That's a Pinot Noir cluster to the left. Let's start with the grapes. The pine cone shaped clusters (that's where the grape gets it's name--pinot means pine cone) are incredibly dense--the grapes are packed closely together. This makes the clusters vulnerable to mold and mildew. If you've ever been in the Willamette Valley in the fall you know how beautiful it can be. You also know that it can start raining in October and let up sometime in mid to late June. The grower and wine maker are always walking a fine line of wanting to let the grapes ripen properly, and getting them in before bad weather sets in. In addition to being closely packed together, the grapes are extremely thin skinned. That means they will dry up if the weather gets too hot, they will be adversely effected if the weather is too cold. The grapes like to be nice and warm during the day, and to cool off at night. That's one of the reasons they grow so well here. We have this huge air conditioning unit called the Van Duzer Corridor that delivers cool, moist marine air to the the valley all summer long.In addition to the grape being thin skinned and vulnerable they also require huge amounts of hard labor. They can be trimmed and thinned four or more times before harvest. I've seen up to a third of a crop laying on the ground a few short weeks before harvest. Wine makers sometimes take this step to help the remaining grapes either mature more quickly, or to concentrate the flavors of the remaining grapes. Not many clusters are left on the plant in the first place. Several are removed by hand shortly after the fruit sets up. The vines are severely pruned back in the dark of winter. Grapes are related to ivy, and if they weren't trimmed they would produce only vines and little fruit. When the fruit has set in late spring, early summer, the canopy is trimmed back to provide optimum growing conditions for the remaining grape clusters. The grower wants the grapes to get adequate sun light (but not too much) good air movement (to keep the grapes from molding) and just the right amount of fruit to maximize flavor.
All of the grapes in the vineyards I've visited
have been harvested by hand. Ideally the harvest takes place early in the morning. Each cluster carefully cut and gently set into a holding container. The harvest hands literally run with the full buckets to the end of the rows and set them in larger containers to take to the winery. Once at the winery every cluster is inspected
and gone through (again by hand, no machines
to help the process along.) The clusters in the
photo above are being sorted by the workers
at Maysara Winery. All that work and we
haven't even started the wine making process
yet. The grapes are separated from the stems
by a machine that delicately removes the grapes with a minimum amount of damage. The machines are expensive. Now the grapes are placed in some kind of container to ferment. Some wine makers add yeast to the mix, others just let nature take it's course and used the yeast that is already present on the grapes themselves.
There is one more huge expense of making good Pinot Noir--new French oak barrels. The barrels cost around $1,200 each. The average barrel holds about 25 cases worth of wine, so just the oak alone amounts to about $4 per bottle. Each barrel releases about 60% of its flavor the first year it is used, about 3o% the second year, and about 10% the third year. After that the barrels are flavor neutral and will not make a significant difference in the flavor of the wine. Wine makers use different combinations of new and old barrels in their wines. Some use only neutral oak (such as Eyrie Vineyards here in McMinnville) others use all new French oak barrels while most use some combination of the two. If you are purchasing a Pinot Noir for less than $20 in many cases they've skipped the oak barrels all together. One way to save money is to make the wine in stainless steel containers, and add oak chips to the mix. Willamette Valley Vineyards has a Pinot Noir called "Whole Cluster" where they do not separate the grapes from the clusters, but put it all together into a stainless steel container with no oak added. There are exceptions to this rule. Our shop carries several amazingly good value Pinot Noirs. Maysara makes a second label called 3 Degrees (named after the Momtzie's three beautiful daughters), Stangeland Vineyards has a great '07 Willamette Valley Pinot for under $20. Owen Roe Winery
creates the beautiful Sharecropper's Pinot Noir which sells for right around $20. The grape cluster at the top of the page was photographed at Coeur de Terre Winery in the McMinnville AVA. Scott and Lisa Neal the owners have painstakingly hand grafted the vines on their property and then planted then all by hand. In a bad economy they decided to make a bargain Pinot for $20. We have a hard time keeping it in the shop. I know from personal conversations that they are losing money on the wine. That is the reality of a bad economy. Bad news for the vineyard owners and wine makers. Very good news for you. (And it goes great with turkey.)