Newsletter Archives

Viticulture

In the Vineyard columns since Spring 2002

2006 — Fall
2006 — Spring
2005 — Fall
2005 — Spring
2004 — Spring
2003 — Fall
2003 — Summer
2003 — Spring
2002 — Fall/Winter
2002 — Spring/Summer

Fall Harvests

2004. (2004 harvest reports)
2003. (2003 harvest reports)
2002. A vintage of quality and quantity for us. The quality is as good as we've seen from all three vineyards, with deep color and flavor extraction, but without excessive tannin buildup. (2002 harvest reports)
2001. For the fourth year in a row fruit has been harvested without significant rain or disease, and with concentration and ripeness that should give us great wines. (2001 harvest reports)
2000. When back-to-back winning years isn't enough, try three! All crops ripened at the same time, requiring force feeding of lunches, dinners, gingersnaps, and great quantities of the caffeine food group. (2000 harvest reports)
1999. Miracle fall gives back-to-back stellar vintages. (1999 harvest reports )
1998. Grape whines, but great wines - it all adds up to the proverbial two-edged sword: the crop is tiny but the wines are huge..

Cool Climate Viticulture. (Spring '00) We grow grapes in a Cool Climate Region, one in which moderate temperatures and a gradual progression from budburst to harvest protects delicacy and nuance in the resulting fruit.

Corral Creek Vineyards. (Summer '00) This vineyard, named for a creek draining the Rex Hill and Parrett Mountain, surrounds the winery.

Growing wine, not making it. (Spring '03) Although the wine business is equal labors of growing grapes, making wine, and marketing wine, the most important differentiator long-term between wine and great wine is the grape.

The 2002 Vintage. (Spring '04) Is 2002 a great Oregon Pinot noir vintage, or just a great press release? All years are not created equal. We innately look for differences to intrigue the intellectually curious, to celebrate a product that is much like art in its ability to reflect diversity and stimulate creativity, to create a high-C against the choral sameness of passing years. (including charts and graphs: Historical Phenological Data and Tonnage by Harvest Date)

Oregon Wine Frontier in Perspective (Spring '02) Snapshots of change after more than 20 Years.

Ridgecrest Vineyards. ('98) We are convinced this is one of the best vineyard sites in Oregon.... We have a true sense of place, or terroir, in this ridge’s wines.

Stoller Vineyards. ('98) The 360 acre farm on the most southern slope of the Red Hills of Dundee that is now Stoller Vineyards ... [and] is known fondly as Corton Hill by longtime local winegrowers ... became part of the Stoller Family in 1943.

View from Down Under. (Spring '00) The New World has two pretenders to the Pinot Noir throne of Burgundy, the friendly competitors of Oregon and New Zealand.

Vintage Variability. (Summer '00) Warm climates with predictable weather reproduce themselves reliably in most years. Cool climates often give radically different views of the same wine variety.