Last Interview for IPNC 25

This interview with Whitney Schubert, the Executive Director of the International Pinot Noir Celebration is the last one scheduled. I'll have some additional blogs about the progress of the documentary. What fun it has been to be able to hear these wonderful stories about this great event. I'm looking forward to the film!

http://ipnc25.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/a-slightly-winged-whitney/

IPNC 25 with Nick Peirano

Check out my blog of this interview with the owner and founder of Nick's Italian Cafe. He was paired with Joan Drabkin who served as the first culinary coordinator of IPNC.

http://ipnc25.wordpress.com/2011/06/29/no-nonsense-nick/

IPNC 25 with Myron Redford

Check out my blog on the making of the documentary of the 25th Anniversary of the International Pinot Noir Celebration.

Today's interview is with Myron Redford, the founder of Amity Vineyard and his wife and vineyard partner Vikki Wetle. This is the second time I've gotten to listen to Myron, and it never gets boring.

Check it out by following this link:

http://ipnc25.wordpress.com/

A Piece of Heaven at Sunset Ridge Vineyard

We finished up our vineyard small group this Sunday with a trip to Sunset Ridge Vineyard. The beautiful setting is the home or our hosts, Doug Drawbond and Joy Means. This gets a bit complex, because the vineyard located on their property is called Sunset Ridge, and their wine label is called Anthony Dell, which as you notice is not either of their names. The label is based on their middle names. They are opening a new tasting room in McMinnville right next to Thistle Restaurant, which is right on my regular walking route. I;m quite sure that I'll become a new regular there.

I've been pouring wine all weekend. I started Saturday afternoon at a reception at Hillside Retirement Community. They are trying to find new folks to move in and are doing a reception complete with local food. I'm pretty sure we'll be moving down there at some point. It's such a lively, active place with so many folks who continue to volunteer, and remain active in the community. (You have to be 62 to move in, so it will be couple more years before they'll have me.) I'm pouring selections from our shop, Wednesday Wines. (By the way, check out the new design of our web sight. It was designed by our son and I think it looks great.)

I proceeded to the McMinnville Public Market for their new Saturday evening eventto set up to pour there. I also shared wine in communion on Sunday morning and then proceeded to the vineyard.
Doug and Joy showed us amazing hospitality. When Doug heard that I was an ordained minister he asked if I'd bless his vineyard. I've never done it before, but I think I'll be doing it again. That is the real me to the left complete with aspergillum, stole, shorts and my Wednesday Wines baseball cap! Blessing is the word of the day for me. Sunset Ridge is such a beautiful place. The view to the west seems to go on forever, and the coast range forms the top of the view as far as you can see from north to south. It is when I look at the view, and the white-columned, Spanish Colonial style house that I finally understand Anthony Dell's logo and bottle designs.

But it hasn't always been this way. Doug and Linda purchased the property when it was overgrown with blackberries and poison oak. They started in a single wide trailer. As Joy tells it, "Doug told me we'd only be living in it for three years, then we'd build a house." Nine years later she was still waiting. Doug then jokes that he finally had to build the house because his wife was going to leave him if he didn't finally keep his promise. And keep it he did.

The house is an amazing edifice located a the very top of their property with a panoramic view of the Willamette Valley and coast range beyond.

We start our experience with a walking tour of the vineyard. The sight is unique. It is not only terraced down a steep slope it also rises and to the center of each row. The rows are the length of a football field and when you are standing on one end you can not see the other side. You can tell that this vineyard is a labor of love for Doug. He can't keep his hands off the vines and as we walk down each row he is constantly touching the plants, gently placing the new shoots back inside the two metal wires so that they won't get caught by the tractor and torn off. Pretty soon the whole group is adjusting the vines as we walk. He is also gently removing the shoots from the lower parts of the plant, what he calls the suckers which would not produce fruit.

