Welcome to the Winemaker’s Blog – where I will post my random and often rambling thoughts on anything and everything – from what’s happening in the vineyards and the cellar to whatever may be on my pinot-addled brain from time to time…

June 20, 2008 - First of all, don't forget that tomorrow we're having an Open House at the winery - celebrating the arrival of the new 2006 Burgundies and the debut of our adventures in Champagne - it's Burgs and Bubbles from 11-4 on Saturday - the tasting is free, there are over 50 new arrivals from Burgundy just in, along with our own 2006 La Paulée Pinot and a nice array of cheeses and charcuterie - please join us! Kelly & Emily are already crazy for the 2006 St. Véran from Domaine Thibert in the Mâconnais - hurry up and get yours before our staff buys it all!

We had a beautiful morning at our new Azana vineyard yesterday with the whole team - it is truly one of the great views in all of the Willamette Valley. If grapes love a beautiful place to grow, we are indeed in good shape. Kelley is doing an amazing job there with our biodynamic farming, and putting great effort. love, and attention into every vine...

It seems that we are in a pretty good state of readiness for our departure for France on Tuesday morning - with the exception of my left leg that is still swollen and now mostly numb from a jogging injury I sustained on the trails of Forest Park last Friday. I took a nasty fall that resulted in a full-thigh technicolor bruise that surely must be some kind of record-setting display, and a hematoma the size of Chicago on my left hip. I would just like to be able to walk around Paris pain-free for a few days if at all possible. I'm off to my doctor in a couple of hours to find out what's going on. Wish me luck - (and if I'm sitting down during or Open House tomorrow, you'll know why!)

June 10, 2008 - Two weeks from today Martha & Pirrie and I will be in the air and on our way to France, for the family working-vacation that we had intended to take last year. As much time as I spend in Burgundy, I haven't really spent any time in Paris in a number of years, so I'm really looking forward to our three days there. I can't wait to see Pirrie's eyes wide with wonder at the top of the Eiffel Tower, and in the Louvre and Versailles - not to mention the amazing chocolate shops and patisseries that seem to be on every corner.

Then we're off to Burgundy for two and a half weeks of work and pleasure. I'm hoping to line up another new producer or two for our import portfolio (there's some interesting stuff on the horizon in the côte Chalonnaise), and I'm really looking forward to un-plugging a bit and relaxing at the pool at Thierry Violot-Guillemard's (the only swimming pool in the middle of a 1er Cru vineyard in Burgundy - that I know of!) Pirrie's looking forward to playing with Thierry & Estelle's son Jules and Thiébault & Marielle Hubert's daughters Constance & Clara - who are all about the same age. Pirrie will probably go to school with them for a day or two in Pommard (the schools don't get out there until July 5th.)

Shortly after we return, it's my favorite event of the year - IPNC in McMinnville (The International Pinot Noir Celebration July 25-27 this year) - the biggest and best Pinot-centric wine event on the planet every year. Thiébault Huber from Volnay will return for all the festivities, and Jean-Marc Millot from Nuits-St. Georges will make his first visit to these shores - don't miss his ethereal and elegant Grand Crus, they are simply mind-blowing. We're proud to have once again been selected as a featured winery for IPNC - so look for Kelley & me pouring our 2006 La Paulée over the weekend.

I'm thrilled to announce that our spring container from Burgundy is arriving tomorrow morning. Watch your email for the announcement of all the new releases, and details on a little "Burgs & Bubbles" event we're planning at the tasting room for June 21st - details shortly...

June 2, 2008 - Martha teases me and says I say this every year, but I truly don't remember June being so cold here! We are still anxiously awaiting spring, as it continues to struggle to get out of the 60s - and showers are forecast every day this week. We're about 2-3 weeks behind in the vineyards at this point. Flowering is "normally" around June 15th, but I don't expect we'll see anything before the 1st of July at this rate...

