Crush Pics

As promised, here
are some pics from crush.

Cheers!
Scott

Fruit Is In!!

Just wanted to give a quick update on the status of crush. Sunday we brought in all of our fruit and pushed to the very last day until the inclement weather hit once again. We had several days of no rain which helped dry the fruit and give us that last little bit of ripening needed to push us over the edge.

We had a bit of issue with pickers showing up since I think every vineyard in Oregon was picking on Sunday, but with the help of friends and family (including Lisa 9 Months pregnant) we picked the last row just as night fell. After working to around 3AM, we were able to get everything tucked away into their fermentors for their elevage.

Pics are coming once I get a chance to download them, but I want to really send thanks to Matt and Lynda King, Carl Olsen, Toni Schroeder, Jeff Monahan, Dan Feiner as well as extra special thanks to Lisa who spent the entire day sorting fruit, picking fruit, cooking for the crew, watching Abby, assisting with winemaking decisions and generally gluing the whole thing together while 2 weeks away from delivering our new little girl. What an amazing woman with a pioneering spirit and energy that awes us all.

Waiting for the Weather Gods to Smile Again

Well, we are in major wait and see mode at the vineyard. Our first few fermentors are finishing up nicely and I am impressed with the color and intensity of fruit. Should be barreling down in a few days and tuck them away for a nice slow ML.

Otherwise, we are just waiting for some good clear weather to finish up the rest of the vineyard. It has been a trying week with lots of rain and not much clearing. It is looking better today and the end of the week is taunting us with promises of clear skies.

In the meantime, we are employing shaamans, priests, astrologers and others to help us bring the sun for a few more days.

Crush 2007 First Pics

Abby directing sorting traffic


















Lisa (and one on the way) with Abby sorting fruit.












Future winemaker sorting fruit.

Abby and me out in the field picking up fruit.

Let The Games Begin!

Crush 2007 is here and we have pulled the first fruit of the year. This came from one of our newer blocks of clone 115. Fruit was in great shape and we got 2 fermentors out of it. All the new inventions at the winery appear to be working as we expected and several pics should be online tomorrow.

We are expecting a worrisome week of rain for the upcoming few days, so we are now in a wait and see mode for the majority of the fruit coming in. Making wine in Oregon always means balancing between picking and the rains, so I think everyone seems right at home with whats happening.

By the way, if you want to see a cool weather website, go to Unisys weather to see there supercomputing weather simulations. This provides us hours of fun :-)

Gruner Veltliner Tasting

Next year we are planting Gruner Veltliner to our upper vineyard blocks, so when I had the chance to choose what wine our tasting group would taste, it was obvious.  Well, we had the tasting and I am even more stoked to get the GV in the ground.

 

As expected, all of the Gruners that were brought were from Austria and they all had bracing acidic structure and nearly everyone that was  brought was interesting and exciting.  After we all resolved ourselves to the fact that we lost a good percentage of the enamel from our teeth due to the acidity, the overall opinion winner of the night was a 2005 Stadt Krems brought by Scott and Annie Shull from Raptor Ridge Winery.  From what I understand about this wine it is the wine that the village makes and retails for around 18 bucks.  This wine exhibited a minerality that was outstanding and would be a wine that could pair with just about everything.

 

I personally picked the Nigl Privat 2005 as my fav of the evening.  This wine seemed to me to have the most finesse of the bunch along with a viscosity and density that I would expect from an Alsatian Gris.  This wine had minerality as well, but also had the classic lentil nose with lemongrass and white pepper finish.  Thanks to Jim at JK Carriere for hosting the event and I fully recommend trying out Gruner.

 

 

Scott Neal - Winemaker/Owner

 

Crush 2007 Coming Down

We are in the final weeks of crush 2K7 and we are getting typicaly Oregon fall weather. Early in the week we saw temps around 95 and over the last couple days the chill of fall has clearly descended upon us. This is a very good thing as it will allow the grapes to ripen slowly and develop the nuance we are looking for. I am expecting picking late in the first week of October, but anything can happen. Bouts of more 90 plus and we will pick early, rain and it could be delayed.

Fruit is looking great right now and we are praying to the weather gods for more of what we had this week. Pics of fruit and and vineyard coming next week and this is shaping up to be the biggest harvest yet in CdT history.

KEX Radio At The Winery

We had a pretty exciting visitor to the winery last week, Jim McLaren and his wife Susan from KEX 1190 radio from Portland. Jim has a weekly feature call "Grape Explorer" and he is going to feature little old CdT. It will air on September 14th at 5:12 AM (Yawn), 12:42PM and 5:35PM and then on Saturday at 6:50AM and Sunday at 8:50AM.

Take a listen in or go to www.1190KEX.com and search for Grape. He will have the story with some accompanying video.

Pretty cool exposure for CdT.

2006 Bottling

Well it is that time of year again to bottle our Pinots. The 2006's are shaping up to be quite yummy with huge fruit on the front. Renelle's is going to be some of the best yet and will taste great right out of the chute. We are going to have 325 cases of the RB and and 275 of the Estate. The Estate is shaping up to be reserve quality and I think a real value. Pics of bottling will be up when I can.