I ask Doug how he came to own a vineyard. "I was working in Salem, and I kept driving past vineyards, and I thought, I'd like to own one of those." He also attended classes on vineyard management and wine making at the Chemeketa Viticulture Center. I think we don't realize how important that center is--how blessed we are that we can train new wine makers locally and have them produce such beautiful wines.

As we sit down to enjoy a pot luck feast (no red jello with carrots here). Joy has several wines open for us to try and I select the 2007 Sunset Ridge Pinot Noir. Wow! It is incredibly good. The aroma is so complex and beautiful. It has a deep, earthy tone to it, just how I feel a Pinot should be. I've been surprised lately at this vintage. It was almost universally panned by the wine critics at the time. In a word they were wrong. Three years later these wines are fantastic. Over dinner Doug says something that I have been sensing but haven't been able to put into words. The '07 vintage has been "putting on weight" in the bottle. In deference to the critics, it did seem a bit week after bottling, but it is getting better by the day. I'm kind of thankful they were down graded because it means there are still some great ones around. At $28 this is an amazing value for a single vineyard estate wine. I would suggest buying a few of the '07's to have with dinner this weekend, and then a case of the '08 to put in your cellar to age for a few years.

In my Bible study for this tour I focused on the concept of blessing. Vineyards are often used in Bible as a symbol of God's blessing. When you are sitting on the deck of Joy and Doug's home enjoying the wine harvested below and enjoying the sweeping views of the valley it is easy to see why the Biblical prophets (including Jesus) would have chosen this symbol. As my friends Steve says, "There is something healing about being in a vineyard." Steve, like Doug lived for many years in LA. As Doug put it, "I was born in LA and it took me 28 years to get out!" But all of this blessing is given to us with a challenge to take good care of the gifts we have been given. It strikes me as we are eating that wine is always an extravagance. If you are having a bottle of wine with dinner you are blessed beyond the point of subsistence. That is another gift of wine to us. It reminds us that we are deeply blessed. And, yes, as we reflect on our beautiful trip to Sunset Ridge and the wonderful wines we have been able to enjoy, we are blessed, we are loved and cared for. I believe that the key to life is not to deny ourselves these blessings, but to have them constantly remind us that we have more than we need, and to drive us to bless those around us.

Remy, Leviticus & The OcQ CD Release Party

I've crammed a lot into a day before, but not sure if I've ever done it on the scale that I did yesterday! Our vineyard tour small group Bible study went on our shortest tour to date. Really, we could have walked from Wednesday Wines to Remy Wines, but we took the bus. When I made the complicated schedule for myself I also greatly complicated the lives of my friends, Mike and Kathy Campbell. Kathy is my partner in the wine world. She can organize anything, and I deeply depend on her to bring my hair-brained ideas to detailed reality. The fact that she keeps coming through, and pulling my bacon out of the fire, just adds to the problem! I g

ot a call early Sunday morning from Remy saying that she has strep throat and can't make the tour, so we get Gretchen as our host for the afternoon. I've never been to Remy's new place before. I love it! It is a working winery, the machinery is in plain view. Gretchen, not knowing how to move the fork lift has turned it into a wine bar! We taste through a number of Remy's wines starting with her Pinot Blanc and it, like all of her wines is amazing. We carry Remy's alternate label, 3 Wives at our shop, and we sell a lot of it.

Remy began her life career at an early age. She began working in vineyards when she was 13 years old! A bit later in life she moved to Philadelphia and began work in a bakery. In the basement she made wine with "a bunch of Italian, mob-type characters" according to Gretchen. It was with these gentlemen that Remy found her focus of Italian varietals wines made with a hand's off style.

My favorite wine of the day was the '09 Sangiovese. It is sourced from the Horse Heaven Hills of Eastern Washington. I haven't tasted a wine from that region that I haven't liked, and I haven't tasted a wine of Remy's that I haven't liked as well. This one is deep and gorgeous with aroma of plums, earth and chocolate. We purchased a couple and they are going into my cellar. I thin that they will continue to age beautifully for a decade or more, but are very drinkable right this minute.