Kelley and I have just finished up the final blends for the 2007 wines after a couple of intense days of blending trials. We are really happy with the wines after all is said and done - and that's saying quite a lot, considering the difficulty of the growing season/harvest last year. The wines all had a very pretty and very delicate edge to them early on, but have gotten more "serious" over the course of elevage. Much like the 2006s in Burgundy, the wines were radically different after malolactic fermentation, putting on some weight and concentration that wasn't apparent at the earlier stages. That said, they are still on the more graceful and restrained end of the spectrum (which works out well for us, because that's our style anyway.) Don't look for powerful, blockbuster Pinots from Oregon in 2007. However, if you appreciate the true beauty of balanced, lower-alcohol (ours are 13.1% in '07), refined and elegant Pinot Noir, you will be pleased (not only with our wines, but from other producers who also excel at this style.)

It was interesting putting the blends together. As we find year after year, if you simply listen to the wines, the blends will essentially make themselves. The 2007 Audrey was a no-brainer. It once again is all from Maresh VIneyard in the Dundee Hills - where we farm 7.29 acres Biodynamically. We chose our best eight barrels of Maresh for the Audrey - which means we'll have just under 200 cases - the most Audrey we've ever bottled. As always, it's a sexy, silky wine that dances over the palate with rich red fruits and a complex and long finish. We'll bottle in September and you'll get your shot to taste and order futures over Thanksgiving weekend. Our La Paulée 2007 will be comprised of 20 barrels of Maresh, along with the best lots of Momtazi, Ribbon Ridge and Shea. Four different vineyards, four separate AVAs, and one complex and deep wine that fills the mouth with an array of black and red fruits and a lovely mouthfeel. This will also be bottled in September, and we'll unveil it for tasting & futures at our T-Giving event. 2007 Cuvée Martha Pirrie might even be more interesting than the 2006 model. The final blend is from Maresh, Ribbon Ridge, Momtazi, Shea, Zenith and Zena Heights - six vineyards in five AVAs that deliver a lot of bang for the buck and a lot of flavor for your dining and dancing pleasure. This will go into bottle in August, and it will be available in our tasting room in October - watch your email for the release announcement in the fall.

You may have noticed that we are no longer working with Stoller VIneyard fruit - we let our contract expire with them as we focus on our own-farmed vineyards and our commitment to organic and biodynamic viticulture. 2007 was our last year at Shea, as our beloved Block 21 finally succumbed to phylloxera and was pulled out after harvest last fall. It was a privilege and an honor to work with these sites.

May 28, 2006 - First of all, a huge thanks to everyone who joined us for the Memorial Day Weekend Open House - it was our most successful ever (in spite of the lousy weather Sunday & Monday...) And big thanks to the entire Scott Paul team for another superb job keeping everything running smoothly.

Maybe there's some truth to the old saying about good things always coming in "threes". First, we got a nice mention in the new issue of Portland Monthly, giving us kudos for being named one of the Top 30 pinots in Food & Wine Magazine. Then we got another hit of national press in the new issue of Saveur, in their feature article about road-trips in the Willamette Valley. And then this afternoon I was bowled over to see a nice 90-point review in Wine Spectator for our 2006 La Paulée pinot (it's in today's WS-Insider, and I assume it will be in the magazine in the near future.) We don't make wine in the the style that gets high scores from ost of the major critics (we don't use a lot of new oak, don't add cultured yeasts, don't use a concentrator, don't add enzymes, don't manipulate the color, and our alcohol levels are under 14% - wow, authentic wine, what a concept!) Given our chosen path, a "90" in WS is high praise, and I thank Harvey Steiman for the nice review. Huge ups to Kelley Fox for continuing to craft such lovely, honest, delicious wines...

May 22, 2008 - It has crept up on me faster than I could imagine, but it's here - Memorial Day Weekend! Please plan to join us for our annual Open House event - we've got a nice selection of Burgundies on the flight, and of course the 2006 La Paulée - not to mention a great array of cheeses and charcuterie. We're open 10-4 Saturday & Sunday and 11-4 on Monday. Your best bet on these big event weekends is to come out early - before 1pm or so it's usually pretty mellow. Later in the day it can get pretty packed (which is a lot of fun and very festive, to be sure, but it makes it harder to have a meaningful conversation.) And that's the part I like the most - talking wine (and/or soccer) with our customers. So come early if you'd like to chat...

