and some cranberry. On the palate the wine is dry, shows good acid and fruit.

Lot 2 is made up of the Dijon Clone 115. The nose on this wine is completely different from Lot 1 and presents a leathery and slight wood aroma. To our surprise – on the palate – the wine showed much more fruit – particularly cherries and blueberries.

ANA Vineyard
Lot 3 comes from the adjacent ANA vineyard and is planted to Pommard clones. On the nose, Lot 3 is quite expressive with strawberry, cherry, mushroom and spice. On the palate an earthiness mixed with red and black berries come through. Good acid is also noted on this lot.

Lot 4 also planted to Pommard showed slightly less fruit on the nose, soft cherry notes on the palate and less acid than Lot 3.

Lot 5 is planted to the Dijon 777 clone. On the nose there is more of a strawberry, cherry, candy and slight spice aroma. On the palate we noted deeper fruit notes.

Lot 6 is planted to the Pommard clone. On the nose we were struck by the earthiness this wine showed coupled with some hints of coffee bean. On the palate the wine was soft with developing fruit.


Coming Soon
Spring and Bud Break – of that we are certain and really looking forward to the next stage of life in the vineyard. Until then, we are continuing our search for the perfect bottle, cork and packaging in which to hold, present and keep our wine. Let us know if you’ve seen anything particularly compelling you think we should consider.

Let us hear from you at info@winderlea.com

2006 Autumn Harvest Journal

We got the call on Tuesday, September 26 that tomorrow would be the big day – our first day of harvest – ever. At 8 a.m. on the 27th we met up with a crew of twenty or so professional pickers to receive our first ton and a quarter of fruit – the first coming off Goldschmidt vineyard blocks eight and nine made up of the Dijon 667 and 777 clones. It was a gorgeous morning – sunny and bright and a crisp 60 degrees. The picking was completed quickly and we were off to our host winery, Couer de Terre (CdT), owned by Scott and Lisa Neal. The fruit was clean and beautiful – so there wasn’t a lot of work for the sorting team (Bill, our winemaker Robert Brittan, his daughter Chelsea Brittan, who is a recent graduate of Oregon State Universities’s Viticulture and Enology program, various friends and staff of the winery and me.) In less than two hours, our first block of fruit was named WPN 01 – the W for Winderlea, the PN for Pinot Noir, the 01 for our first block; cataloged Brix, Acid, pH (think gender, weight, length for a newborn) and happily cold-soaking in the barrel room of CdT.


From September 27 through October 11, we repeated the process four more times and today we are the proud owners of nearly ten tons of fruit known as WPN 01, WPN 02, WPN 03, WPN 04, WPN 05, and last but not least, WPN 06. Don’t ask us – we don’t have a favorite – we love them equally. In time, I am sure we will love them differently. It is amazing how they have each developed their own distinctive personalities in a matter of these short days and weeks.


WPN 01 was the first to barrel on October 12. WPN 02 – WPN 06 all followed by October 28. So the six lots we nurtured so carefully during cold soak and fermentation over the past few weeks have been given over to twenty-five French oak barrels from a number of coopers, which will allow us to get to know the characteristics imparted by each.


As for Crush, Bill and I became proficient very quickly. We each staked out a critical position in the processing. I became the maven of the pre-sort and upper sort and Bill reigned supreme during the post de-stemming process. I can assure you no “unwanted” MOG (Material Other than Grape) found its way into our fermenting tanks. Each cluster and grape was meticulously inspected and only those with great beauty or great character were granted permission into our inaugural vintage.


In addition to all we learned, we made many new acquaintances during Crush. We happily helped others process their fruit at CdT – and gratefully accepted their help as well. When totes of fruit were delivered, everyone jumped in to get them sorted and processed with the same dedication and attention to detail as if they were their own. We loved the collegiality at the winery and in particular the civilized tradition the Neals have established of having everyone sit down to a real lunch each day. Everyone – vineyard workers, winery workers, winemakers, volunteers and proprietors – stopped for an hour or so each afternoon and enjoyed a great meal (with the occasional glass of wine or beer). As many Oregon winemakers will tell you, “It takes a lot of good beer to make great wine.”