It’s not all glamour and grand crus being a winemaker-importer. Sometimes we have to spend a few weeks in France   I’m going over my check-lists and getting my Euros in order, readying for take-off Thursday morning for three weeks across the pond.

I’ll be starting off with a week in Champagne. First stop – Marc Chauvet in Rilly-la-Montagne, home of some of the best grower-bubbles on the planet, and my friends Clotilde & Digger Chauvet. They are kind enough to let me crash in their home overlooking the vineyards – “crash” being the perfect word for the state I’ll be in when I arrive Friday afternoon. After a run through a few neighboring villages to shake off the jet-lag (and several glasses of a nice old vintage Chauvet, preferably from Magnum, of course), I should be ready to tackle an ambitious schedule of grower visits over the next week.

I’ll be checking out a dozen top small producers, most of which have never been seen in the United States. The Grower Champagne movement is growing in leaps and bounds in the U.S. now, and I’m excited to find maybe two or three more small estates to add to our portfolio. I’ll be spending several days in the Aube, the southernmost part of Champagne, where a new generation of young vignerons is spearheading a renaissance of quality and leading the way in terroir-driven Champagnes. I’m really excited to see what gems might be awaiting there…

Then I’ll be driving down to Burgundy to visit most of our estates there, and to join up with a group of 10 of our top customers for my annual Insider’s Tour of Burgundy – basically eating and drinking our way through La Bourgogne in fine style for a week (and running 6-10 miles every other day to keep from exploding!)

I’ll be checking in often here, and on Facebook & Twitter as well throughout my travels – photos, tasting notes, and many stories to come. Thanks for joining us on the journey!

It’s become a great tradition – Memorial Day Weekend in Oregon Wine Country, with hundreds of wineries and tasting rooms open for special events all weekend long. Join us here in Carlton from 12n-5p Saturday & Sunday only – we’ll be pouring a great line-up, including our best top-value wines: 2010 Bourgogne Chardonnay from Huber-Verdereau, 2010 Fleurie from Domaine des Nugues, 2010 Bourgogne Rouge from Violot-Guillemard, and our flagship Pinot, the 94-point 2009 La Paulée. (There is still a little Audrey in stock – grab yours this weekend before it’s gone!) And we have over 100 wines in stock, including Grower Champagnes and top Red & White Burgundies. $10 tasting fee, refundable with any 3 bottle purchase. Make a day of it in Carlton!

The weekend BEFORE Memorial Day weekend has become known as the weekend for special, exclusive events in Oregon wine country. (We love seeing you and a few thousand of your closest friends over the holiday weekend – but for the special treats, come on out the weekend before.)

One day only – Saturday May 19th from Noon ’til 5 in Carlton, we’ll be pouring an amazing line-up of Vintage Grower Champagne. These are wines we’ve never had open for tasting before – a one-time-only chance to taste some micro-production vintage Champagnes from four of the region’s top growers.

We’ll be featuring:

2006 “Mes Vieilles Vignes” Blanc de Blancs – José Dhondt ($85)

2004 Brut - Camille Savés ($79)

2004 Millésime – Marc Chauvet ($55)

2002 Special Club – Marc Chauvet ($69)

In addition we’ll be pouring the amazing 2009 Nuits-St. Georges 1er Cru Clos de la Maréchale from our hero Frédéric Mugnier (On sale now at $79, from $109!), and we’ll have our new 2009 La Paulée Pinot on the flight too. $25 tasting fee for this special event, refundable with any 6-bottle purchase.

We’re so pleased to announce our 2012 series of classes!!  Scott’s Burgundy (& Champagne) seminars have been a perennial hit, booking up quickly each year.  Classes are held in our new Scott Paul PDX space in NW Portland (2537 NW Upshur St, Portland 97210).

Seminars make a GREAT gift!

Only one seminar remains on the schedule for the first half of 2012. Reserve now by emailing or calling Kelly Karr, 503-319-5827

White Burgundy, May 18th, 7-9pm, $55

Seating is limited.  Reservations required. Reservations can be made with Kelly at 503-319-5827 or kellykarr@scottpaul.com. Prices include the seminar, wines, snack of cheeses and pâté, and printed materials. Participants also receive special discounts on the featured wines.  Classes are taught by proprietor/winemaker Scott Paul Wright, whose passion for Burgundy was his inspiration for making wine in the first place, and for launching his Burgundy import company in 2005.

Due to last-minute cancellations, we have had to change our payment policy for our seminars. We now take payment at the time of your reservation and will give refunds if you cancel more than 72 hours ahead. If you cancel within 72 hours or do not show up to the class, we will not provide you with a refund unless we can fill your spot.

