… to say the least. I’m certainly not trying to put a happy spin on it, nor am I gloom-n-dooming it – just trying to tell it like it is. We’re looking at what could possibly be one of our latest harvests ever this year, due to the non-stop cold and rain that dominated May & June. Spring, what spring? The cold and rain also contributed to a very uneven fruit-set around the valley, and so we have virtually no crop at some sites and an abundance of too-large clusters at others. Other than that, everything is normal!

And of course the vineyard that always yields our best fruit and makes our best wine is the one with hardly any fruit this year. The gods are cruel, at times. (Of course I’ll be singing their praises if they give us a great, sunny & dry September and October in the fall – which it appears we will need every single day of). Our old vines in the Dundee Hills up at Maresh Vineyard tried their best, but about half of the potential clusters aborted and bore no fruit (caused by the extended cool streak prior to flowering). Every vine is so different there this year that it’s impossible to estimate what we’ve got – we just need to hope that whatever it is we do have is damned good!

Maresh Block 10 - nice leaves, no fruit

The healthiest and most robust vineyard so far this year is our new Azana vineyard, where of course we were not planning to harvest any fruit this year, being only the third leaf there. We won’t take our first fruit from Azana until 2011, but at least it is looking balanced and healthy at this point.

Ribbon Ridge Vineyard actually has a fairly normal looking crop hanging now – I’m guesstimating 1.75-2.0 tons per acre from a quick eyeballing this morning, but we’ll be able to get a more accurate estimate in the last week of August (at which point we’ll still have some 50 days to go before harvest. Yikes!)

Ribbon Ridge Vineyard

And for the first time, this year we’ll be working with some fruit from Nysa Vineyard in the Dundee Hills. Nysa is directly adjacent to my old stomping grounds at Domaine Drouhin Oregon, and has also set a pretty solid crop-load in 2010. We’ll be doing a thinning pass later this week, bringing it down to a potential 2-2.25 tons per acre, and then we’ll see how it’s looking around veraison late in the summer. If we need to we can drop a bit more then.

Fruit-set at Nysa Vyd. in the Dundee Hills

We typically say that the quality of the vintage in Oregon is all about September. This year it will be all about October too – as we’ll need at least 2-3 weeks of warm & dry October weather to get this crop ripe before the proverbial merde hits the fan. Daunting, disheartening, discouraging, depressing – ahh, the multi-colored joys of growing grapes and making wine!

IPNC 2010 is in the books, and once again we’ve lived to tell the tale. And what a tale – as it is every year at this magnificent event. This was the 10th straight IPNC I’ve participated in, and while each of them tend to blend together into one delicious memory, they all take on their own unique personalities as well.

This year we kicked it off with a stellar dinner in the cellars on Thursday night. We knew it was going to rock, but not that hard. Chef Vitaly Paley and team totally brought their “A game” – and pulled out all the stops for a meal that seemed to be the buzz of IPNC all weekend long.

Chef Paley at the stove, in my favorite t-shirt...

The rabbit salad was mind-blowing, while the ribeye was transcendent. 30-day dry-aged, hay-smoked over oak wine barrel chunks and grilled to perfection – I can still taste the beef four days later…

Sink your teeth into this...

It was an honor to have Allen Meadows, Ray Isle, and Greg La Follette with us, not to mention young Paul & Louis Meunier, the next generation of Domaine J-J Confuron in Burgundy. It was their first trip ever to the U.S., and as I drove them to the airport last night they were already plotting to return next year!

Gilles Ballorin, Kelley Fox, and Louis & Paul Meunier at Azana Vyd.

The seminars and tastings throughout the weekend were well-executed and interesting as always. The two big dinners on Friday & Saturday nights are always where the great wines show up. This years’ highlights for me were the Mugnier ’07 Amoureuses – drop-dead sexy and the most beautiful mouthfeel I’ve ever come across in a young wine, the ’00 de Vogüé Musigny, the ’97 Leflaive Pucelles, ’01 Amoureuses from both Groffier and Drouhin, ’01 RSV from Confuron (stunning!), an ’01 Montrachet from Drouhin, ’01 Mazoyères from Taupenot-Merme, and several other goodies I can’t recall in my current state!