I weave a Bible study into our wine tasting. Sometimes I wonder if you should do a Bible study without a wine in your hand, but that might just be me. I select two Old Testament readings to share. One is the story from Genesis 35 where Moses finds artisans who can create the tent of the meeting. In the text it says that these artisans are filled with " divine spirit, with skill, intelligence and knowledge in every kind of craft." (Exodus 35: 31) These words describe Remy almost perfectly to me. We also read from Leviticus that wine was one of the elements required of the people when they made their offerings to God. If I've worked it out right you are suppose to bring a couple of bottles of wine to the priests when harvest comes around, and you are not to drink any yourself until you have made this gift. (I wish the members of my church would pick up on this!)

As soon as Gretchen has poured the last wine, I'm out the door and back over to the Granary District to get ready for the Occasional Quartet's CD Release Party. I'm sorry I'm talking so much about this place and the cob ove

n, and Jason, but it is such an amazing place. This party is the whole reason I got involved in the McMinnvile Public Market in the first place. Kathy Campbell has spent a couple of weeks now trying to get us organized, and it is no easy task! Right after church we started moving chairs, tables and staging materials over to the market. We impose on Jason Furch one more time to make pizzas for us, and they are beautiful works of art. I also think of Jason when I read the passage in Genesis about skilled artisans filled with divine spirit and every kind of skill. I think about that divine skill every Sunday when I lift up one of those still warm, crusty, be

autiful batard loaves from Red Fox Bakery that Jason or Laurie has made, lift it into the air and announce to the world, "This is the body of Christ." I lament the fact that our wines to not match up. I'm not so subtly prodding Remy to create a communion wine for McMinnville Cooperative Ministries. I think it would be fitting.

But back to the concert. It was an amazing time. To have so many good friends and folks from the community come out and enjoy awesome food, good wine and beer and our music was such a blessing to me. It's Father's Day, and for me I'd so much rather serve others and work than be

served and sit around. To me this was a perfect way to celebrate.

Towards the end of the concert Howie Harkema, the director of the St. Barnabas Soup Kitchen reminds me to make an announcement that there will be more concerts coming to this blessed spot. The folks raise up the biggest cheer of the night. I really believe that we are going to be able to do a series of summer concerts at the Market that will grow and become a natural extension of the cool, organic, artistic feel of the Saturday morning public market. I also point out those who have made it possible. John Mead and Carson Benner of Cellar Ridge Custom Homes who made the oven and provided all of the materials for both the oven and the shelter that protects it. Peter Kircher, owner of Golden Valley Brew Pub, who supplied the beer for the event. Of course Jason who has been making pizzas all evening, even though he has to be up at 3:00 AM tomorrow to start baking bread all over again. Kelly McDonald, who owns the property and had the vision to make it a new public square for this community. I love them all, and I'm so thankful that they have worked so hard to make this a wonderful experience for the people of this town.

The Formerly Blue Bus

Tonight was my test run for being the oven master! This is the cob oven at the McMinnville Public Market that we made the roof for the other day. The occasion is a group of Linfield College students fixing up a bus and preparing to head out on the road to find other people who are doing projects to care for the environment. They are begging, borrowing or stealing everything for this project, and it's all recycled. They've even tricked out the motor to run on used cooking oil.

I arrived around noon so I discuss some of the details with Jason Furch. He and his wife, Laurie are the owners of Red Fox Bakery, and it is just amazing to watch him cook. I confess I haven't been to the Saturday Market for a a while, and it has just blossomed! I end up talking to a young man about his wooden spoons and other items. They are displayed on a large cart that on further inspection turns out to be a bicycle. It's just amazing, and he built it all himself. I finally get going to grab some equipment for the evening, and can't pass up some lemon basil plants.

When I get back, Jason has stoked the fire to the point of raging. He was frustrated because his fire gave out over lunch and it was taking forever to bake the pizzas. We will not have any such problems. We are using oak staves from wine barrels to heat the cob oven and they burn hot. I ask Jason why it's called a "cob" oven and he explains that it was built from mostly clay, straw and water and this mix is called, cob. There is also a layer of bottles built into the base to provide insulation. Jason looks as though he's ready to fall asleep on his feet. He's been up since three in the morning (that's the life of a baker.)