Seminar Description:

White Burgundy – From Chablis to the Côte de Beaune to the Mâconnais, the Chardonnay grape does some delicious and wonderful things in Burgundy. The styles range from crisp & mineral-intense to rich & succulent, and all points in between. In this class we’ll explore all of the major white wine regions and villages, delve into the viticultural and winemaking techniques, and of course taste six yummy examples along the way.

The 2010 Burgundies in bottle are surpassing what they showed in barrel last fall! (At least the ones that are in bottle so far.) All of the rave critical reviews we’ve been seeing (Burghound, Wine Advocate, Tanzer) are from barrel tastings last October & November – that’s also when I tasted over 400 examples of the miraculously good 2010 vintage.

Now that some are in bottle, I am happy to report that they may have gotten even better along the way. This week we held our annual portfolio tastings for all of the trade buyers in Washington & Oregon, and the first round of in-bottle samples of the 2010s arrived about 2 weeks ago.

Tasting through some 80 different wines over the last two days, these things became abundantly clear – there is a crystalline purity to the fruit, the flavors are concentrated and intense, and the wines are uncommonly refreshing. They just delight the palate and compel you to take another sip.

As long as I’ve been following Burgundy, I’ve never seen a vintage like this – it is truly unique. Super low yields (down 30-50+%), a cold summer, a wet fall, a preponderance of millerandage grapes (tiny “shot berries” that never fully formed) – all conspired to create some of the most classically great Burgundies we may ever see.

Harvest in Burgundy, 2010 Photo Andrea Johnson

Already in bottle are the 2010s from Domaine Pavelot, Marc Roy, Hubert-Verdereau, Violot-Guillemard, Domaine de Nugues, Domaine Ninot, and some of the Benjamin Leroux line-up, as well as the whites from Buisson-Charles and part of the Domaine Thibert stable. All of the rest of our producers are bottling their ‘10s now and over the next couple of months – so we’ll be seeing everything arrive on these shores by October for the most part.

Early faves from my tastings this week – the Pavelot Narbantons & Dominodes, the Marc Roy Marsannay Blanc & Gevrey Clos Prieur, the Hubert-Verdereau Bourgogne Rouge & Volnay Robardelles, The Violot Guillemard Clos des Mouches & Pommard Rugiens (holy sh*t!), the Fleurie from Nugues, NInot’s Mercurey VV, and the Leroux Bourgogne Rouge and Savigny-lès-Beaune. Oh my…

On the white side – the ‘10s are simply the best wines they’ve ever made at Buisson-Charles, and that’s saying something. Ditto for Domaine Thibert. A veritable cornucopia of delights indeed.

I also had the opportunity to open a number of ‘08s and ‘09s at our trade tastings this week. I found the ‘09s to be exactly where I expected – rich, fruity, juicy, succulent, and flat-out wines of pleasure. The surprise was the development of the ‘08s – many of which have now evolved to start showing some lovely secondary aromas and have taken on weight while integrating the acidity nicely. Special knockouts were the ’08 Echezeaux from Jean-Marc Millot, the ’09 Volnay VS from Michel Lafarge, and the ’09 Millot Echezaux – full-on yum!

Harvest lunch 2010 with Huber-Verdereau Photo - Andrea Johnson

While qualitatively we have an abundance of riches, don’t forget that the tiny Burgundy crop in 2010 left us with very little wine to go around. Quantities are miniscule in many cases. Keep your eyes glued on your email for our upcoming pre-arrival offers, and act quickly if there are any wines you want to secure, because they simply will not be around for more than a few minutes in most cases.

The best news is the pricing. We have finally received final 2010 prices from our producers, and the vast majority are flat from last year, with a number of them actually going down a bit, and a few up just slightly. The relative strength of the dollar is also working in our favor, so even with the smaller volume available we will not be seeing significantly higher prices for the 2010s Hallelujah!

I’m looking forward to seeing you here in Carlton for our pre-Memorial Day weekend special tasting of Vintage Grower Champagnes and the great Freddy Mugnier too. This one will clearly rock…

It’s been a year since we launched the ’08 La Paulée – time flies when you’re having fun, and making & drinking great wine

2009 was a warm vintage that gave us lush, ripe fruit and lovely richness – it’s a vintage that’s built for pleasure. The 2009 La Paulée was sourced entirely from our blocks of Maresh Vineyard in the Dundee Hills (Oregon’s 5th oldest vineyard, planted in 1970.) We farm our blocks of Maresh Biodynamically, to let these beautiful and regal old vines produce their fruit in the most natural way possible. Our job in the winery is to simply leave the grapes alone and let the fruit do its work.

