Wine Advocate Reviews are out!

Dr. Jay Miller of the Wine Advocate reviews' of the Willamette Valley's 2009 vintage are in and we couldn't be happier. Not only for the recognition of these delicious wines, but also are so proud of red winemaker Ben Thomas and his first complete vintage in that role.

While the 2009 Graham's and Parsons' will not be released until next year, the 2009 Reserve is out and drinking great right now.

Wine of the Month (or half-month): Parsons' Ridge

The crazy talented Jillian Mackey has worked in several different capacities here; tasting room associate, harvest intern, Breakfast Monday chef and event pastry chef. Although she has started working full time in Portand as pastry chef for Jopa Catering and 50 Plates restaurant, she still moonlights in our tasting room when she finds a moment.  While enjoying a glass Parsons' after work one day she asked if she could write something about the wine for our site, and here it is!

As spring slowly arrives to the Willamette Valley and we prepare to release our Borealis, a Pinot Noir may seem a strange choice for April’s wine of the month.  Our 2007 Parsons' Ridge Pinot Noir, however, is a favorite of mine and now an indispensible pairing for my Easter menu!


Parsons Ridge is a block of (now) 28 year old vines on the estate.  It consistently produces interesting, quality fruit which results in a wine displaying cherry, spice, and a hint of earth........

A Haiku

Rudy's Spring Haiku:

vine tight as a bug in the wind

spring still many days off

today I dream of sunshine

What he is really thinking:

OMG, it's still winter

WTF, how am I gonna make wine if this keep up

Later.

“From Root to Bottle”: the (previously) unsung role of the bottling line

I want to explain why we’ve been putting that slogan on our labels. The point of “from root to bottle” is to let you know that we are there for the entire process of vine growing and wine making. “From root” tells you that we farm our own vineyards. That gives us a great advantage in maintaining quality and keeping us in the winery connected to the most important part of the wine making process. “To bottle” means we have our own bottling line, which allows us quality control over each and every bottle of wine that we produce. Surely it would be easier to call in the bottling truck and have someone else’s crew bottle our wines. But we admit to being control freaks and want to make sure our wines head off into the world properly. Not only that, but it allows us to keep our costs down and our prices fair.

March Wine of the Month

2009 Riesling Sweet Reserve

I chose our 2009 Riesling Sweet Reserve for our wine of the month because I feel that this is a really amazing wine that often gets overlooked. People see the word “sweet”” and immediately decide they don’t want to try it because they “don’t like sweet wines.” Be that as it may, the times that I have convinced one of these folks to try the wine, they are more often than not pleasantly surprised by what they taste.