Tonight is our tasting at Oregon Wines on Broadway – 5-8pm – I’ll be pouring the ’06 La Paulée, the ’07 Audrey, Marc Chauvet Brut, and the ’06 Chambolle-Musigny from Taupenot-Merme, and there will be an entire flight from Domaine Drouhin Oregon as well. I look forward to seeing you there tonight!

We have just officially released the ’07 Audrey – only 30 cases are available, as the rest was all sold as futures last fall. We’re having the Audrey release party here at the winery next Saturday the 18th – but there may be little or no wine to sell by then! You can grab yours now here – or just call Kelly at 503-319-5827 to get your order in. The ’07 is once again all from our old vines at Maresh Vineyard in the Dundee Hills, Oregon’s 5th oldest vineyard. We farm our 7.29 acres there biodynamically, and select the best few barrels for the Audrey bottling. Kelley and I are really happy with the ’07 – it is pure silk in the mouth, with rich red fruits and substantial length. Yum!

Very exciting to see the new May issue of Food & Wine – Ray Isle’s article on the best un-oaked Chardonnays around the world included a lovely write-up of our Domaine Thibert Mâcon-Prissé, calling it “absurdly good wine for the money. This earthy bottling tastes like good Meursault, though without the oak and at a fraction of the price.” I’d have to say we heartily agree! Ray has aslo decided to include the wine in a featured seminar at this summer’s Food & Wine Festival in Aspen (a tremendously great event you should check out at least once in your life if you get the chance.)

And here’s Barcelona’s Leo Messi – slotting home the first goal against Bayern yesterday…

We’ve just had a couple of late cancellations for our Burgundy Graduate Class Saturday night. If you’re interested just call Kelly Karr at 503-319-5827 to book your seats. This is a great class, with a detailed look at all of the major villages of the Côte d’Or, and in-depth info on all the Grand Crus and major 1ers, as well as (hopefully) shedding more light on the arcane ins-and-outs of the appellations, labeling, and all those little “exceptions” to all the rules. The class includes pours of six great Burgs, including four 1ers and one Grand Cru. I look forwad to seeing you here at the winery Saturday night from 6-8!

We have been blessed with three magnificent days of warmth and sunshine – the first of the year – so I’m trying to enjoy every delicious moment, as the cold and rainy weather is set to return tomorrow. Such is spring in Oregon – April is indeed the cruelest month!

I had a blast teaching the “intro to Burgundy” class at the Alliance Francaise in Portland Friday night – thanks to everyone who came – it’s always great to meet new faces & fellow Pinot-lovers, and always great to help unlock the doors of mystery that seem to surround the world of Burgundy. We hope to hold more classes in Portland in the time ahead – our classes at the winery are sold-out for the year, but we’ll see if we can find some dates that work in town as well…

Yesterday was the annual spring trade tasting of our Oregon distributor – Oregon Brand Management – and about 200 of the state’s top wine professionals came out to the stunning Penner-Ash estate to taste an amazing array of wines from the hosts, along with Beaux Freres, Soter, J.K. Carriere, Dominio IV, Solena, and the whole portfolio, including a lineup of a dozen of our Burgndies and all three Scott Paul pinots – a good time was had by all, and we so appreciate everyone that is supporting our brand during these tough times.

If you’re anywhere near Portland, don’t forget our tasting at Oregon Wines on Broadway this Thursday night from 5-8. It’s a joint tasting with my old crew at Domaine Drouhin Oregon, and a bunch of great wines will be on offer, including some nice bubbles from Champagne March Chauvet – please join us if you can.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter if you’re into that – we’re “scottpaulpn” – and there is now a Scott Paul Wines page on Facebook as well…

And here’s Arsenal keeper Manuel Almunia letting in the first goal against Viilareal today (but we came back to tie it on amazing Emmanuel Addebayor goal in the 2nd half, and now have that all-important “away” goal!)

First the red…about The Frill Is Gone Story in today’s Oregonian. Actually, I can’t say I’m angry, more amused, as the page one story in today’s How We Live section is trying to be clever – it’s just that it misses. Partly because it is inconsistent. I can’t imagine the folks at the Oregonian’s Food Day think very much of this piece. Larry Bingham writes

“some would even say good riddance to our age of excess. Here’s a light look at how life in the Northwest is shaking out in lean times: out with pint of organic microbrew, in with 6-pack of PBR; out with New Seasons, in with Grocery Outlet Bargain Market; out with Oregon pinot noir by the bottle, in with California table wine by the box”….yet it says out with mangoes imported from Mexico, in with apples picked in Hood River?! Apparently ok to truck in beer and wine and chain-grocery produce, but not mangoes?

Here’s one he forgot ( a “light look” at how life in newspaper publishing is shaking out in lean times):

Out with advertising in The Oregonian, in with Blogspot/Facebook/Twitter!

Mainly, my argument stems from the fact that I can’t relate. I would sooner cut the amount that I eat before I cut the quality. And I’m not about to ding local industries to save a buck. Incidentally, my brother and sister-in-law visited from DC and the uniqueness of our eateries and shops really made an impression on them. Mostly what they get in their neck of the woods are chain stores and restaurants.

Much more fun to talk about seeing green. The tulips in Woodburn are all green shoots and no blossoms. The moss on the trees and rocks around Multnomah Falls is vibrant green. The little radish seeds that Pirrie and I planted (after reading Ellen Jackson’s article in Edible Portland!) are sprouting! And my nephew Burton watered the lettuce and planted kale.

With green on the brain, I prepared a meal for our team lunch yesterday that screamed spring. I used a similar technique to the Garden Tart recipe that I’ve posted before, but with mushrooms, asparagus, peas and a mixture of ricotta, diced shallot, snipped chives and a squeeze of lemon because that is what I had on hand. I sprinkled the tarts with shredded Gruyère cheese, again, because that is what I had. Scott selected a Frédéric Gueguen Les Grandes Vignes ($28) that worked really well with the tart plus the arugula salad dressed with lemon and olive oil and shredded cheese. I sautéed, with olive oil and shallot, more vegetables than I needed, so I’ll throw those into a quiche. I think this tart would be nice for an Easter brunch.

I followed that with a slice of homemade lemon cornmeal cake with a scoop of blackberry ice cream.

In with Julie’s local organic ice cream, OUT with national brand, with artificial flavors and whipped with lots of air!

I don’t want you to think from the title that I have anything against the Facebook phenomenon, or the entire social networking revolution that has truly changed the way a huge segment of the world communicates. I actually think it’s very interesting and intriguing and exciting in many respects. My only issue is that I truly don’t have enough time to devote to it to realize its fullest potential.

I love to write, and when I have something to say, and a few minutes, I enjoy posting to my blog. I really love to share my experiences in Burgundy and here at the winery and at wine events across the country, and for me this seems to be the best way to handle it and fit it into something resembling a balanced life.

As I said yesterday, we are now on Twitter, and I will attempt to Tweet with some relevant stuff fairly regularly. I have also just now installed an app that will automatically post any new blog entries on my Facebook page. I just don’t have the time to do much more with F-book – but if you’re on there a lot you’ll at least get our updates there now as well.

So, more soon – here, on Twitter, or Facebook, or some combination thereof. Cheers!