My friend, Mike Campbell shows up and immediately takes over the oven and cooking the pizzas. Mike's wife, Kathy, runs Wednesday Wines. It turns out Mike worked in a pizza joint in high school, and it is great not to have to make pizzas and watch the oven at the same time--especially since the pizzas are cooking in about 3 minutes.

Zach shows up. I love this kid. He's just amazingly positive and fun to work with. We start a rotation of making a crust, then assembling the ingredients on top. We decide to not specialize, but just take a crust, roll and stretch it out and then make it. Jason has given us specific instructions on how to make the crusts, and how they are to look. His are always amazingly round and consistent. As soon as he leaves they all go to hell in a hand basket. Zach's start to look like amoebas stretching out in various directions. He decides it's his trademark, so he can tell which are his. Mine are somewhat round, but nothing like Jason's, but they still taste great.

Carson Benner, is stepping in and out.

And it is just a blast. I predict this is going to become a major hang out space for the people of McMinnville. It just has such an awesome feel and atmosphere. I hope the bus project took in some good donations this evening. It will be a fun project to follow as they travel around and connect up with people.

As things start to wind down, and we have a minute to relax I start to think, "I wish I had a glass of wine." Georgine, Carson's wife, walks up at about that moment and says, "Hey, I've got some wine in the car, would you like some?" Yes, in fact I would. It's a Riesling from Biggio Hamina Cellars. And it's wonderful. Not overly sweet, with beautiful floral aroma of pears and a bit of citrus. Very refreshing after a night in front of the oven. You should go visit Todd Hamina in his new digs over by Washington Roofing and try it out. And you should come by the McMinnville Public Market tomorrow from 5-7 for the CD release party of the Occasional Quartet. Luckily Jason will be making the pizzas, and, you never know, someone just might walk up and put a glass of wine in your hand. It's that kind of place.

New Roof for the Cob Oven

Wine can help build community. I'm convinced of that. Another thing that will build a community is shared hard work. Last Thursday I joined the boys from Cellar Ridge Custom Homes to put a new roof over the top of the cob oven a the McMinnville Public Market. I really believe that this oven is going to be a huge community centering magnet out on the very eastern edge of our downtown core. This oven was built by the guy who wrote the book on the subject--literally. Kiko Denzer has written a book called "How to Build Your Own Earth Oven" and he came to McMinnville to build this one.

Carson Benner and John Mead are the ones who had the vision to build it, and generously provided the funds and materials. They are on sight today to help. It takes us a long time to get started. The roofing material is, to say the least, unorthodox. It is an incredibly tough black plastic material that is covered in pin prick spikes that will hound me the rest of the day. It's not roofing material at all, but is being "re-purposed" as a roof which is very much in keeping with the ethos of Cellar Ridge. This was donated from the landfill. It is the material that they use to as a base liner.

The roof is a clam shell shaped design. John has it all laid out in his black journal with graph grid paper. The unique design combined with the beautiful blue and billowy cloud sky is giving me some great pics today. The unique design is also giving us fits. Every single piece is unique and has to be custom cut to order. John has measured them all, and put them in a numerical order which makes sense only to him!

Before we can start we have to figure out how to attach the material to the roof. John experimented with one panel before we arrived. He's secured it with sheet metal screws which come with their own rubber washers. The screws protrude well above the roof and that is going to be a problem. We decide on roofing nails, and Cellar Ridge's young assistant, Zack is dispensed to Lowe's to pick them up. I expect to see him head off in a Cellar Ridge work truck, but no, Zach hops on his trusty red bike complete with heavy duty back pack. Yes, this is a green building project!