The revelry in full effect at the IPNC Salmon Bake

It was great to see everyone over the course of the weekend – tons of friends old and new, and I already can’t wait for IPNC 2011 – the big 25th anniversary blow-out that should be quite the extravaganza! Now, back to my much-needed annual post-IPNC restorative nap…

In honor of Domaine J-J Confuron joining us here in Oregon and being a featured winery at IPNC (International Pinot Noir Celebration) this year, we are showcasing several of their wines over the weekend.

The regular flight will feature the 2007 Chambolle Musigny and the 2007 Nuits-St Georges, les Fleurières alongside our Scott Paul 2007 La Paulée Pinot Noir and 2008 D122 Pinot Noir for $10 (refundable with 3 bottle purchase).

We’ll also be offering a Grand Cru Super Pour of 2007 Romanée-St. Vivant, for just $10!  Rarely open for tasting, this was definitely the most stunning, awe-inspiring wine at our recent Grand Cru seminar.  Romanée-St. Vivant is widely regarded as the most elegant of all the Grand Crus.  Confuron has one acre that was planted in 1929 and it is plowed by horse now as it was then.

Hours 1-5pm Friday to Sunday.

We are thrilled to announce the details of this year’s Pre-IPNC dinner in the winery – which is shaping up to be the best yet! (IPNC is the annual International Pinot Noir Celebration – bringing together 50 of the top Pinot Noir producers from around the world and 500 Pinot lovers for a weekend of great tastings, seminars, and food – held every July in McMinnville, OR on the idyllic campus of Linfield College).

Book your seats now to join us in the cellars on Thursday night July 22nd in Carlton, for a very special night of great wine, great food and joyous revelry. Cooking for us will be James Beard award-winning chef Vitaly Paley of Portland’s acclaimed Paley’s Place. We are honored to have Oregon’s most celebrated chef with us, preparing a series of dishes to match wines from three of this year’s IPNC featured wineries.

Alain & Sophie Meunier - J-J Confuron

Our special guests from Burgundy this year are Alain & Sophie Meunier of Domaine J-J Confuron, producers of some of the most sublime, elegant wines on the planet – including their two legendary Grand Crus, Romanée-St. Vivant and Clos Vougeot. Alain & Sophie inherited the estate from her father in 1988, and have since elevated it to one of the most respected producers in all the Côte de Nuits.

Joining us from California is winemaker Greg LaFollette, who was Scott’s winemaking mentor, and has probably at one time or another coached or consulted just about everybody who makes Pinot Noir for a living. He was the winemaker who launched Flowers Vineyard & Winery to fame, and then went on to start the label Tandem. He is here at IPNC to launch his new label LaFollette.

And of course a selection of our own Scott Paul Pinots will accompany the meal as well. Three excellent wineries, one superstar chef, and we’re not done yet! Also joining us will be this year’s IPNC Master of Ceremonies Ray W. Isle, Jr. – Senior Wine Editor of Food & Wine Magazine (which has got to be one of the great jobs on the planet, no?)

Ray Isle - Food & Wine

Seats are $150 each, and you can book yours now with Kelly Karr, or call her at (503) 319-5827. Seating is limited, and this event tends to book up quickly. We look forward to having you join us here in Carlton in July!

Yes, we are finally doing a tour of Burgundy, and we’ve locked in the dates – June 19-25, 2011. This will truly be the ultimate Insider’s tour of Burgundy, with private tours and tastings at our top estates, lunches in the vineyards, dinners at the top restaurants on the Côte, and comfy lodging at a private inn in the heart of Beaune.

Our friend Kim Gagné will be your guide and translator for the duration, and I’ll be doing a Burgundy seminar for the group, as well as joining you for a number of the tastings and events. This trip/seminar has space for just 10 people, so don’t hesitate if you’re interested. I am really looking forward to showing you my home-away-from-home (and of course eating and drinking exceptionally well!) Contact Kim to book your spots today.

It’s the best week of the entire glorious Oregon summer – the 24th annual International Pinot Noir Celebration, commonly known simply as IPNC. 60 of the top Pinot producers from around the globe converge on Oregon wine country for four days of great tastings, seminars, dinners and general hedonistic delights. All told about 600 people attend the full weekend proceedings – about half of which are consumers from all over the U.S., and the other half are in the wine business one way or another. (And a few hundred more attend the Sunday-only tasting event called Passport to Pinot - tickets for this killer tasting are still available.)

