Purple Cow Vineyards

Trip Report en France

As some of you know, my daughter Gaby, my wife Elena and I just came back from 12 days in France with two of those days devoted to wine tasting and vineyard tours in the Grand Cru region of the Bourgogne -the heart of French Pinot Noir.
 
Now, two days is not long enough to qualify the trip as a tax deduction, but it was enough time for me to see the French viticulture and winemaking processes up close and personal. And after tasting what my wife and daughter will affirm to be far too many wines, I now have a renewed appreciation for the quality of Oregon Pinots because quite frankly, there weren't too many French Pinots I liked. In   fact, the sum total of the French Pinots I tasted and liked amounted to just one, an '03 Chassagne Montrachet that was not cheap, either in Euros or dollars . Okay, even less cheap in dollars....

My biggest surprises were on the viticulture or vineyard management side: I saw many, many vines with clusters of mixed color grapes - the result of incomplete veraison - as well as many vines with clusters of small 'parasite' clusters of very green, immature fruit. We at Purple Cow -and at just about every other premier Oregon vineyard we know of- would have dropped these clusters long time ago.....immediately after veraison.  Another surprise was row spacing which is usually two meters, about 18" less than our spacing, which we favor to maximize the sun exposure to the vines during the late summer -the last critical weeks of the maturation process.
 
This obvious emphasis on yields results in very 'thin' wines....very soft, almost non-existent tannins, light in color, with very little of the sensuous, femenine nose and dark berry, spices and complexity of the classic Oregon Pinots. All but one of the Pinots we tried across three vintages were less than 13% alcohol, which also suggests a bias to higher yields and a 'harvest at a commercially-adequate point' mentality versus the almost fanatical 'harvest at the right balance of sugars (Brix) and acidity' that we're accustomed to in Oregon.
 
Bottom line: for great crépes, boulangeries, croissants, a killer Métro and the best coffee I have ever tasted, France rocks.  That said, for Pinot drinkers -and this will be heresy to many-  you don't have to travel that far to enjoy fabulous Pinots....
 
But I have to admit: Avignon was lovely.........
;o)

-Galo-
 

Veraison Complete

It was a long time coming.  Once it started it happened fast.  Thank you September weather.  If we can hold to the forecast and the trend of hot days and cool nights, it's going to be a great vintage.  I'll see I can talk Wendy into putting a photo with this soon so you can see for yourself.

Jon's reflections on the limits of simple weather models

If you're an Oregonian, what do you think?  Hasn't been a terrible summer, right?  Fair enough.  We use the Winkler Degree Day Index and it's about consistent with 2007, so while this may not be a vintage for the ages, we should know how to get through it.  Is that the stuff you're hearing?

Good theory and I was following it - I wrote the above based on my previous comments since I don't consult anyone's opinion on vineyard matters.  However, I just looked at our veraison situation in 2008 vs 2007 and it suggests that we're several days behind what I've many times called the most difficult year I've gone through.  So if we're accumulating roughly the same number of degree-days as last year, what's causing veraison to be late?

This year's weather exposes the weakness of the model.  We expect it to behave in a linear fashion, see x degree days, expect a certain maturity.  In years that have fairly low variability from the average temperatures, the accuracy of the model will be very high.  In 2008, we had one of the coldest springs on record, then an average+ summer which had some very high peaks (104) and low valleys (66).  I realize the story isn't even over yet, but that accounts for July/August.  What this has led to is a situation where you actually have fruit in September that hasn't turned color due to veraison, it turned due to sunburned berries.  Should I call Al Gore and apologize for my skepticism?

What drives the fact that we are looking at burned unripe fruit?  Let me try a horse racing analogy to describe my theory.  The cold spring caused bud-break to arrive 3 weeks late, something like letting all the other horses have a 3 second head-start.  We've been running at a good pace, better than average, and it's taken taken so much effort that something bad happened, like we were fined for being caught with an Emery board (is this still horse racing?).  Despite all the effort, the original handicap was never overcome.

I used to be a fan of a late spring (see earlier posts) just because I would avoid risk of frost.  Now I think my original viewpoint was overly obsessed with the raw data of the degree-day index.  Since we have roughly the same number of degree days right now as we did on this date in 2007, I would expect to see us completing veraison.  Since we're not, I must conclude that the late spring did more harm than I realized.

Having gone through it last year, I'm mentally prepared this year.  I don't believe this will result in poor wine, in fact it may be better for the longer hang time, and I'm satisfied with 2007 wines.  I know better what to expect, and experience matters when making important decisions (sorry Barack).  All we need are dry forecasts and lots of time, easy pickin's here in the North Willamette.

I will of course keep you "posted", -Jon-

Wine Club Members - save the date

September 27th, 2008. That is the weekend where we will schedule on-site pickup of the next wine club shipment.  It will be a members-only release of the 2005 Tempranillo Reserve.  Wendy is in charge of the club management and will be sending out more details about the contents of the club shipment via email.  -Jon-

Happy Labor Day -- come visit us, we're Open!

I know we're not normally open on a Monday, but it's Labor Day and we decided to be OPEN!

So, if you're waiting for your BBQ to start this afternoon, why not come by Purple Cow today to for some wine tasting and fun conversation. And if you don't have big plans for today, Purple Cow can become your big plans! We'd love to see you. We're open 11 - 5pm today. Stop in and say hi!