Well, I’ve been sucked down into the whirlpool of crush these last several days, but I have re-emerged no worse for wear. We have now brought in about 60 of our total of 75 tons this year, including 26 tons from Ribbon Ridge, Shea, and Zena, all in one massive 22-hour shift last Saturday. The crew got out of the winery about 5am on Sunday, of course just to return a few hours later for morning punchdowns and monitoring. I was on the sorting line from 11am until 3am straight, and I have several aching body parts that I didn’t know existed previously. That’s why they call it Crush!

As to early impressions of quality and character of the vintage, I think it will be mixed – a lot of hits and maybe some misses too. Four days of showers off and on from the 30th to the 3rd affected different sites very differently. Some showed no signs of any ill effects whatsoever, and others were affected with some botrytis, swelling and/or dilution. It really was site specific. As to what we have in the winery right now, the Maresh, Shea, and Momtazi are really excellent, perhaps the best we’ve ever had. It’s too early to tell for the rest, but I am very thankful for our custom-made sorting table – a rigorous sort insured that nothing but the best, clean, fully mature fruit made it into our fermenters. This vintage seems to have played into our hands very well – it is an excellent vintage for the “Scott Paul Style” – meaning lower alcohol, good acids, bright aromas and a lithe, elegant balance. Producers who prefer more robust, syrah-like Pinot will probably not like this vintage as much as we do.

As of now we’re planning on picking the rest of our Momtazi (the higher elevation blocks) and all of our blocks at Zenith (formerly Belle Provenance, formerly OÇonnor) on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and that will be it for the year. All the fermentations are currently behaving themselves nicely. Kelley and I are about to taste through the tanks, so I’m off – back with more as it unfolds…

A massively busy day in the winery yesterday – we brought in about 24 tons of beautiful fruit from two of our blocks of Momtazi and all of our parcels of Maresh. Yields were as we had expected, right at 2 tons to the acre on average. It started to rain last night, and it looks like we’ve got 5 or 6 days of showers coming, and then several days of radiant sunshine to follow.

So far this feels a lot like 2005 to me, with delicious fruit coming in at about 13-13.5% potential alcohol, good acidity, and nice early aromas. Also similar to 2005, we picked a bunch of fruit before the rains, and then grabbed the rest after the rains had passed and the sunshine returned. 2005 produced probably our best wines so far, so if we’re in for another one of those that’s fine with me!

There seem to be plenty of gloom & doomers already pronouncing the 2007 vintage a failure – please remember that rain at harvest does not automatically destroy a vintage! We had 9 days of rain in the middle of harvest in ’05, and the wines made from grapes picked a week or two after those rains were excellent. Of course, it could start raining and never stop – as happened here in 1997 – and in that case we are indeed screwed. Let’s wait to pronounce the quality of the vintage after the wines are in the bottle and ready to drink, OK?

I can’t give enough thanks and appreciation to our magnificent crew, in both the cellar and tasting room, who are doing a tremendous job every step of the way. I am blessed to be surrounded by such good people…

FInally, harvest 2007 is underway! We brought in our 1 acre of Shea Block 19 clone 777 this morning – the fruit tasted sweet and yummy, and it was great for all of us to get back on the sorting line and get to winemaking once again. We had light rain off and on last night, but the fruit survived very nicely, showing no ill-effects at all. Now we’ve got a beautiful, sunny fall day, which should bode well for our picks tomorrow at Maresh and a couple of blocks at Momtazi. It will be a monstrously busy day tomorrow – we’re looking at about 23 tons of fruit coming in. Today served as a nice break-in – tomorrow we get down to the real action! Lots of showers in the forecast over the next week or so. After Sunday we’re not likely to pick anything else until after the 7th or 8th maybe. More as it happens…

The sun is still shining, and we’re still waiting. We’re still planning to pick some Shea on Friday, Maresh onSaturday, and will probably grab two of our blocks at Zena on Sunday. after that, who knows? Some showers are supposed to start passing through the first part of next week, but we’ll have no fruit ready then anyway. Most likely we’ll pick some more on the 6th. The weather looks pretty good from then on, and if we make it through without extended rains we should have some beautiful flavors at very nice, low alcohol levels. Please keep your fingers crossed!!!

