OCTOBER 1998 – We left Napa on a warm, clear blue sky day, arriving in Carlton, Oregon to overcast skies and a slight drizzle. The 10 degree temperature difference and the “bit” more rain that we had been tracking for three years while we made our decision to move north was suddenly a chilly, wet reality.
We were, however, the proud owners of 50 acres of over- grown Christmas trees, scrub oak and 18’ high blackberry bushes. A wonderful old barn, or what was left of it, with birdhouses lining each side of the peaked roof and an equally antiquated farm house that had never seen heat not produced by a wood burning stove completed this vision that only a new owner could look on with pride.
Planting crew, Spring 2000
Stuck in the mud 1999
1999 was a very long year of land clearing and, when we weren’t too tired, of dreaming on what the slopes we were slowing uncovering would look like with grape vines marching smartly across them. Winter rains caught us before we were ready to plant so our first delivery of 3,400 plants had to be put to bed for the winter in a make shift nursery in the machine shop.
SPRING 2000 found us with red Willakenzie soil caked on our shoes and under our fingernails but our first vines where going in the ground. Our planting foreman, rolling his eyes all the while, let us plant the first vine then kindly moved us out of harm’s way and planting began in earnest. A crew of 8 men with clam shell post hole diggers hand dug all 3,400 holes. They were followed by a crew of seven men and women -- planting, tamping, staking and putting sleeves on each tender vine
YEARS 2001, 2002 & 2003 were a succession of planting, trellising, nurturing. More planting, trellising, nurturing and, of course, swelling with pride as each new block of vines went into the ground. Each year found the vines reaching out of their grow tubes for training wires, next into catch wires and finally topping the trellis system and needing to be hedged.
Winters still found us enjoying the warmth of the wood burning stove and marveling at how well we had acclimated to our cabin-like existence. Someday, we told ourselves, we must tackle the house but then we would start planning the next year’s planting and the house plans would once again get pushed to the back of the shelf – someday....
Harvest 2003 in the fog.
HARVEST 2003 was our first commercial harvest and contrary to the fog shown in the photo below (taken at approximately 5:45 am on September 26th) was an incredibly hot harvest. The unseasonably hot and dry September temp- eratures were pushing the sugar levels up and causing some dehydration in our still young and non-irrigated vines. We harvested 7 tons from the 5.2 acres in production. Chemistry showed Brix ranging between 25.2 and 25.5 and pH at 3.33.
SUMMER & FALL 2004 was round two of land clearing. We had approximately 20 acres of abandoned Christmas trees that had been planted on five by five spacing and were now 30 feet high with six to eight inch diameters. We contracted to have the trees removed but were left with 36,000 (yes 36 thousand!) stumps. With a rented excavator and several months of very long days, we finished digging the stumps just in time to get the winter cover crop down before the rains began.
Beautiful Autumn colors – Harvest 2004
HARVEST 2004 was the culmination of a challenging growing season. Late spring rains hitting at bloom gave way to another hotter than normal summer. With a succession of early rain storms threatening, we began our second harvest on September 11, 2004 – a full two weeks ahead of the 2003 harvest.
Even though we had brought a couple more acres into production, our yield was just over 9 tons. Chemistry showed Brix between 24.4 and 25 with pH at 3.32 and 3.61, respectively. What the 2004 harvest lacked in tonnage due to the smaller clusters, the intensity of the berries more than made up for – the wine is luscious!
We will be releasing our 2004 Pinot Noir on Memorial Day weekend but you can reserve your case now with our futures offer – check it out on the order form
HARVEST 2005 is upon us as we put the finishing touches on this newsletter – we will tell you all about it in our next release. Watch for it in early April.