Laurie Furch, owner of Red Fox Bakery has arrived. She is wearing a skirt, hardly the outfit for a difficult construction project. She says she'll be back in a minute, and sure enough she returns properly dressed in very short order. She grabs a hammer and heads up a ladder to the the middle work of attaching the roof.

Before we can attach the roof we have to cut out the panels--no easy job. Originally we try just using a utility knife. It works, but it is very difficult work and it is hard to keep your line on the slippery surface. Kelly McDonnald (the guy who owns all of this property) has the idea to use electronic sheet metal cutting shears. They work great! That's Kelly to the left manning the shears. We are given three measurements for each roofing section. I find a piece of old plywood holding down some plastic on a counter top and start a grid to record them all, so we can check them off as they are cut.

It is not until later that I realize that the plywood is actually Red Fox's sandwich board sign! Laurie is very forgiving about it. I feel bad, because I know how much those dang things cost.

Throughout the day, Zach is going to position himself at the top of the roof. I see him hanging at all sorts of impossible angels as the day progresses--angles that only a young man could accomplish. You can see him in the photo at the left along with the spikes that make this material so fun to work with! Once the piece is secured to the roof, we place lath over the top of each seam to make sure that it stays in place. My friend, Elwyn Behnke, shows up to take a look at the project. Elwyn is a gifted carpenter, and he can't resist the draw of a fun project, so he heads home, changes his clothes and is back and working in about ten minutes. The first few

pieces we put in place were extremely tight, which made them hard to secure to the frame. We decide to add half an inch to the width of each one and the process picks up speed. Elwyn takes over the cutting and things speed up again. You can see the numbers on the material to the right. It is important to keep them in the right order as they are transported to the roof. We decide to break for lunch. Carson suggests the Mexican food trailer right next to Golden Valley Brew Pub. We walk over and the food is wonderful. We each order a burrito and they are huge and delicious. Kelly very graciously picks up the tab.

I have to leave right after lunch to attend a taping for the International Pinot Noir Celebration documentary that we are working on to celebrate IPNC's 25th year. I'm keep a blog of that as well which you can view at ipnc25.com. Our guest thought we were coming up to his vineyard, and we expected him at the Linfield campus, so we have to reschedule. By the time I get back to the roof, things have really started to move quickly. They have found a system and are in the

grove--moving about ten times faster than when we started. I end up cutting out the last six panels and when I'm finished, I am beat. I'm just not use to hard, physical work. In no time we are finishing up. Now all we have to do is figure out the very top of the roof. John wants it to be taller that the roof below so that there will be a vent for the smoke to get out. Carson positions the scissors lift as close to the roof as he can, extends out the platform and works with Zach to build up the studs. When that is done Carson is all on his own as Zack can't get through the peak any longer to help him out. After several attempts he gets the last piece in place. It looks just like a the Chinese hat seashells I use to collect at the beach when I was a kid, and I think that's the idea. The design is meant to mimic natural forms which have aesthetic beauty and great strength.

We'll be using the oven this Sunday night from 5:00 to 7:00 for the Occasional Quartet's CD release party. Come on over and enjoy some awesome pizza created by Jason Furch, cooked in an oven donated to the community by Cellar Ridge sitting on property provided free of cost by Kelly McDonnald and enjoy some beer provided by Peter Kircher of Golden Valley Brewery. This is a very generous place, and I think that the community is going to embrace it in a powerful way. I'm so happy to see the renascence of downtown begin to spread out beyond the boarders of 3rd Street. See for yourself on Sunday--see what a beautiful place of community this is.

The Making of a Documenary

I'm writing a separate blog about the making of a documentary to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the International Pinot Noir Celebration this summer. It is a lot of fun. I'm getting a picture of a very fun celebration. So far we've talked to folks who have volunteered for over 20 years, several of the Executive Directors, the Culinary Director, and one of the founders, Susan Sokol Blosser. (That's her with Jeff Peterson in the photo to the right.) Writing the blog and learning more about the celebration has been a lot of fun. It is really interesting to learn about all of the different people who make the event possible, and the impact it has had on the Oregon wine industry.

Check out the blog at inpc25.com

I just wanted to post this for folks who might read this and might be interested in following along with the progress of the documentary.

Care for Creation in the Vineyard

Yes, it's true, I get away with a lot. Right now I'm leading a small group which is looking at different themes in the Bible related to vineyards. And, since we are studying vineyards, we decided to go and meet in different vineyards. We take a bus and on the way out I introduce the vineyard to which we are heading, and then read some Bible verses. It has turned out to be one of my favorite small groups of all time!

This past week we visited one of our favorite wineries, Maysara, which is run by the Momtazi family. And what a family they are! I have grown to love them all. The patriarch is Moe who runs a tight ship and has a clear vision for his vineyard, and for the wines that will be produced there. Maysara is such a testament to his vision. As you leave Muddy Valley road and head up the steep gravel you sweep along the side of a beautiful, large pond which provides irrigation in the summer along with beautiful rainbow trout! The tasting room is the working winery. It's an industrial metal building filled to the ceiling with oak wine barrels. There are more barrels this

year than I have ever seen before. In part this is because they are making more wine. It is also because Moe's daughters have started their own enterprise called 3 Degrees. This easy to drink, entry level Pinot Noir is priced at just $20, and we sell a lot of it at our shop, Wednesday Wines.

The first degree, daughter, Tahmiene is our tour guide today. I so love this young woman. At 28 she is one of the youngest winemakers in the US. So has so much personality, and is such an

engaging story teller. Today she shares with us the story of how she came to be the winemaker at her father's vineyard. At the time she was working at a winery in New Zealand and got a call from her father asking how she liked it there. "I love it here," she answered, sensing what was coming next. "I'm thinking I might like to live here the rest of my life." I've never argued with Moe, I just don't see why anyone would. He's determined and powerful, two traits that have served him well in creating this beautiful winery. Unfortunately for him, his daughters are his match in every way! When Tahmiene finally had a

break from making wine down under she came to visit her family and came to realize that she was needed in the family business. She told her father, "OK, I'll consider it, but I need a week to think it over." After the week was up she told him she would accept his offer to be the winemaker, but that she wanted to make wines her way! Moe

responded that he needed a week to think it over! After a week he accepted her offer, but informed her that he wanted to produce bio-dynamic wines.

That would be a scary proposition for any winemaker. In fact, Tahmiene said that in her classes at the University of Oregon they had warned against trying to grow organic, or bio-dynamic crops. What is bio-dynamic? It's more of a philosophy than an agricultural science. You are allowed to spray your crops with certain chemicals on an organic vineyard. Not with a bio-dynamic one. Everything that is applied to the crops or to the soil comes from the vineyard itself, nothing is imported. Cover crops are grown to be used in composted "teas" that are applied during certain growing cycles. Some of these

cycles are "leaf" cycles, and some of "root" cycles and all are centered around the phases of the moon. It sounds a bit like new age religion to me, but there is one part of the bio-dynamic process I can not argue with. The results! They make wonderful wines.

There is no doubt that bio-dynamic vineyards are good for the environment. Even some organic solutions have to be mined from the earth. It is such a cool idea to think of the vineyard as a closed system into which nothing has to be imported. That includes the yeast for the wine. At Maysara they don't import any. The yeast that is needed to make the wine is already on the grapes when they are harvested. That requires a lot of faith, I think.

In addition to the wine we got to tour Moe's new winery building. It is huge! You can see that we

drove our church bus right inside with room to spare. (Yes, we take our church bus on wine

tours, remember, this is a Bible study!) The building has been made with many of the same principles of the winery itself. About 90 percent of the materials came from the sight from the oak trees that were harvested and milled on sight to the rocks which make up the foundation. Moe has also figured out how to straighten barrel staves and is covering the walls with them. It's going to be an impressive building.

