Recently “gentle handling” has been on my mind a lot.  Part of the production model at Van Duzer has been handling grapes with augur feeds and must pumps.  These tools are highly efficient in terms of time and expense but aren’t typically associated with quality Pinot production.  Standard Operating Protocol for Bordeaux and Rhone varietals; most pinot producers shunned the augur and pump long ago and opted for sorting tables and forklifts; the poor man’s gravity.

As part of our initiative to improve quality at Van Duzer we are moving away from must pumps to hand sorting and filling fermentors with forklifts (gravity).  The move to gravity is expensive; it requires a lot of specialized machinery made of stainless steel (that only gets used for 1 month a year).

The sorting of fruit and use of gravity will greatly decrease the rate that fruit can be processed.  Instead of 12 tons an hour, through a pump, we will be lucky to move at 5 tons an hour with pristine and perfectly ripe fruit, and far less under challenging conditions.  This will require more of me and my team; more time, more energy and most of all, more attention.  The increased demand of attention from the winemaking team is, I believe, the unspoken benefit of sorting tables and gravity; they bring the team and the wine closer together.

When I took the job at Patton Valley Vineyard the details of growing 24 acres of grapes and making the wine from them was the sort of test I was looking for.  I stepped out of my comfort zone and onto the steep part of the curve where I had to learn quickly.  I hit the ground running and for the past five years I’ve honed my skills producing wines that I am terribly proud of.  Each year I became a better winemaker, making better decisions, further refining my idea of what my craft was about.  Though each vine, vintage and barrel are always different, the learning curve became more and more flat each year.  I was starting to stand flat footed.

The 2009 vintage will be my last at Patton Valley Vineyard. 

Getting me back on my toes will be the nearly 90 acres and 15,000 thousand cases I will be making as Winemaker at Van Duzer Vineyard in Dallas Oregon.  It feels good being back on the steep part of the curve and running again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPwzFJvou1Q

During harvest blaring music in a cellar is nearly universal.   Nothing can, with perhaps the exception of coffee, better prepare one for the rigors of morning punch downs.    Nothing pumps a crew up during their eighteenth hour of work like loud music.  The stereo, or the iPod these days, you see is an essential winemaking tool.

Some winemakers believe that the music can exert an influence on the wine.  During the 2005 harvest, I woke ferments up each morning with John Coltrane’s “Ole”.  The piece is very dramatic with Spanish tones and an intensity that just keeps going on and on.  I figured at worst it couldn’t hurt and at best, well, it is John Coltrane.

What cannot be denied is that music has not only motivated winemakers but has also served as a standard or example.   How many times have we heard musical terms to describe wines, flavors that are “harmonious”, a “symphony”?  I’ve heard tasters break wines down into “bass notes” and “mid range”.  Infamous winemaking consultant Clark Smith takes these notions to an extreme and asserts that wine behaves like music.   What do you think “Opus One” refers to?

While many winemakers hope their wines embody the ‘intellect’ of a classical composition or the ‘technical proficiency’ and ‘spontaneous energy” of Jazz, I tend to be looking for something with a little more soul.  What I want a wine to do is break your heart.  Not the nasty,” bitter for the rest of your life”, type of heart break but the heart break that just a matter of timing that you look back on and, with a smile, wonder what if? 

Here my top 10 list of songs I would turn into wine:

1. Sweep out the Ashes in the Morning; sung by Gram Parsons and Emmy Lou Harris off of the live album Gram Parsons and The Fallen Angels ’73.
2. 200 more miles; off of the Cowboy Junkies The Trinity Sessions.
3. It’s all over now Baby Blue; from Bob Dylan’s Bringing it all back home.
4. Do Right Woman, Do Right Man; off of Aretha Franklin’s  I never loved a man the way I loved you.
5. Haitian Fight Song;  off of Thirteen Pictures: The Charles Mingus Anthology.
6. Wayfaring Stranger; performed by Johnny Cash from his Unearthed collection.
7. Broken Butterflies; from Lucinda Williams’ album Essence.
8. Aurora En Pekin;  from Marc Ribot &  Los Cubanos Postizos (The Prosthetic Cubans).
9. Brother Flower; from Townes Van Zandt’s  Rear View Mirror.
10. Anywhere I Lay My Head;  by Tom Waits on the album Rain Dogs.