Salmon-bake dinner at IPNC

We are honored to once again be a featured winery at this year’s IPNC, along with Burgundian superstar  Domaine J-J Confuron. We’re featuring the amazing Confuron wines in our tasting room Friday through Sunday this weekend – so make sure you come by to check them out. We’re also honored to have just received some wonderful reviews for our wines – the new issue of Steve Tanzer‘s hugely influential IWC (International wine Cellar) has just been released and we are the beneficiaries of some monster scores from Josh Raynolds, the Oregon Pinot specialist for Tanzer.

Our 2008 D122 Pinot grabbed 93 points – the 2nd highest score given in the report! We also received scores of 91 for La Paulée, Audrey, and our forthcoming Dom Denise Pinot – I’ll take all four in the 90s any day! Add these to the 95-point review for Audrey and the 93-pointer for La Paulée in Wine Enthusiast, and we’re off to a great start this year in the press. It always amazes me when we get good scores, because honestly our wines are not in the style that tends to be the preference of the bulk of the critics of this era. Maybe elegance, finesse, balance and grace are indeed making a comeback. (Of course from our point of view they’ve always been in style and always will. Tastes may change, but our style remains the same!)

So please join us in celebrating the wonderful gift of nature that we call Pinot Noir – the only red wine grape capable of rendering wines of such ethereal beauty, subtlety and nuance. Cheers – and I look forward to seeing you this weekend at IPNC!

… for parties in the vineyards (and IPNC, lots of cold Champagne, and more parties…) With the sun finally shining on a regular basis and the grapes growing strong, we are now in full-on summer mode and enjoying it immensely.

Our party deck is nearing completion at Azana Vineyard. We plan to test-drive it with the family in a couple of weeks, and then start to schedule some events there before harvest this fall. The view over the vines and the valley may be one of the most inspiring around – we can’t wait to have you join us. Watch your email and this space for more info soon…

A belated Bonne Fête Nationale to all – more commonly referred to here as Happy Bastille Day. One of my favorite memories is the annual celebration in the town square in Meursault every July 13th – where the whole village assembles for food & drink, live music, dancing on the plaza, and a great fireworks show over city hall on the night before France’s equivalent of our 4th of July. (Though Martha & I agree – they need much better street food over there. The wine, however, rocks…)

We celebrated Bastille day last night with an excellent meal at Portland’s Olympic Provisions, a new spot that has been drawing crowds and foodie raves for the past few months. I was thrilled with both the braised rabbit dish and the roasted pork belly, and can vouch for the orange-almond cake with orange cream. Big yums all around, and a nice wine program too…

Be sure to check Martha’s blog for an update on her organic garden in Carlton and all the delicious goodness that has been pouring forth. Loved the first beets, and the beet greens with pulled pork and our first potatoes on puff pastry that she made the other night was a big hit…

We are the very thankful beneficiaries of a gorgeous write-up in the Beyond the Bottle Blog, written by Seattle’s Thad Westhusing – check it out here…

I have long admired the wines of Evesham Wood, which Russ & Mary Raney launched 24 years ago. For me their wines have consistently set the standard for elegance and purity, and Russ & Mary have set the standard for integrity and quality on every level. The news just broke yesterday that they have sold the winery, and will be spending a couple of months a year in their new maison in France. Huge congrats to them on a fabulous 24 year run. (And if anyone wants to buy us and send me off packing for France, please contact me directly!)

Our biggest event of the year, the annual pre-IPNC dinner is one week from tonight! Kudos to our chef Vitaly Paley, whose Paley’s Place was just named restaurant of the year, again!  -  I’m off to find a few treasures from the cellar to share at all the festivities – Cheers!

Oh, the garden.  The GARDEN.  Have I mentioned how fruit I am for the little veggie plot I tend?  I’m separated from it for a week at a time, and occasionally two weeks.  The 9-year-old and I literally jump out of the car to see what has happened.  The potato plants have flowered, then flopped over.  The tomato plant has grown to 20 times the size of the original start.  The beets greens have leafed, the second planting of carrots is sprouting, and the kale plant is about 2 1/2 feet tall and growing as I continue harvesting the leaves.

fistfuls of beet, kale and chard.

The green bean plants sometimes grow so quickly you’d swear you can hear them stretching, sending out tendrils and hooks that find their way up a trellis like a determined child compelled to take her first steps.   I simply will never get over how stubbornly, aggressively willful these plants are to fulfill their destiny.  Even in the face of, or because of, my neglect.  Lest you think I am bragging or have a talent, I really want to assure you that this is about dna, and soil, and water and light.  The plants grow because they are supposed to and they do.  (Disclaimer:  except you, cilantro.  I have no idea what your problem is, but that’s another story).