The result in 2009 was 485 cases of pure, elegant Pinot, the kind that only old vines and Oregon sunshine can produce. At only $32 per bottle, it just may be the best value around. Join us in Carlton to taste and buy, from Noon ’til 5 on Saturday May 5th.

We’ll be pouring a special flight that includes the ever-popular Crémant from Huber-Verdereau, 2008 St. Véran from Domaine Thibert, the last of the ’08 La Paulée, and the just-released 2010 Audrey. We hope you can join us!

Our series of First Friday Happy Hours continues on May 4th from 5-7p, kicking off the weekend with another great flight of Champagne and Pinots in our new event space in NW Portland (2537 NW UPSHUR). Note – FREE PARKING is available nearby at the Selco Community Credit Union lot, at the corner of 25th & Thurman.) 

Pssst! At this First Friday, we’ll be pouring a sneak-preview of our 2009 La Paulée Pinot Noir, which will officially be released in Carlton the following day. Pssst! This will also be the only opportunity in Portland to taste the newly-released 2010 Audrey Pinot Noir – our best wine of the vintage, and less than 50 cases are available. We’ll also be pouring two stellar Grower Champagnes – micro-production Blanc de Blancs bottlings from Marc Chauvet and Hervé Dubois. $10 tasting fee for this special flight, refundable with any 3-bottle purchase.

My quads remind me exactly how far 26.2 miles is every time I take a step down the stairs. There are a lot of stairs in our 3-story home. My family can hear me coming from miles away, as I grunt down each step. I’m now in day two of recovery from the Eugene Marathon, where I beat my previous best by over 25 minutes. Very happy about that, and very happy to reward myself and indulge in some of the fabulous delights Portland has to offer. My first craving was for a great burger and fries, which led me directly to Little Big Burger in the Pearl district, followed by a pilgrimage to the new NW 23rd location of ice-cream maestros Salt & Straw for some sinfully decadent olive-oil ice cream. Now I’ve convinced myself that a slice of Ken’s Artisan Bakery’s chocolate poundcake is what I really need. At least it’ll take the focus off of the quads for a minute…

Post-marathon breakfast of champions...

Bud-break has finally hit in all of our vineyards – earlier than last year but still about 10 days behind “average”, whatever that is. It would be nice for a change to not be headed for a November harvest. We’ll see what summer brings us (and let’s hope summer arrives sometime prior to September this year…)

Between now and harvest it seems like non-stop action around here, starting this Friday night with our continuing series of First Friday Happy Hours in Portland. Join us Friday evening from 5-7 to kick off the weekend with a couple of stellar Grower Champagnes plus our new releases – the 2009 La Paulée and 2010 Audrey.

Then on Saturday in Carlton from Noon to 5, it’s the official release party for the ’09 La Paulée, which we’ll be pouring alongside the last of the ’08, the ’10 Audrey, and the ever-popular Crémant from Huber-Verdereau and the St. Véran from Domaine Thibert. Sounds like a party!

Then on Thursday May 11th I’ll be the guest winemaker at Jory restaurant at the sumptuous Allison Inn & Spa in Newberg at 6:30pm – drop by for some free tastes and a chance to hang out and talk Pinot, Burgs & Bubbles…

Two more upcoming events I should mention now – our last Burgundy seminar for the season is on May 18th in Portland, this time with a focus on White Burgundy – covering all the great whites from Chablis down to the Mâconnais. Seats are still available but filling quickly – email Kelly Karr to grab yours asap…

On May 19th in Carlton from 12n-5p, we’re continuing the tradition of special tasting events on the weekend before Memorial Day weekend – specifically our tradition of great Champagne tastings on the weekends before the big holiday extravaganzas. This year, for the first time ever, it’s a focus on Vintage Champagnes – limited-production bottlings from some of the region’s top growers – featuring some of our favorites from the ’02, ’04 & ’06 vintages from José Dhondt, Camille Savès and Marc Chauvet. DO NOT MISS THIS!

Speaking of Champagne, I’ll be heading off for a few weeks in Champagne and Burgundy right after Memorial Day, and plan to return with a few new Champagne producers to add the our portfolio for the fall. Several of our customers will be joining me for a one-week intensive insider’s tour of Burgundy in the middle of this trip, which is always a blast. It’ll be a grueling schedule of tasting, tasting, tasting, and more tasting, followed by eating, eating, and more eating. And you wonder why I run marathons…