So, we’ve had plenty of sunshine since my last report, but it’s been on the cool side, no higher than 74 over the last week. This is beautiful for flavor development, as the grapes ripen slowly, without the sugars rushing up too quickly. We will start harvest 2007 this Friday the 28th – we’re scheduled to pick our block of clone 777 at Shea then, and it looks like we will pick all of our stuff at Maresh on Saturday. These sunny, cool days look like they’ll continue for the next week or so. The winery is ready, the crush crew is chomping at the bit, and we’re ready to go! Details on all the trials and tribulations as they happen…

Speaking of crush crew, we’ve got another killer team this year – Samuel – a sommellier from Montreal, JJ – a former wine shop manager from San Francisco, and Matt – a winemaker from New Zealand. We are fortunate indeed to have these guys on the team, and Kelley and I are excited to get this puppy underway…

Would it be too much to ask for a little sunshine? Mostly cloudy and cool is the way these past few days have turned out, with a little sprinkle yesterday and again this morning. The big orange ball is supposed to return towards the end of the week, but it’s pretty clear we’re getting no warmer than 75 degrees or so from here on in. We are making a final pass through all our vineyard blocks this week to drop any clusters still lagging behind – if they’re not fully colored-up by now they’ve got no chance of ripening this year…

Had a nice e-mail from Thierry & Estelle Violot in Pommard this morning. Their take on harvest 2007 in the Côte de Beaune (loosely translated) – “We would have liked to have had a sunnier August, but that’s the way it is! We did have beautiful weather for harvest – sunny and cool, so that was perfect. Effectively, it was important to do a rigorous sorting job this year. There was a lot of rot and a large range of difference in maturity from vine to vine. We invested in a new next-generation sorting table, and had six sorters on duty every day. We have done our best, and now we must be patient and wait. At this point we compare it a lot to 2000, with good fruit, wines to drink younger rather than older…” I’ll have my first quick look at the 2007 juice when I’m there in November, along with a detailed look at the 2006s – watch this space for the ongoing reports…

We had a nice visit over the weekend with restaurateur Gina Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene in Atlanta, who was in town to vist her old colleague Emily Freiler -who now does a wonderful job for us in our tasting room. Gina and Emily first visited in 2005 and worked harvest with us for a few days. Apparently we weren’t able to scare Emily off, as she moved to Oregon shortly thereafter! Restaurant Eugene is a Do Not Miss if you’re ever in ATL…

It happens every year. You wake up one morning and you can just feel it. You know it. The weather has turned, the season has changed. Today is that day for this year. We will have no more “hot” days this year. We will assuredly have lots of sunshine, many warm days, a nice bit of Indian Summer perhaps – but the heat of summer, that special way the sun feels on your skin, that’s gone, gone until sometime next July.

Mostly sunny and mid-70s is the forecast for the forseeable future, which should give us some nice hang time for good flavor development as the grapes ripen. There are a few sprinkles on the horizon as well, but nothing worrisome at this point…

Most of the harvest is finished already in Burgundy – they’re way ahead of us this year due to an irregularly warm and early spring there. Early reports are saying the reds have lovely fruit and really nice aromatics, and many folks are saying that they now think the whites were picked too early. More as we hear from our growers there as fermentations progress…

Two days in a row in the 90s – seems like we always get a bit of a September heat spike these past several years. It is supposed to cool down to 80 tomorrow, and then in the 70s for the next week to 10 days – sounds good to me. A few sprinkles are in the forecast for this weekend, which would be fine at this point. I’ll be cheking to see if this heat finally pushed everything through full veraison…

