Spring/Summer Wine Club Shipment Pick Up Party

Saturday June 19, 1-4pm. RSVP to 503.359.5012 x 126 or kristin at montinore dot com.
See you there!

Marc's Delicious and Simple Cornish Game Hen with Pinot Noir Mushroom Sauce

1 Cornish game hen (makes two servings)
1 Large Onion
1 Large Carrot
2 Stalks Celery
1 bunch Fresh Thyme
½ pound crimini mushrooms
2 cups of chicken stock
1 cup of Montinore Estate Pinot Noir

This recipe is as easy as it is elegant.

1. Make sure your birds are completely thawed by pulling them from the freezer two days in advance thawing them in the refrigerator or place them in a container with running water for several hours. After thawing, open bird and clean out cavity.

2. Heat oven to 350 degrees

3. Finely dice onion, carrot and celery. Mix together with 1/2 of the Thyme. Set aside 1/2 for the sauce.

4. Season the inside of the bird with salt and pepper, chop fresh thyme and sprinkle inside and outside the hen. Stuff the bird with 1/2 the onion mixture then truss the legs with butcher twine.

5. Place bird,breast side up in a roasting pan. Cook for 45 minutes then turn bird over browning bottom side for 15 minutes. Bird is done when the internal temperature reached 140 degrees.

6. For the sauce saute remaining onion mixture and 2 tsp chopped thyme until translucent add wine cook reducing wine until almost dry then add chicken stock. Cook until broth has reduced by half. Season to taste and reduce heat, right before serving stir in 3tbl of whole butter mix until smooth.

7. With poultry shears or scissors cut birds in half lengthwise place on serving plates then sauce.

Serve with Montinore Estate Pinot Noir. Enjoy!

Download printable version here

A Glimpse Into Our Passed News >>>>>>>>>>>>>>

North Willamette Wine Trail - April 10 - 11, 2010

Mark your calendars, the annual Wine Trail is back!

Journey to over 21 neighboring wineries located just minutes from Portland and experience a weekend full of wine, culinary delights, education and fun!

A full Wine Trail ticket is only $35 and entitles guests to exclusive access to all participating wineries. Guests are treated to complimentary wine tastings, food, entertainment and activities at each participating winery. Taste a new releases, reserve labels or a barrel tastings while enjoying specially paired food and desserts. Then, participate in a variety of activities at each location. In addition to a weekend full of fun, each ticket holder will receive a commemorative 2010 wine glass and a reusable wine tote filled with discounts and special offers.

Thank you designated drivers, what we would do without you! This year, each designated driver ticket holder will receive a Wine Trail Survival Kit including a commemorative stainless steal water bottle and a reusable wine tote filled with snacks, maps and other essentials to enjoy through the weekend as well as a variety of discounts and special offers. Each designated driver is treated to complimentary food and entertainment at each winery…all the same benefits as your friends holding full ticket except the wine! Designated Driver tickets are only $10

Harvest Report 2009

The growing season of the 2009 vintage in our northwest corner of the Willamette Valley was one of variation and extremes. Consider that this growing season was the third warmest of the past decade but 4 of the 6 months from May to October were cooler than normal. In the month of July we had a record breaking 106 degrees (12 degrees higher than the previous record high for July) and in the same month we experienced a 44 degree night. We had very hot periods followed by very cool periods. While we had an overall warmer vintage our neighbors 25 miles south in the McMinnville are had the third COOLEST vintage of the past decade. Reports from the east side of the valley near Dundee were that it was a very warm vintage.

What this all means for our wines here at Montinore is very interesting. Our spring was generally cool and we had good weather during bloom so we had a nice size crop, slightly above average and bloom was right on schedule. During July and August we had some very warm periods that accelerated grape development pushing up our harvest date a full week. As harvest approached things cooled down and we had slightly below average temperatures in September and October giving us beautiful weather for a nice long “hang time”, that final period where the grapes ripen to full maturity. This is particularly important for our Pinot Noir.