Even though I've mutated into an Arsenal fan, I was still rooting hard for Chelsea in the Champions League final yesterday. It was devastating to lose on penalties - especially after we seemed to have it won on penalties! Penalty kicks is an absolutely horrible way to settle a championship match - I really think they should just let them keep playing until somebody scores. My heart goes out to Chelsea's John Terry, who played his heart out (and saved the game with a brilliant piece of defending near the end), only to slip in the rain and miss the penalty kick that would have given them the championship. I can only begin to imagine how crushing that must feel. He will live with that pain for the rest of his life, I would suspect. I'd be even more depressed if this was the end of the season and there was no soccer all summer, but the Euro 2008 tournament kicks off in less than two weeks, so we've got action to come!

May 20, 2008 - I'm just back from our new Azana vineyard, where the final plants are going in the ground today. Yay! Today was a very special day on two fronts. First, it cooled off and we got a nice rain shower that was hugely helpful to our new baby vines. Then, our partner Cameron's four year-old granddaughter Azana came out to her namesake vineyard with her mom and grandpa this morning and planted a few vines herself. We got some great photos - watch for them in this space in the very near future. (We're in the process of refreshing and upgrading our entire website, and we'll soon be able to easily pop pictures into the blog so you can see what's going on around here at all times!) I'm also excited to announce that my wife Martha will be starting her own blog her on the site - it will be food focused (I don't think she loves food more than me, but it might be a tie!), and sure to be very entertaining and informative...

And one more piece of good news today - the Oregon Pinot reviews were just released in Steven Tanzer's new issue of International Wine Cellar. Josh Reynolds is the journalist who covers Oregon for Tanzer, and he's doing a really nice job. (Easy for me to say, because he gave us some very nice reviews!) He rated our 2006 Audrey at 91 pts, the 06 La Paulée at 90+, and the 06 Cuvée Martha Pirrie at 89 - witht he highest score in the report of 93 pts going to my old friends at Domaine Drouhin, as well as Russ & Mary Raney at Evesham Wood and John Thomas - three of my favorite producers - and I salute them (and Josh for his nice coverage.)

May 16, 2008 - Vines are in the ground! What an amazing feeling to walk the rows at our new vineyard on Chehalem Mountain. The view over the valley is simply awe-inspiring. I've always believed that grapes like a beautiful place to grow - if there's anything to that, then the grapes are going to love Azana Vineyard. We're not fully done - we're about three-fourths finished planting, and should wrap up by Monday or Tuesday. Of course we are having a freak heatwave today - it could hit 98 or 99 - so we are hand-watering like crazy to help our baby biodynamic Pinot plants survive the intense heat. The vines are at their most vulnerable right after planting, and of course that's when the heat is blazing. It should cool off into the 80s for the next couple of days, and then back into the 60s/70s - so we might just dodge the bullet. Please cross your fingers for us...

Kelley Fox and Cameron Healy and I have been out doing the first round of biodynamic sprays. 11,000 vines doesn't seem like a whole lot when you just look at the number on a piece of paper, but somehow it seems like 11 million vines when you're out there spraying each plant by hand. It's important to point out the gigantic amount of effort and dedication Kelley Fox is putting into this project - from preparing the BD sprays by hand to building the compost pile to spraying each vine, she's on it and is treating each vine with love (at the end of the day, that's what biodynamic viticulture is all about...)

Our parcel of Maresh Vineyard in the Dundee Hills has just leafed-out over the last few days , as has Ribbon Ridge - both of which I just walked two days ago. The big sun and heat should push things along pretty well over the next few days, and we will likely catch up a little bit. As of now we're about two weeks behind a "normal" vine development, but that will of course change multiple times over the course of the summer. Ask me how we're doing in mid-September - before then it's a constantly moving target...

