Newsletter Archives > Viticulture
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Smart winemakers agree great wine is grown, not made. Although the wine business is equal labors of growing grapes, making wine and marketing wine (my apologies to Caesar's Veni, Vidi, Vici), the most important differentiator long-term between wine and great wine is the grape.
As owners, Bill and I appreciate this foundation, both being born into farm families, spending early years becoming attuned to cycles of nature: the lengthening days and penetrating warmth of a young spring sun driving out the chill of shade, stimulating an eruption of fuzzy greens of many hues and flowers on fruit and nut trees, and underneath from woodland bulbs, the audible sucking of rainwater retreating to be gone for many months; a hot, bright, lazy summer with workers trying to stay ahead of vegetation, trying to stay cool until evening coastal breezes help set a 10pm sun; an orange sun lighting shorter days as harvest sounds from machinery deep in the rolls of hillside orchards and vineyards continue into night, driven by rains not yet seen but certain, and signaling extended periods when repairing equipment or staring out of raindrop splayed windows, coffee cup in-hand captures the day. Once calibrated to the cycles, you can't escape, as we found, returning in the midst of careers in business and industry to the land, and to a sense of regularity and connection to nature.
Chehalem's first grapes were planted by my family in spring of 1982 on Ribbon Ridge at the site we called Ridgecrest. The latest have been planted by Bill and Cathy at Stoller Vineyards at the southern tip of the Dundee Hills, almost annually since 1995.
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Ribbon Ridge Plantings
This spring we once again plant on Ribbon Ridge, for the first time since 1990, at our unplanted Wind Ridge site (several hundred yards south of Ridgecrest), a 55 acre site purchased from the Simmons family in 1995 and held for eventual planting. Still in the wings is the original homestead property of Norm and Betty Chapman obtained in
2000, a 38 acre parcel at the very top of Ribbon Ridge (683 feet), adjoining the Ridgecrest parcel they sold us twenty years before. Partial development of that parcel will take place later in our five-year development plan. In total, we plan to plant 25-35 acres over that period. Michael has written in his column about planting logistics, so here are my general reasons for what we do and why we do it.
Why Now?
This is a strange time to plant new vineyards, if you consider a lackluster economy, huge plantings by others, especially newcomers spurred by our string of great vintages, and Chehalem reaching a comfortable limit to what we can produce in our winery facility. And yet I've always ascribed to counterintuitive decisions, at least those hard to understand in a short-term sense. Although we shouldn't be foolish financially, the time to invest in an industry where what you plant today bears fruit in three to five years, where that fruit is not of optimal quality for another five to ten years, and where the variety or clone or wine concept has to be visionary, is now not after someone else has done it or you see an immediate need to do it. Not after the easy route has been paved. Proactively, not reactively.
This year we begin plantings that speak to new thrusts several years off, and that remedy disease problems that have not yet fully spread across the valley, in time to replace the 20 plus year-old, self-rooted plants with fully mature grafted vines. Ridgecrest pinot noir is a cornerstone of Chehalem's wines and reputation and it is vulnerable, since as self-rooted plants it is susceptible to the not yet experienced, but inevitable introduction of phylloxera, the tiny but mighty root louse parasite that is controlled only by grafting onto native American rootstocks. This year we plant 7.5 acres of Dijon clone pinot noir on rootstock, soon to be followed by 15 more acres of Pommard and Dijon pinot noir over the next few years, as a hedge and to augment Ridgecrest vines. Dijon clones such as 777, 115 and 667 are legitimate equals of Pommard, and yet had not been available for prior plantings on our Ribbon Ridge sites.
Focusing on white varieties is antithetical in the short-term, "ohmigod, Oregon is finally recognized as the New World home of pinot noir" mania that sees only pinot noir planted today-or maybe a little pinot gris, since the market has awakened to it also. However, we are also dedicated in contrarian fashion to wines we personally like and think belong in the long-term future of Oregon wines. Thus, besides pinot noir, Dijon chardonnay to show response on Willakenzie soils, riesling as a passion, and maybe even some Grüner veltliner or alberino will be planted.
Changes
We change as we learn. Today, compared to plantings twelve years ago, we are emphasizing rootstocks, slightly denser plant spacings of meter by two meter (recognizing our 1989-90 plantings were double the density of our original 1982 plantings, and 2003's are almost triple), mechanical and mulch weed suppression rather than herbicide, compost not chemical fertilizers, and non-petrochemical sprays deemed Organic. Ridgecrest is now being farmed Organically and others are being moved in that direction. Wind Ridge is being started that way.
We have used a little drip irrigation to address problem soil shallowness at Corral Creek and Stoller has drip available to all vines, but ideally we want Mother Nature to determine how hydroponic a vintage will be. Vintage differences enhance appreciation of wine for many, so long as the quality level is high. New Ribbon Ridge plantings will have drip plumbed in, but our intent is to not use it, partly due to the totally dry-farmed history of Ridgecrest and its success, partly to be stubborn.
Probably most significant over the years, we Oregonians have developed knowledge of viticulture that permits harvesting of impeccably ripe and disease-free fruit before significant rains signal an end of the growing season. Restricting yield through crop-thinning, planting more densely so that each plant ripens less fruit, encouraging uniformity of clusters through leaf removal pre-bloom and during ripening, plus through intelligent cluster selection at crop-thin, and improved canopy and spray management have made significant strides.
Most changes require more, not less handwork. The conditions and wages for vineyard workers have improved greatly over the twenty years we've planted, and we're proud of that.
Where
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| Ribbon Ridge, looking north with Wind Ridge in foreground, Ridgecrest in center, Chapman homestead at top. | |
Our exploration of sites is limited to Ribbon Ridge in this phase, but is nonetheless exciting as we confirm a rich variety of geological features there. Despite its relatively uniform origin and morphology, we continue, with pre-planting geological core samples, to find distinct demarcations between ocean sedimentary and volcanic basalt on the Wind Ridge site that are similar to regions discerned at Ridgecrest. Differences that ultimately show up in grapes grown there. And, as we know, how wine tastes depends on where and how it is grown.
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31190 NE Veritas Lane • Newberg, OR 97132
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