The final result was that we harvested a week earlier than usual and for the most part we had completely ripe, beautifully balanced grapes with fully mature tannins. A few lots from the warmest parts of our farm fermented to a little higher alcohol than we like but when blended with the other vineyard lots the average will be approximately 13.5% for the Pinot and 12% +- for the whites, just where we hoped they would be. Acid levels were near perfect and the flavors pronounced. Now that fermentations are just about complete and the wines are in barrel I can safely say that we are very happy with the 2009’s and I see it as one of the best years for us since I started here 11 years ago.

-Rudy Marchesi
11/09

Join us for Thanksgiving Weekend 2009

Make the our tradition yours. Each year we open our doors the Friday, Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving to you and your friends and family with a celebration and open house and this year is no different.

Ever wonder what to serve with your favorite cheese or your grandmothers famous potatoes? We will answer all those questions and more at our wine and food pairing class. Classes will be held on the hour from noon to 4pm each day last about 20 minutes and will include a wine flight with culinary accompaniments as well as a commemorative glass and entrance into our tasting room, cost is $20 per person.

Just want to stop in for a wine flight, pick up some wine and then head to the next winery? No problem. Enjoy a wine flight and commemorative glass for $10 per person. Don't miss our holiday specials and gift packs, live music Friday and Saturday and of course our delicious wines!

We look forward to seeing you.

Kristin Marchesi featured in Austin Woman Magazine

Follow link to the article Uncorked: Woman of the Willamette

July Fourth Weekend at the Estate

Bring a picnic to the Estate for soft grass, shade and perhaps a game of croquet overlooking our organic vineyards. Come inside and savor a wine flight selected from our seventeen "Red, White and True Oregon Wines," while enjoying live music and "The True Oregon Art" of Douglas Remington.

LIVE MUSIC
Sat, July 4 • 1–4pm Tim Troutman
Sun, July 5 • 1–4pm Gentle Rain

Montinore takes part in the Vinology series

Montinore is teaming up again with our fellow North Willamette Vintner members to both teach and learn in the Vinology educational series. Montinore Proprietor Rudy Marchesi offers a course called Organic & Biodynamic Viticulture: A Practical Guide. If you want to learn more about how wine grapes are grown, this is a great opportunity to learn.

Read more about the Vinology series here.

5/12

Read the article in the Oregonian on Biodynamics

"Biodynamic practices take root in Oregon wineries"
by Dana Tims, The Oregonian

"Rudy Marchesi began using biodynamic methods at Montinore Estate near Forest Grove not long after he began managing the 230-acre operation in 2001. Although scientific experiments designed to quantify biodynamics' results are scarce, Marchesi said he has seen considerable physical changes in his vineyards that he attributes directly to biodynamics."

4/29

2008, our first Biodynamic Certified Vintage

In 2001 we started converting our vineyard farming practices to organic methods. We took it one step at a time and with every year we saw improvements in vine health, soil structure and general vitality. In 2003 I enrolled in a 9 month course in Biodynamic farming at the Pfeiffer Center in New York and in the fall of 2003 we started implementing some of these practices on selected blocks of grapes with great results.

Since that time we have embraced these methods of farming and farm our entire 230 acres according to organic and Biodynamic standards. We had never thought much about getting certified since our main purpose was simply to grow better grapes and ultimately make better wines. With the growing interest in these practices among
wine lovers all over the country we received many inquiries as to whether we were certified either organic or Biodynamic. We quickly realized that certification separated those of us dedicated to farming and making wines in this way from those who just "talked the talk" for marketing purposes. So last year we applied and received organic and Demeter Biodynamic certification for both our vineyards and winery.

This spring you will see the addition of these certifications on our labels for the '08 vintage wines. We are very proud to add these certifications to our labels because it's a clear statement that we farm and make our wines in a way that we know not only produces better grapes and wines but is also better for our farm, all of us who work here and for our environment. We hope you are as pround as we are to serve this at your table.

-Rudy Marchesi

3/10/09

Montinore Dinner in Savannah, June 11, 2009

If your in the Savannah, GA area Thursday June 11th, don't miss a dinner with Kristin Marchesi at the Bull Street Chophouse. For more information or to make a reservation call (912) 232-2728.