Bottling went off without a hitch, thankfully. Pinot Noir generally does not like to be bottled, and bottling lines don’t like to work like they’re supposed to – so the situation is always ripe for disaster. Ask any winemaker – bottling is always the least favorite activity of the year. We lucked out and had an easy one this year, and the wines didn’t seem to mind it terribly either. As always, glad that’s behind us for another year…

The 2006 Cuvée Martha Pirrie Pinot is now available for sale on-line – only 140 cases available of our value-priced beauty, and at $24 per it always goes fast. Come out to taste and pick up a case or two at our fall Release Party – Saturday September 22nd – 11-4 here at the winery & tasting room in Carlton. Of course the new CMP will be open for tasting, along with a bunch of the killer 2005 Burgs. We look forward to seeing you!

A quick harvest update – not one of our blocks at any of our sites is 100% through veraison yet (when the grapes turn from green to purply-black.) The weather has remained ideal, and everything should start ripening up over the next 3 weeks or so. In about a week we’ll make a final thinning pass through the vines, dropping any clusters that are lagging behind at that point. We’re currently down to 1 cluster per shoot, but wil go even a little lower with this final pass… As of now I’m guessing we won’t be bringing in any fruit until the last week of September or first week of October. If history is any indication however, my guess will be dead wrong. Stay tuned and we’ll let you know how everyting’s progressing…

Fall 2007 – the time is ripe

As I write this mid – September, we’re still a week or two away from picking the first grapes this year. We’ve had abundant sunshine of late, with lows in the 50s and highs in the 80s for the last several weeks – all setting us up for what could be another excellent year. Between now and harvest, of course, things can and will change a few dozen times. Winemaking can teach you a lot, most importantly patience. I’ve also learned that making predictions, worrying, or complaining are nothing but exercises in frustration, and that nature always has the last word anyway!

In Burgundy the 2007 harvest is finished, with an early start around September 1st for most of our growers. The growers are reporting that two weeks of near-perfect weather just before harvest saved the year, and the early indications are that the wines will be supple with ripe fruit and good structure. More on this after my trip to Burgundy in mid-November. In the meantime, more of the outstanding 2005 Burgs are on the way shortly – details later in this newsletter

2006 Cuvée Martha Pirrie Pinot – The Official Release!

To order online, click here…

The 2006 Cuvée Martha Pirrie is safely in bottle and ready for its public unveiling. The 2006 vintage finally gave us a normal-sized crop of beautiful fruit (we keep all of our vineyards down to 2-tons/acre maximum – but nature kept us below 1-ton/acre in ’04 & ‘05) – so we finally have a little more wine to go around. We bottled 964 cases of this little beauty, and we’re excited to share it with you.

The 2006 version is culled from six different vineyards that lie in five different AVAs here in the Willamette Valley. This gave us a broad palate to work with in arriving at the final blend for this cuvée, and we’re very happy with the results. The grapes are from our blocks of Shea Vineyard in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, Ribbon Ridge Vineyard in the neighboring Ribbon Ridge AVA, Stoller Vineyard in the southern end of the Dundee Hills AVA,Momtazi Vineyard (our first year working with this fruit) – a biodynamically farmed site in the McMinnville AVA, and two new sites for us in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA – Zenith Vineyard and Zena Crown Vineyard. Each of these parcels brought their own unique characteristics, but it is indeed the whole that becomes greater than the sum of the parts.

The 2006 Cuvée Martha Pirrie offers bright red fruits on the nose and entry, with ripe raspberries leading into yummy cherries and some blackberry notes. It’s lithe and slender like a model on a Paris runway, but a lot more approachable. This is classy and elegant juice to drink now and over the next 3-5 years.

Release party September 22nd – be there!

