Purple Cow Vineyards

Elk & Snow

Sunday morning the local herd of elk were enjoying themselves just outside our window (you may recognize the outside tasting area decking).

Many people around here say the elk come down from the higher land when it's about to snow, and in this case they were right! This is what we woke to today!

2006 Gabriela bottled

What a great time. I do not relish the thought of using the automated line later in the winter for the Muscat and Tempranillo, because we so enjoy the manual bottling work. We bottled Gabriela (60% Cabernet Franc and 40% Cabernet Sauvingon) on December 30th.  It really turned out well. We'll take it to Newport and have a local party during Spring Break.

We also bottled the 2006 Marechal Foch. That will be available to the Wine Club as soon as we're satisfied with the post-bottling recovery.

105 cases produced.

Great Time at Cork and Barrel

We really enjoyed the visit at Cork and Barrel with Scott and the gang, January 18th.  It's a welcome, family atmosphere.  Great turnout too.  We brought the 2004 Pinot Noir out of the library for the visit, and that was holding up quite well.

Coming Soon: Oregon Wine and Food Festival

Update 1/8/08: all tickets given away.  thanks everyone who responded, see you there.

First 2 people to email me that they want them will get 2 tickets to the Oregon Wine and Food Festival.  The festival is Friday Jan 11th 4-10pm, Saturday Jan 12th 11-9pm, Sunday Jan 13th 11-5pm at the Oregon State Fairgrounds.  I won't deliver them to you so you should probably live fairly close. -Jon-

Oregon Wine & Food Silver Medal

I just attended the awards ceremony for the Oregon Wine and Food Festival. The festival will be held Jan 11-13 at the Oregon State Fairgrounds in Salem. We braved the rain and wind to attend the awards ceremony because our 2006 Pinot Noir Kelsey Edition received the Silver Medal. Mind you, I was skeptical of the significance of the award because some events award multiple bronze or silvers. This was a well run competition with only one bronze/silver/gold awarded, 1 each in 5 categories (pinot noir, other red, white, dessert, specialty). There were 78 wines entered into the competition and the Pinot Noir category received ~35% of the entries. Don't quote me on the entry number because it was a verbal passdown, it was between 30% and 40%. Either way, that's at least 25 pinot noirs that someone thought were good enough to enter into competition. Kelsey's Edition won 2nd place. I checked into prices and I'm really happy with where we are.

Cellar Gem - 2002 Pinot Noir Sophie's Edition

I write this post to partially address questions regarding how long Purple Cow Pinot Noir can age.  The week before Christmas, I went under the house looking for our cat.  I didn't find the cat there, but I did find some bottles of wine that had been long forgotten.  The one which I write about today is the 2002 Pinot Noir Sophie's Edition.  This is an all-Pommard Pinot from the Ruby Carbiener estate.  It is the second vinifera vintage I ever made.  I pulled the cork for some friends and transcribed their comments below:

• bubble gum
• raisins, dried cranberries, early wild mountain blueberry from New Hampshire
• slightly oxidized (the good kind), cathedral-like aged smell
• nutmeg / cardamom

This wine has held up to aging very well and seems like it has another year before it peaks.  If you are considering buying wine for a lower price and cellaring it yourself, I am comfortable asserting that the future Sophie editions will cellar very well based upon this historical experience.  There was some 2002 Kelsey Edition in the cellar as well and I will post those notes in a few weeks. -Jon-