3/9/09

A Great Loss

This is proving to be a difficult week for us. Lynn Robertson, a very important part of our close-knit crew, passed away over the weekend. It happened so suddenly that it still doesn't seem real.

As we slowly come to terms with her departure, we remember her most for her generosity, her keen intelligence and her love of animals. Our office will never be the same without her spirited personality, with which she filled every room she enered.

We will dedicate our bottling of our barrel-selected 2008 "Cataclysm" Pinot Noir to her, since she coined its name.

2/9/09

2008 Harvest Report

After farming vineyards on both coasts of the United States for over 30 years, Rudy Marchesi says he finally gets it. “When you have been growing grapes as long and in as many different regions as I have you start to realize that the vineyards have a consciousness of their own, as they are living organisms and Biodynamic® farming addresses that reality.” 

After establishing and farming vineyards on the east coast conventionally for 20 years, Marchesi assumed responsibility in 2001 for 230 acres at Montinore Estate, one of Oregon’s largest vineyards and wineries located in the northern Willamette Valley. Montinore is now one of only seven Demeter Certified wineries in Oregon, and with these new certifications will continue to bring high quality, lovingly made Biodynamically farmed wine to wine drinkers at a price they can afford. 
 
“It was clear to me that the vineyards were in decline, and pumping them full of synthetic fertilizers and herbicides was not going to bring health and vitality back into them,” Marchesi said.  “It was obvious we needed to take a different approach if we were going to make changes in both the vineyard health and the overall quality of our wine.” 

In 2001 Marchesi transitioned Montinore’s total property to organic farming methods, but he still felt like there was a piece missing.   Marchesi began to look further into alternative farming practices when he discovered a series of lectures by Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner.  Feeling as though he may be onto something Marchesi enrolled in a year long Biodynamic® farming course at the Pfeiffer Center in New York.  After this course and several experiments with Biodynamic practices on his home vineyard and gardens, he was convinced that he could transform Montinore Estate’s vineyards.  In 2005 Marchesi began the transition of Montinore’s vineyards, culminating in a Demeter Biodynamic® Certification and Organic Certification in the summer of 2008.

Transitioning the Vineyards and Those Who Work Them
It is an accomplishment to transition 230 acres of vineyards from conventional farming to organic and Biodynamic certification, but it is an entirely different accomplishment to convert the hearts and minds of those who work the vineyards. 

“We are very fortunate to have a vineyard crew that has worked here an average of over 20 years,” says Marchesi, “and after all of that time, they couldn’t help but have a great sensitivity for the vines and this place.  It was because of their sensitivity and sense of propriety that I needed to communicate an understanding of Biodynamic farming to those who work the vineyards on a daily basis.”  Marchesi hired a Spanish speaking Biodynamic farmer and educator to work with his vineyard crew so that Steiner’s philosophies and principles could be discussed in the crew’s native tongue. 

“After several sessions the crew was as enthusiastic as I was," he said, "but the true test was how the vines responded to the farming changes. The first year or so we had some difficulty with the transition, but by the second year you couldn’t help but notice how the vineyards were changing.  Blocks that had produced standard fruit were beginning to be the new standouts, and those blocks that had struggled were now beginning to produce some real quality fruit.  It was an exciting time for all of us.  Now that the Biodynamic practices have been fully implemented we've seen definite visible changes in our vineyards; the increase of worms in the soil, cluster shape and berry size, the uniformity and health of the leaf canopy. Most importantly the increase in quality of the grapes and wine.” 

Marchesi  and the entire team at Montinore are looking forward to continuing as stewards of the land while watching the vineyards mature with the new health and vitality that Biodynamic farming brings.  With the new growing practices firmly in place,  Montinore plans to expand on their reputation of producing high quality, responsibly crafted wines.

Learn More
Click on the links below to find a listing of other wineries in the area:

www.willamettewine.com
www.northwillamettevintners.org
www.sip47.com


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