You’re invited – please plan to join us in Carlton for our Release Party & Open House on Saturday September 22nd from 11 to 4 – the new Cuvée Martha Pirrie will be open for tasting, along with a selection of yummy Burgundies from our Scott Paul Selections portfolio, and we’ll have some delicious nibbles to accompany all. Yes, we made more wine in 2006, but there is still relatively little to go around – so please act quickly to make sure you get your hands on this one before it’s gone…

On-line ordering has returned to scottpaul.com – just click here to access your secure order form…

The magnificent 2005 Burgundies – the 2nd Coming…

By now the world knows about the once-in-a-lifetime quality of the amazing 2005 Burgundies. Our first shipment last spring virtually sold-out before it even arrived in the country. Our second shipment is on the water as we speak, and is expected to arrive by mid-October. On top of additional quantities of many of the wines we brought in this spring, the fall shipment contains some new wines from producers we’ve been working with, and a couple of new producers to introduce you to as well.

We will begin offering the next shipment of the 2005 Burgs the week of October 15th. Watch your email for the announcement, and we urge you to act quickly to secure the wines you want.

New Additions to the Portfolio…

Domaine Anne & Hervé Sigaut

The Sigauts have been passionately but quietly making gorgeous wines in the tiny village of Chambolle-Musigny for generations. The secret is out and the quiet is about to be a thing of the past. The estate totals 17 acres, including spectacular old-vine parcels of Chambolle 1er Crus Les Fuées, Les Sentiers and Noirots – many of which are plowed by horse.

Hervé follows the lunar calendar for most activities in the vineyard and cellar, and prefers to touch the wine as little as possible during élévage. The winemaking facility was re-built in 2004, with a sorting table, all stainless-steel fermentation tanks, and full temperature control. New oak is kept to a maximum of 40%. The wines are thoroughbred examples of the magnificent terroirs of Chambolle-Musigny.

Domaine des Chenevières

Young Frédéric Gueguen is the son-in-law of Chablis superstar Jean-Marc Brocard, and he started his own domaine in 2005. He was fortunate to be able to purchase a collection of superbly situated old-vine parcels, with lovely pieces of village-level Chablis as well as the 1er Crus Côte de Lechet, Fourchaume, and the rarely seen l’Homme Mort.

Frédéric makes his wines at the Brocard facility in the village of Chablis. As is traditional in Chablis, the wines are fermented and aged 100% in stainless steel – he uses absolutely no oak whatsoever.

The wines are totally pure expressions of the unique and magnificent terroirs of Chablis. Many wine lovers firmly believe that the world’s greatest expression of Chardonnay comes from these limestone soils in France’s most northerly still-wine grape growing region – and I for one wholeheartedly agree.

2006 La Paulée & Audrey Futures…

Just a reminder that we’ll be offering futures on the 2006 La Paulée and Audrey Pinots this fall – watch your e-mail for the announcement in the 2 nd week of November. As always, we offer these wines at a substantial discount to futures buyers, and the wines will be ready for pick-up or delivery in April.

Maresh Vineyard in the Dundee Hills

The good news is that there is a lot more of the La Paulée this year. The bad news is that there is less of the Audrey, however. Only five barrels were chosen for the 2006 Audrey (once again all from our old-vine parcels of Maresh Vineyard in the Dundee Hills), resulting in a scant 219 6-packs available for sale (or 1,314 bottles – that sounds better, perhaps?) Details on the futures offering coming soon…

The Green-washing of wine…

It seems you can’t pick up a newspaper or magazine in recent months without seeing an article about the eco-friendly/organic/green-ness of wine, wineries and vineyards. For the most part I think this is a good thing. I’m proud that our industry (specifically here in Oregon) is leading the way in environmentally responsible farming, winemaking, and even winery building. The governor of Oregon has even recently announced a “carbon-neutral challenge” to the wine industry. At Scott Paul, our philosophy on all this is very simple – “Do the right thing”. I doubt whether we’ll ever go for organic or biodynamic certification (we’re a four-person company, and the paperwork hours for certification can be better spent serving our customers, I think.) Same goes for “Green” certification for our facilities.