Budbreak can also serve as the winegrower’s annual review and report card.  The grower is provided with few opportunities to more clearly assess vine balance than the one offered by a visual examination of shoot growth in the days and weeks after budbreak.

A Balanced Vine is one where the fruiting and vegetative energies of the vine are in equilibrium.  The grape is the reproductive organ of the vine which has two strategies to reproduce.  The first, and least desirable (for the winegrower), is the Vegetative Strategy.  The Vegetative Strategy is the result of conditions conducive to growth; more than ample nutrients and water.  Given these conditions the vine will increase the mass of its woody tissues and leaf surface area and produce a small amount of fruit relative to its mass.  This increase in leaf surface area then increases the production of energy for the vine and shades the portions of the vine where next year’s clusters are developing.  This lack of sunlight on the reproductive structure of the vine and the large amount of energy available stimulate further vegetative growth.  The result is an ongoing positive feedback cycle where the vine continually stimulates itself to focus its energy on increasing its woody tissues.

The second reproductive strategy is a fruiting strategy.  Conditions that do not favor vegetative growth; limited nutrients and water encourage the vine to focus energy on producing fruit and do so at a high level relative to its mass.  This vine has less energy available, invests less of it in woody tissues thus decreasing leaf surface area.  This decrease in leaf surface area, in addition to reducing energy production by the vine, increases the amount of sunlight the developing reproductive structures are exposed to, further encouraging the vine to invest its energy in fruit and not woody mass.  This is the fruiting cycle.  If one carefully considers most of the elements of Vineyard Management it becomes clear that most of the actions taken in the vineyard are to maintain the balance of the vine on the side of fruiting.

The energy produced by a vine is proportional to its leaf surface area.  This energy is used to power the physiological activities of the vine as well as make the grape more attractive to animals (the function of the grape in reproduction).  The amount of energy produced, determined by leaf surface area,  is fixed and must be spread out over all physiological functions as well as the mass of fruit.  The greater the mass of fruit, the greater the portion of the vines energy dedicated to it.  

The growth of the vine early in the season is not powered by photosynthesis taking place in the young, developing leaves.   Carbohydrates stored in the vine’s woody portions; cane, trunk and roots serve as the fuel for early vine growth.

The growth of the young shoots, indicative of the amount of energy left in the vine from the previous year, serves to inform the grower as to how the vine has allocated its energy produced the previous season.

Excessive or advanced growth on the ends of the cane or end point dominance suggests a vine with excess energy and did not allocate enough of it previous season’s energy to fruit.  The take home story is that this vine is under cropped and out of balance and leaning towards the vegetative cycle.

Apical Dominance, where the shoots near the trunk of the vine grow faster than those near the end, is suggestive of a vine that allocated too much of the previous season’s energy to fruit.  This vine is over cropped and it is out of balance by being too much into the fruiting cycle.

The Balanced Vine, one that has produced and allocated the proper amounts of energy to fruiting and vegetative growth, will display even and uniform shoot growth along the length of the cane.

Too often growers base their crop levels on “rules of thumb”; in Oregon this is typically the “2 tons per acre or less” mentality.   If each vineyard site is unique and has its own inherent tendency to be fruiting or vegetative then how can a uniform application of crop load be appropriate?

By paying attention to early season shoot growth a grower can assess the balance of the vine.  This information should be used to further refine their approach to crop load.  Maximizing fruit quality AND quantity will the reward for those who heed the Lessons of Budbreak.



Anytime I hear of a winemaker whose experience is confined to working in a single cellar I am naturally suspect.  I am finding it rare these days to find winemakers, at least young ones, that haven’t worked in more than one wine region.  Sometimes we can learn more about our wines and vineyards by looking at them from a great distance.

Nearly all winemakers taste wines from around the world on a regular basis.  We all understand that if we don’t give our pallets perspective we risk losing our ability to be, not just objective, but honest in our analysis of our own wines.  At the very least we must taste.