The author of You Grow Girl was inspired by her grandmother growing potatoes in buckets on a balcony.  Our dear friends grew potatoes accidentally because they sprouted in the compost heap.  It still slays me that I push a small piece of one potato into the earth and get a basket full of them later.

Hard to beat the thrill of the potato treasure hunt!

And one little green pea will produce all that foliage and pounds of beans.

A Burgundy Bush Bean sprout. It all begins so humbly. It's a miracle that breaks my heart open with joy. Except for you, Star of David Okra, you were a soil nutrient hogging dud, which is why you weren't invited back this year.

(Ok, I won’t deny it.  I was a little bummed about the okra.  That was last year.  But I’m almost over it.)

crooked neck squash or yellow zucchini - not sure which. I never liked squash until I ate baby squash which are very yummy sauteed with a sweet onion such as Walla Walla and a tomato and served with cous-cous or something like that.

Scott loves beets and their greens, so I love growing and cooking them for him! The beet starts came from our friends Cris & Susan Stubberfield and their Carlton greenhouse. Their veggie starts come wired for success. Last year we planted one of their small cucumber starts and had a medium sized cuke 7 days later! I wouldn't believe it either except that I wrote it down!

It’s not too late to get your hands a little dirty.  Kale and chard are easy and rewarding.  Or maybe some basil and a cherry tomato.  I’d love to know what your favorite foolproof crops are, or the perennial losers.  In the meantime, wishing you happy garden eats!

Well, from soup to popsicle weather…in 3 days.  On July 4th, we wore jackets.

Scott's son Kevin with little sister P, at Latourell Falls in the Columbia River Gorge

Three days later, the thermometer hit 100, and we needed relief.  With the lavender fest going on last weekend in the town of Yamhill, and the new shaved ice stand in the park in Carlton offering up herbal infusions alongside the standard kid flavors, I was inspired to make lemon-lavender popsicles at home.  (Garin Poole, girlfriend of Marcus Goodfellow, owner of Matello Wines, has opened a stand right in the park, next to our community pool – try her homemade rosemary syrup!) I found this recipe, and added 1/4 teaspoon of dried lavender to the simple syrup while it simmered, and strained it out later.  So very yum.  Maybe next we’ll try cucumber mint or watermelon lime?

… at least when it comes to “normal” summer weather patterns here in the Willamette Valley. One of the coolest and wettest springs ever was quickly followed by a nasty heatwave (la canicule in French) in the hi 90s, only to be followed by a dip back in to the mid-60s! Those poor vines don’t know whether to grow, stop, or die! And they appear to be doing some form of all three, depending on the day. All I can say for sure at this point is that we will be losing a good 25% or more of the crop at Maresh due to a large amount of shatter and necrosis, and that we are about four weeks behind at this point. We are in full bloom just about everywhere, but that still puts us at a projected harvest of October 18th or thereabouts. May the gods be kind to us in September and October…

A bevy of beauties from Nuits-St. Georges

Thanks for joining us on Saturday for our first ever Nuits-St. Georges tasting. It was great to see you and share these excellent wines. We sold-out of most of the offerings, but a few bottles of the Confuron and Mugnier remain if you’re interested but couldn’t make it out to Carlton…

We are so fortunate to be in Oregon, and be part of the wine community of Carlton and the greater Willamette Valley. There is a generosity and inclusiveness here that make the quality of life that much more special. A huge thanks to Chris & Hilary Berg, Dewey & Robin Kelly, and Rick & Heather Karl for the invites to three amazing parties we’ve had the pleasure of attending over the last couple of weeks. Each involved a magical setting overlooking the vineyards, excellent food, way too many choices of good wine, and a great group of people…

Looking over the vines from the Karl's treehouse above Carlton, seen through a glass of Scott Paul '07 La Paulée. Photo: Martha Wright

The biggest and best party of all of course is the upcoming IPNC – a few tickets still remain for the weekend-long event, as well as for the Sunday-only tasting. This is THE one not to miss, and I look forward to seeing you all there for three days of revelry, hedonism, and an embarrassment of riches in the food & wine department. I’m off to turn my attentions to final prep work for our participation there, but I’ll leave you with a teaser. Our good friend Thiébault Huber of Domaine Huber-Verdereau in Volnay will be coming over in August for a couple of days, and we’ll be announcing details of a winemaker dinner with Thiébault in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned…