Blending Wines at Coeur de Terre Winery

Scott and Lisa Neal, the owners of Coeur de Terre Winery invited Robin and I up for a special event last weekend. This event is a very fun highlight for those people who are members of their "Founder's Club". The winery has limited the membership of this club to 60 people. Every year they are invited to come up to the winery and taste the wines that are still in the barrel. They then rate the wines and help to create a blend which is then available only to the club members. Blending wine is something I've never experienced before. It is where the artistry of the winemaker comes into play, I think. There are so many variables. We are given eight wines to taste without any information about each one. We are instructed to give each wine 1-6 points in each of the following categories: Visual, Aroma, Texture, Taste, and Finish.

Scott has informed us ahead of time that there is one surprise in the group. We are rating the '09 wines. This is hard work. Robin seems to have a handle on it by the time I make my way down into the wine cellar where the tasting is taking place. Little things can make a big difference in how the wine presents itself. Scott has done a great job of setting up the tasting so that we learn as we go. Two of the wines are identical, except that one was aged in a new oak barrel, and one was aged in a one year old barrel. I rate these two wines quite differently, but Robin has them rated similarly (concrete evidence, I suppose, that she has better taste than I do!) There is another example of two wines that are the same, except that one was free run, and one was the result of the wine being pressed. The taste difference in the two is dramatic.

One wine has a great aroma as it is poured, but then does nothing, another is tight when it is poured, but then opens up to a beautiful, complex bouquet. The biggest surprise is the last wine. It's a 2009 taken right out of the bottle. Scott explains that you can blend up to 10 percent of last year's vintage into the wine which helps to even out the vintages and keep a consistent flavor form year to year.

Scott then leads us through blending the wines. He starts with 10 percent of last year's wine and then takes suggestions. Most of us liked the Rennelle's Block, so that forms 50 per cent of the blend. We try the first blend. It is wonderful, but we can't resist tweaking it a bit, so we suggest that last year's vintage be reduced (it is so much bigger than the '09 that even at 10 percent it seems to be dominating the mix.) Scott is a total science geek and he is mixing the wines together in a set of beakers! He is taking suggestions from the whole room of 40 plus people, but is also giving us guidance, emphasizing some comments and letting others go. We taste the 2nd blend, and make a few more adjustments, and viola! The 2009 Sacre Coeur blend is ready to go, and I'm sorry, you cant' get any. (Unless you join the founder's club, of course, there are still a few spots available I hear.)

If you read this blog on a regular basis you may get quite tired of all of my references to Coeur de Terre. I am going to be experiencing harvest and crush there. Scott has tagged me as his "cellar rat" for the season--that is if there is a harvest this year. We are still a month behind a typical harvest. Scott thinks that we might be picking grapes around Halloween this year. We're hoping for a long, dry fall to help remedy our long, cold, wet spring and late summer.

Many of you may have read about Scott and Lisa's dream house. They have been living in what the euphemistically call their "love shack" since they began the vineyard in the late 90's. For the last three years they have been building their dream house up at the top of the vineyard. About two weeks ago it burned to the ground. They are devastated. I know what it is like to pour your heart and soul into a house, and I can't imagine what it would be like to have it all go up in smoke when you were so close to completing it. They are such wonderful people, and I'm so thankful for their invitation to be a part of the Founder's Day blending event, and for the opportunity to join them this year for harvest. My hopes and prayers go out to Scott and Lisa, and to all of the wine growers this year as they prepare for a challenging vintage.

King Estate--The Largest Winery in Oregon

I'm not sure how they have done it, but every winery we visited in the Eugene area has a beautiful events center as a part of the estate. I know several wineries in our area have been frustrated in their attempts to build such facilities. It seems so obvious to me that these are exactly they types of spaces you want to have available to draw in visitors, and to stimulate the local economy. Apparently in the Eugene area the neighbors don't mind quite so much, and they must have an easier time of getting their facilities approved through the land use process. Why don't we have such event centers here?

The most impressive example of a wine estate that we visited was King Estate Winery. This is the largest winery in the state, and according to Tracy, our ebullient wine steward for the afternoon, they have the largest: "contiguously planted organic Pinot Gris vineyard in the US." Hard to believe that Oregon has any type of vineyard that would be larger than California, but there it is.

The estate building itself is impressive. Massive wood beams support the high roof of the main entrance as you walk through the over-sized front doors. Directly in front of you is the tasting area which is an impressive 30 foot long curved bar with a display screen in the back showing different views of the vineyard. To your left as you walk in the door is the restaurant with a beautiful outdoor dining area. The building is grand and seems to go on forever (they offer free tours on the hour). We are there to taste wine, so we head for the bar. Our server is a talkative, intense, and extremely entertaining woman. She pours us a taste, flies to the far side of the bar to get another group started, and then totally disappears for several minutes taking care of some problem behind the scenes and comes back to our next wine without missing a beat. We are treated to the entire lineup of wines, and they are great. We start with their Acrobat 2nd label wines, and the '09 Pinot Noir which goes for $20 seems a great value to me with nice fruit forward presentation and wonderful aroma. But what I really like are the NXNW brand red wines. Tracy explains that the labels are shorthand for North by Northwest. Each label has a long list of the type of grapes used, the vineyards from which they were sourced and other fun information. We both loved the '08 Syrah which sells for $30, and the '07 Cabernet which goes for $40. These are going down to our cellar to age for a decade or so. They are big, reds with a generous tannin content that should age wonderfully.

On the way out of the estate I stop to look at some grape clusters. I can't believe how small they are. This is August for goodness sake. I have heard talk in some circles that this may be a year when some vineyards simply do not harvest their fruit. Spring was so late in coming, and the summer has lacked critical heat and sunshine, and the birds are going to be back in force during the later than usual harvest, so it just might not be worth it to pick the grapes. Can you imagine that? It's hard for me to imagine just writing off a whole harvest, but some growers may be forced to do exactly that. Farming is a gamble however you look at it. Especially with vineyards, the capital investment is huge, and the manual labor required to prune and care for the plants is staggering. When you add to that harvesting each grape cluster by hand the costs are astounding to me. I've had folks ask me why Pinot Noir costs so much money. I explain it's because it cost a lot of money to grow and make, and in some ways I'm surprised that wineries can turn out a great quality example for only $20.

I'm hoping for a long, sunny fall this year. The vineyards need it, and after a late, late start of a fairly cool summer, it would be nice to have that bright orange globe in the sky for a bit before the rains came back, and I head back into work!

Leaving Eugene

In my personal Bible readings this morning, I was surprised to have two of the three readings be about the blessing of vineyards. The first was from Isaiah 5:

Let me sing for my beloved my love concerning his vineyard: my beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines . . .

When the Bible wants to talk about blessing, it often uses the imagery of vineyards. It's not hard to see why. They are such places of beauty, and the product they create is so wonderful.

The picture above is my son, Paul, with his daughter, Zoe, standing down by the river trail in Eugene, where we met for a picnic dinner. There are miles and miles of bike and walking trails along the river in Eugene, and stretching all the way to Springfield. What amazing planning on the part of the people of this place to keep all of that land for public enjoyment.

We've had the chance to visit a number of vineyards in the Eugene area, and they are so beautiful! A ten to twenty minute drive out of town takes you up into the hills and onto some wonderful wine estates. Enjoying that beauty is a large part of wine tasting for me. Often times before I enter to winery to taste, I will walk around the vineyard a bit and just try to take it all in, and enjoy the view.

Another wonderful part of wine tasting is to meet the creative personalities who work there. The woman pictured above was our host at Silvan Ridge Winery. Her name is Kathy, and she is amazing at handling multiple tasting groups and keeping them all organized and in line. That's not surprising when you learn that she was an award winning track coach in Eugene. You can tell from the very first glance that she is a runner. I loved her personality from the very start. "If you're grouchy, you don't get to taste the reserve tasting. I don't put up with grouchy!" She announced as we walked up to the tasting area. I ask if sarcasm is included in that, because if it is, I'll never make it through!

When Kathy learns that we own a wine shop she brings us into the back room for a barrel tasting of a single vineyard Pinot Noir that is getting close to being ready to be bottled. I'm not much good at predicting how good a wine will taste based on barrel samples, but this one seems great to me. We also get to taste the '08 Merlot, the '09 Malbec, and '06 Cabernet. We purchased two of the cabs, because I know Kathy in our shop is going to love this wine.

Silvan purchased the vineyards from Doyle Hinman who was also a teacher. He planted some of the first vines in this part of the valley, and their specialty, of all things, is a sparkling Muscat. I know a young woman in Montana who was recently engaged who I think will love this wine. We're going to bring a few bottles of this wine with us on our upcoming trip out east to help her celebrate.

That's right, I've started sabbatical, I've celebrated the birth of our first grandchild, and now our daughter, Noel, is engage to be married. It's almost too much blessing to take in at one time. Sometimes blessings just stack up all at the same time, and strangely enough it can make us nervous. I often times tell people that just because the last few things that have happened have been good does not automatically mean that the next one will be bad. Sometimes God just pours it on. And according to my readings this morning, what God expects of us when we have been showered with blessings is to be thankful. I am--thankful that our children are beginning their adult lives, thankful for new life, thankful for this blessed place where we live, and thankful for really, really good wines to enjoy.

Further South in Oregon

The International Pinot Noir Celebration is going on this weekend in McMinnville. We are in Eugene, and ironically enough our granddaughter is also back in Mac. So, we decide on a road trip to southern Oregon. We have a map of the vineyards in the area, and one, called Reustle Prayer Rock Vineyard has caught our attention. In my experience there are people who make and enjoy wonderful wines, and then there are people of faith. I feel kind of alone in trying to bridge the gap between the two sometimes, so it's wonderful to see a vineyard like this openly displaying their faith, and making wonderful wines.

Getting up to the vineyard is no easy task. We are following our map, we head off road and up a steep gravel road. I'm thinking in my head, "I must be the first person to ever find this place, it's so remote." We arrive a the vineyard and I realize just how wrong I've been. The primary parking lot if full. We end up parking about 300 yards from the main building. Trying to figure out how the whole process works is a challenge. We walk into a room that is packed with people and product. We need to use the facilities, so we walk around the corner into the wine making area. There are several informational displays on yield per acre and other information. There is also a white board with one of the primary principles of the winery written out complete with a reference the book of Acts the second chapter.

We make our way back into the entry room which has thinned out considerably. It turns out that this beautiful, sunny Saturday is their wine club release date. I'm glad we hung around and figured it out, because, tasting wine at this vineyard is one of the most unique wine experiences I've ever had. You are escorted by a tour guide through the wine making area, and then back into the wine cave. The tastings are done by table and come complete with a taste of food for each wine. The costs for the four wines and four foods is $10. It's a great way to do a wine tasting. Your server is referred to as a "wine educator." The wines are wonderful. We get to taste their just released Pinot Gris which we will not be able to purchase since it is only for members. The last and heaviest wine is an '08 estate grown Syrah. It is paired with bacon wrapped around a sweet fig spread. It's an incredible combination that I will try to duplicate once I'm back home.

We wind our way back out of the vineyard, get back to the road and follow our wine map to Melrose Vineyards. Their must be a ton of weddings at this winery. They have an amazing grassy area in the back of the winery that slopes gently down to a gazebo which is framed by flowing moss drifting from the branches of well established oak trees. The tasting room is packed, so we head out to the deck which overlooks the beautiful estate and affords a wonderful view of the mountains beyond. Here you can taste three wines (you pick) for free, or pay $10, get a free wine glass, and choose up to six. We're suckers for a free wine glass to we opt for the latter. We try only two white wines, and then are able to try the entire red wine selection which included a port wine. We share our tastes, so we got to try twelve wines all together. I really like the big bodied reds they make down here. They seem so appropriate to the place. Here we especially liked the much maligned Merlot. Why do people avoid this wine? It is wonderful and rich and evokes the high rolling arid hills in which it is grown.

I've traveled through this are so many times in the past, but it was always something to get through. Southern Oregon is the part of I-5 you have to put up with to visit family in California. As you run out of Willamette Valley and head into the steep hills its as though you have gone due east instead of south. The climate and scenery remind me of parts of eastern Washington. I want to come back down here. I would love to talk to the Reustle's about their wonderful wines and their love of God. The two make so much sense to me. In the entry room at Reustle they have an article about some corks that they had printed that included a passage from Proverbs about the goodness of wine. Unfortunately it was not approved by the government. Apparently the biblical passage was considered by the powers that be to be a claim to good health and was not allowed. If you have one of the wines with these corks they are collector's items.

Next time you are traveling through southern Oregon, stop and enjoy yourself a little bit. There are some wonderful wines to be enjoyed, and there is no greater sign that God loves us and wants the best for us than good wine to drink--except for grandchildren of course, they are God's greatest gift.