There is, for me, an enormous difference in the understanding I gain by tasting a wine than the one I gain by seeing where it comes from.  Reading about the geology or geography of a region is, at best, a poor substitute for kicking the dirt and walking the land.  What is the color of the soil?  Is it rocky?  How steep is the topography?  How will air move at night?  What is the geography of the land surrounding the vineyards?  How close is the ocean?  How far off of the ground does the trellis position the fruit?   I learn a lot from feeling the dry sun on the back of my neck or the bite of a cool evening breeze.   All of these things make the mental picture I have of a wine more vivid.

On a map of the Mosel Valley the Zeltingen Sonnenuhr Vineyard occupies a space defined by lines.  In person it is a steep hill defined by gullies, cliffs, remains of ancient castles and as its name implies a large sundial.  In late November of 2004 as I picked the grapes that would eventually end up in Selbach-Osters’ ‘Rotlay’ Riesling.  I remember being struck by the realization of what made that section of vineyard so special.  The small block started at the road that ran along the river and extended up the hill to the base of a 60 foot cliff.  Both the heat retaining capabilities of the river and the cliff, which gather the suns warmth all day, made this small plot exceptional.

When I visited Burgundy my world was turned upside down.  I had made many assumptions about what the geography of the grand crus of the Cote de Nuits would be like.  What I found was not an obvious band on a steep slope that forcefully collected the suns energy but a sweet spot on a gentle hill that had vineyards, of lesser reputation if not quality, above and below it.

In Martinborough, New Zealand you could set your watch by the wind as it rolled in each morning, often times so strong it could move the press while filling.  Until you feel that wind on your face you couldn’t comprehend that it could, much less how, shape a wines character.

These experiences allow me to look at my own region, The Willamette Valley, with greater clarity.  My understanding of the vineyards that surround me is deepened by the knowledge I gain from visiting other regions.  There is a perspective that can only be gained by standing at a distance, a very long distance.

 The column, essentially, demands that producers “Tell us the truth”.   Mr. Kramer first calls into question a wine labels ability to deliver accurate information about what is in a bottle of wine.  He provides a brief explanation of labeling laws as they relate to alcohol levels.  In short; for wines over 14%, stated alcohol levels must be within 1% of actual levels and for wines under 14% this interval increases to 1.5%.  He goes on to say “If NASA used these standards for the moon shot, they would have called it a success if the rocket merely sailed past its intended target, never mind actually landing on it.”

He then goes on to say “…alcohol levels” are “merely symptomatic” and that “The real issue is how ripe the grapes are before the wine is made.”  He then goes about listing all the things that winemakers have to do as a result of picking grapes that are too ripe.  The take home story is that we winemakers go on to lie about how we make our wine, that we are somehow “ashamed” of the things we do, that we’re “fiddling with their wines precisely to make them appear to be something they’re not”.  He then goes on to demand that producers “Tell us the truth”.

Like many other so called wine “journalists” Mr. Kramer fails to provide any definition of ripeness and resorts to using the analogy of high brix.  What Mr Kramer fails to realize, as do so many others, is that most of us winemakers have gotten away from picking grapes at a specific brix.  Most of us have gotten away from the recipe approach to winemaking, we rely less and less on laboratory tests to tell us when we should pick and rely more and more on how the grapes taste.  There is a lot more to a balanced wine than alcohol levels and these are the variables we winemakers must consider, not one but many.  I am tired of people in offices tasting finished wines going on about what ripeness is.  Mr Kramer is not in the business of understanding ripeness, he is in the business of tasting and commenting on finished wine.  I AM in the business of ripeness, I walk countless miles through vineyards putting grapes into my mouth, tasting them, chewing on the skins and seeds, trying to get my head around when is it time to pick.  Mr Kramer, I wish it were as easy as picking grapes at a specific brix. 

I also disagree with Mr Kramer when he says we are “fiddling with their wines precisely to make them appear to be something they’re not”.  When I and I think most of my peers would agree, “fiddle” with a wine I am doing so so that it can be all that it can be.  I don’t like 15% alcohol Pinot’s nor do I like overly green characters, so what am I to do?  I have to look at the grape and ask myself; which of the factors involved with balance can I control?   The truth of the matter is that I can increase or decrease alcohol and acidity with relative ease.  Flavors and tannin quality are things that I am far less capable of altering, so why not pick based on the things I have the least control over?   The simple truth is that when a winemaker makes a manipulation he does so with the consumer’s best interest in mind, not in an attempt to pull something over on them.