I believe that we Christians need to confess that as a group they have not done a very good job of caring for the earth. One badly translated word in Genesis has caused a lot of this. The word is "subdue". People of faith have taken it to mean bend and break it to your will. The original intent was more of a stewardship role. The earth belongs to God, not us, a

nd we are temporary caretakers of this amazing gift. There is nowhere that I'm reminded more of that gift of creation that in a beautiful winery. I'm glad there are people brave enough to commit to ideas like bio-dynamic and organic. I don't know if I could do it, it takes too much faith!

And Beautiful Bread

It is such a thrill for me to work next to an artist. Our community in McMinnville has been blessed in so many ways. I frequently point out how blessed we are to have so many people making such beautiful wines in this area. I believe wine acts as a sort of gravitational pull to other artists. This past Friday I got to work with one of them.

Jason and Laurie Furch are another tremendous blessing to this place. They run Red Fox Bakery in town. They have seriously invested

themselves in that boutique bakery. They have also invested themselves in this community. Both Jason and Laurie are graduates of the Culinary Institute of America. Those are impressive credentials. And, they create amazing, hard crust, European style of baked art. The reason I was

working with Jason was a new oven in town. It's called a cob oven and it is located at the McMinnville Public Market. The oven was created by John Mead and Carson Benner of Cellar Ridge Custom Homes. They built the oven as a demonstration project. Once it was completed, they placed it in the hands of Jason and Laurie and told them to use it for the good of the community. What a gift. I'm learning to use it

so that we can do fundraisers for various non-profit organizations that feed people, care for the environment, or seek to help those in need. Our own Occasional Quartet is going to do their CD release party there on Sunday, June 19th. The pizza will be amazing. I can say this because I won't be making it--Jason will! That's Jason in the photo above, talking to one of our cooks from the Cooperative Ministries, Efrain Arredondo.

Efrain told me that just last week he was walking through the market and was watching as bread was being baked in the cob oven, and he thought, "I'd love to be able to cook in that thing." The next day I told him we were going to meet with Jason and be trained on how to use it! Pretty exciting.

The person who made these connections for us was Elwyn Behnke. Elwyn is a member of our quartet and makes his living playing the piano. We were really struggling with where to hold our CD release party, and in a flash of insight Elwyn thought of the McMinnville Public Market. He contacted the manager of the Market, interior designer, Shannon Thorson. Shannon said that they had been looking for someone to help them coordinate the oven for community events, and would love to have us use it. When Cellar Ridge donated it to the Market, they basically said, here, we want you to use this for the public good.

What a gift, and we're just the people to make it work! Kelly McDonald who owns the properties of the Granary District where the cob oven is located has such a beautiful vision for that area, and for this oven. His investment is going to make for a beautiful entry point for the eastern edge of downtown. It is such a wonderful place to gather with folks from the community. I can just see a regular series of concerts with beautiful foods and wonderful wines being poured. You can get a foretaste of the vision next Sunday from 6-8. The gathering is free. Of course if you want to give us a donation for each piece of pizza, and every glass of wine, we won't stop you!

And you can purchase one of our CD's. It should be a great time. And if the weather is bad, Kelly

has said we can use one of the buildings on Johnson Street. But it would never rain in Oregon the third week in June, right? It really doesn't matter because it's warm by the oven anyway.

Every Sunday we serve communion at the Cooperative Ministries, and we use the beautiful, artisan bread from Red Fox. It is so good. Some mornings it is still warm in my hands as I lift it up and give thanks to God for it's goodness. That's what Jesus did, and I believe that's what we should do--find beauty in this world, bless God for it and be thankful. Sometimes I think that's 99% of what God is expecting of us. It's just a lot easier to do in some places than in others.