This year we switched to tree-free paper for all of our labels, and for many years now we’ve used bleach-free craft cardboard for all of our packaging. We purchase 100% wind-generated electricity. We used recycled and reclaimed materials, formaldehyde-free plywood, low or no-VOC paints, and we restored century-old agricultural buildings rather than build new. We run the company vehicle on biodiesel. We farm our vineyards biodynamically. We are simply trying to do what we believe in, trying to do the right thing.

There are situations, however, when being “green” can actually compromise the product. It very well may be more “green” to use FSC-certified cork to close your wine bottles than it is to use the Stelvin closure we use. It is certain, however, that using cork to close wine bottles ruins 3-10% or more of all those bottles of wine. It makes no sense to me to be “green” if it means bringing to market a product that one knows to be compromised.

I’m also not so sure about the “Carbon-Neutral” thing. I find it absurd that a local Land Rover dealer is advertising themselves and their cars as Carbon-Neutral by virtue of the fact that they’ll buy carbon credits (sending money somewhere to have new trees planted) to supposedly offset the emissions from their gas-guzzlers.

My hope is that the Carbon-Neutral challenge program for wineries recently issued in Oregon will encourage more participants to find ways to truly lessen the environmental impact of their farming and winemaking. Finding out how much damage you’re doing and writing a check to offset it doesn’t seem to be the answer, at least to my way of thinking…

UPCOMING EVENTS…

2nd annual La Paulée de Carlton

Mark your calendars for Saturday November 3rd – it’s our second annual La Paulée de Carlton dinner and tasting. All day long we’ll be pouring a selection of the newly-arrived 2005 Burgundies in our tasting room, and that night we’ll celebrate in style with the La Paulée dinner in our cellars. Join us and more of Oregon’s top winemakers for a true bacchanalian extravaganza. In the tradition of La Paulée in Burgundy, everyone is encouraged to bring some special bottles from their cellars to share with all revelers.

Invitations for the dinner will be mailed in October – please respond quickly if you’d like to join us – attendance is limited!

SALUD!

Again this year we’re proud to have been chosen to participate in SALUD, the Oregon Pinot Noir auction. Every year a selection of Oregon’s finest Pinot producers each make a single barrel of exceptional wine specifically for SALUD, which is then auctioned off in case lots to raise funds for free healthcare for Oregon’s vineyard workers. It’s a great program, the events are first-rate, and we’d love to see you there. The events are scheduled for November 9 th & 10 th this year – and you can get ticket information and full details at:

http://www.saludauction.org

Thanksgiving Weekend Open House

It’s a private party – for you and a few thousand of your closest friends! Join us for the annual shindig – we’ll be open 10-4 (come early to beat the traffic and crowds) on Friday & Saturday, November 23 rd & 24th. Your $10 tasting fee includes an array of cheeses and charcuterie, and of course a killer line-up of wines. The 2006 Audrey and La Paulée bottlings will be available for purchase as futures, and there should still be some 2006 Cuvée Marthe Pirrie available as well. We’ll also open a rockin’ selection of 2005 Burgundies, some that will be available for tasting this weekend only. We’ll also be open regular tasting room hours 11-4 on Sunday the 25 th, without all the Open House hoopla…

Fall tasting trip Burgundy

I’ll be off to Beaune Nov. 12 th-21 st for the annual Hospices de Beaune auction and festivities, and most importantly to get a first look at the maturing 2006s in barrel at all of our estates. This is the first opportunity to really get a handle on the quality and character of the 2006 wines, as well as get a quick look at the just-fermented 2007s. As always I’ll be attending the La Paulée celebration there, and will post on my blog frequently to keep you up to date on the hedonistic delights that my work forces me to endure…

Burgundy Seminars

We’re excited to continue our series of Burgundy seminars next year, with classes for both beginning and advanced Burg-lovers. If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about one of the world’s finest (yet most confusing) wine regions – these seminars are for you. We’ll be starting up the classes again in January – watch your e-mail for all the details.

As always, thanks for joining us on our amazing journey!

Martha, Scott, Kelley, Kelly & Emily – the Scott Paul team