The impression that I get is that Mr Kramer thinks winemakers should rely on the numbers of laboratory tests instead of our instincts in making picking decisions and that we should apply NASA like precision in using those numbers.  The truth is that there are already large ‘wine factories’ doing just that and they are producing wines by the millions of cases.  To paraphrase one of my favorite musicians, David Lowery of Cracker, “there are a lot more professional wineries out there.  And they’re all fucking boring”.   I for one want the human element in my wine.  I want a product made by people who reflect on what they produce.  I want a wine that is the result of someone practicing a craft and not a chemist.  Based on other things Mr Kramer has written I was under the impression that he did too. It appears as if Mr Kramer wants to both eat and have his cake.

Where I DO AGREE with Mr Kramer is that WE SHOULD TELL THE TRUTH.  Winemakers should be more open about what they do to wines and more importantly why.  What Mr Kramer doesn’t realize is that until writers like himself, and the consumers he claims to serve,  view our craft with an open mind we will continue to be selective with the truth.  Until writers and consumers realize that the ideology they expect us live by is based on the lies we supposedly tell, producers aren’t likely to come clean anytime soon.  I think the first step in becoming a more open and honest wine culture is for consumers and writers to leave the winemaking to the winemakers.  Instead of telling us how you think wine should be made, try listening to how and why we do the things we do.  The second step will be the dissolution of the ego of wine writers and their understanding that the craft of winemaking cannot be learned in a book sitting in an office; it is learned in the cellar and vineyard.

Sugars are trending towards higher levels but my commitment to flavors has got me hanging fruit out longer than even I had expected.  We have harvested about 20% of our fruit so far.  Only one fermentation has taken off thus far so my impressions of the harvest are still buried in the haze filling my head, the result of a 23 hour work day followed by the usual 14 hour-a-day monotony.  I suspect any day now I will wake up to either find that everything is in barrel or that it was all a dream and my fruit is still hanging on the vines.

Talk around the valley centers on high brix, botrytis, and desiccation.  Though I have seen each of these none have been extreme or beyond our ability to deal with.  I mentioned in earlier posts that this entire season has had me baffled, and though my confusion continues I am now just to the point of trusting the vineyard.   Sometimes a wine grower just has to believe that the vines themselves want to make good wine and that they should be given the chance to do so.

As far as crop load goes I decided to go with my gut and assume that the vintage would turn cool and potentially wet.  I thinned most of the vineyard to a single cluster per shoot.  In some blocks this is still more than 2.5 tons to the acre.

Low and behold weather has cooled and the last three days have seen showers.  Let me emphasize SHOWERS.  Not down pours, not three days of consistent rain but a typical, slow Oregon drizzle that lasts 15 minutes and are followed by wind and sun.  I have to be clear about the nature of rainfall here or all of the wine writers, which never really visit here during vintage, will misconstrue the events and hastily damn the vintage before grapes are even picked.

Nights have cooled considerably as have days and it is really the diurnal variation that makes Oregon, in general, and Patton Valley Vineyard, specifically, such an interesting place to work with.  As the temperature extremes widen from day to night, ripening slows down.  It is my belief that it is this slow ripening that produces Pinot Noir with the finest structure, complexity, concentration and intensity of fruit.

It is still to early to, at this point, make any declarations about the vintage (or else I run the risk of being like those wine writers).  However, from my point of view I would say optimism is growing with each cool and relatively dry day.

    Programs such as The Simpsons and The Family Guy, among others, have demonstrated that the Cartoon can elevate simple observations and commentary, brutally clear language, to hilarious heights.  Something about animation allows it to soften a truth or at least dull its edge.  Wine related humor often lacks the tickling sarcasm that cartoons effectively deliver.  Until Now.  A friend forwarded this link to a U-tube cartoon that I think is exactly the sort of thing the wine biz needs right now; something to laugh at and an opportunity to hear something true that it might not want said.