Wonderful Weekend of Wine

It was perfect weather on Sunday for our vineyard small group to head out to Coeur de Terre Vineyard to study vines and branches. We started outside with winemaker Scott Neil (that's him standing in the vineyard to the left of our group). The weather was absolutely perfect for our visit--still nicely warm, but with just enough clouds to keep it comfortable. I asked the group to look at the vineyard and tell me what they saw. We weren't able to identify all that much. There are vines, they are starting to send out green growth, and they look as though they have been grafted at their base. That's about it. Now it was Scott's turn. The first thing he sees when he looks out at this vineyard is on heck of a lot of work! "I think it's just human nature to always concentrate on the work you haven't accomplished yet." He said, "But it's amazing to me to look out and see all that we have been able to do." He then went on and shared for about 30 minutes different details that he is seeing in his vineyard. He said that with the sunshine over the weekend the vines had produced almost two inches of growth. That's amazing to me. He talked about how they will train up the new canes that are emerging from the vine, and how they will eventually top them off and thin out almost half of the fruit sets. He talked about the soil and how it is unique to their vineyard, and how many different types they have. Scott has a scientific mind that flows into every part of what he does, so I can't remember and didn't understand half of what he said. As he looked at the soil, he talked about geography and volcanic soils and sedimentary soils. Then he talked about subduction zones and inland seas. Scott had scientific names for the bud break and the newly forming grape clusters. Scott said that the vines are packed with an amazing amount of energy right now and they are just waiting for the sun. In the two days of sunny weather he said that the vines had produced over two inches of growth!

I then shared a reading from the Gospel of John the 15th chapter. It struck me for the first time as I was preparing for this class that Jesus

spoke these words to his disciples as they

were walking through a vineyard. They were walking along and Jesus stopped and pointed to a vine and he said see that? I am the vine. And see that new green growth coming off of that vine? That's you. And look at that pile of dead sticks over there getting ready to be burned? That's you if you don't produce fruit." I think one of the problems with the Bible is that we keep reading it in church buildings.

When we were done in the vineyard we got to go inside and try some of Scott's beautiful wines. Their tasting room is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. I love all of the warm wood and the panoramic views in every direction. We tasted a Pinot Gris that was unlike any I have tasted elsewhere. It has beautiful, bright grapefruit aroma that in some ways similar to a Sauvignon Blanc. Then we got a chance to try Scott's amazing Riesling. This wine is made from 40 year old vines grown in the Highland Vineyard just over the hill from Coeur de Terre. Like the most expensive German Rieslings it has a unique aroma component of what smells to me like asphalt! Scott says this is from the terpene molecules which are unique to older Rieslings.

We were treated to three of Scott's Pinot Noirs. One is marked McMinnville AVA and costs only $20 a bottle! It is an incredible value and it is the number two selling wine in our shop at Wednesday Wines. Going up th scale in price we tried the Estate Pinot, and then the Renelle's Block. All I can say is t

hat Scott makes beautiful wines.

I'm always surprised by how honest wine makers are--even about their failures and mistakes. Scott shared the struggles they went through to start their vineyard. They invested everything they had to purchase the land and plant their first vines. Three years later they harvested their first crop and went off to make their wine. It was terrible and never made it to the bottle. Scott said that he had been studying the wine makers in Dundee and copied their techniques. The problem was that the grapes from the McMinnville AVA have a much larger tannin component. So you have to treat them differently. When you deal with these grapes you want less extraction, so you don't leave them on the skins as long, you don't punch them down as often, and you don't disturb them once they are in the barrel.

Scott shared that Pinot Noir is the most transparent of wine grapes. Good wine, according to Scott, is about time and place. Each bottle should reflect where it was grown and what the weather was like that year. The McMinnville AVA Pinot Noir's reflect where they were grown. They have a tendency to reflect dark fruit, have more tannins and have more earthy, spicy, minerality.

The wines that Scott poured for us were a great object lesson to the words of Jesus. I'm sure those of us in the class we never read John 15 the same way again. And by the way, the fruit that Jesus is looking for--it's love. And it is surely love that Scott has for his vines and for the wines they produce. That extravagant love comes through in every glass--in eachsmall sip. And, I believe, that Scott's wine also reflects God's love for us. "See how much I love you?" It says. "I've given you these beautiful grapes to make this wonderful wine. Enjoy it, celebrate the goodness of creation, and share this love with everyone you meet."