On the soccer front, I am getting very stoked for the Champions League final on Wednesday, and pulling for Chelsea to grind out a win over the dreaded ManU. I think it's anybody's game, but mostly I pray that it doesn't come down to penalties - I like to see the game won or lost in the course of actual play. If Chelsea win, it will be amazing to then see several key players leave the club and the manager get booted upstairs - all of which are likely to happen. Big action to come...

May 6, 2008 - So much to catch up on, but let's begin with the most important action - the planting of our new vineyard. As previously announced, our litte 10-acre site on the south slope of Chehalem Mountain has been named "Azana" (after the granddaughter of our partner Cameron Healy), and preparations for planting are now just about complete. If all goes according to schedule, we will plant the week of May 12th, at the rate of an acre or so per day, and hope to be finished by the 19th. Following the biodynamic principles and the lunar calendar, the specific days chosen for planting are very important, and we're fortunate that there are a string of excellent days just when we need them.

We've chosen to plant four different clones on two different rootstocks. The rootstocks will be matched to the elevations and soil depths, but the clones themselves will be scattered randomly throughout the blocks. This is not very common here, but is more the norm in Burgundy. The modern U.S. model has been to plant entire blocks of individual clones, but we've decided to follow more of the european tradition and mix it up in the field. We believe, as do many of our Burgundian counterparts, that a multiplicity of clonal material may be one of the keys in getting the fullest and most complex expression of an individual site. Ask me in about 20-30 years and I'll let know how it worked...

Our daughter Pirrie's spring break was a couple of weeks back, and we spent it in L.A. visiting old friends and new restaurants. I worked the market for a couple of days with our distributor, and it was great to see the enthusiastic support for our wines at so many fine restaurant and retail accounts. Huge thanks to everybody at Lucques, AOC, and Campanile for their continued loyal support. I'm still recovering from eating way too much great food (Comme Ça three times, Campanile twice, two great dinners at Border Grill, a great lunch at Lucques), not to mention our tour of Bakeries and dessert joints. I then promptly pigged-out at Le Pigeon upon our return to Portland, where I think I literally O-D'd on rich food. Please remind me that having foie gras for the appetizer AND dessert may not be such a great idea. My doctor will kill me if she reads this...

Also in L.A., I was able to coordinate a visit with my esteemed friend and colleague Allen Meadows (Mr. Burghound himself), who graciously invited us into his home to share a lovely bottle of '95 Arnoux Suchots as I interviewed him for nearly two hours. The interview will be produced and published as the first program of our new series of podcasts - which we will launch here on the website in the near future. Stay tuned for further details...

April 11, 2008 - Tomorrow's the day - our release party for the 2006 La Paulée Pinot - please join us if you can. We're open 11-4, and we'll have a nice line-up of wines on the tasting bar and some killer cheeses and paté/charcuterie from our friends at Steve's Cheese. If you purchased futures last fall, this would be a great time to pick them up. We hope to see you here in Carlton tomorrow! (The forecast is calling for sunshine and 72 degrees - YES!!!)

After recovering from Arsenal's premature exit from the Champion's League on Tuesday, I'll try to get my spirit up one more time for the Premier League clash with United this weekend. While it's technically possible to beat them and go on to win the title over the next five games, I'm not holding my breath...

April 9, 2008 - Well, it's about 24 hours later and I'm still in shock over the Arsenal loss to Liverpool in the Champions League yesterday. The Arsenal goal with 7 minutes left that would have put them through to the semi-finals was one of the most exciting things I've witnessed. I was absolutely on the moon and bouncing off the walls with joy- for all of about 30 seconds. Then the unspeakable happened and we got whistled for a dubious-at-best penalty at the other end, and it was all over. Just like that. From the sheerest joy to the lowest depths of stunned silence in a few heartbeats. I'll never be convinced that was truly a penalty, but nonetheless the dreaded Liverpool lives again. I can only hope that Chelsea crush them in the next round (and that Liverpool lose on a dubious penalty - it would serve them right!) I don't see anyone beating United this year anyway...

Kudos to a couple of our Portland chef friends who have just received nominations for this year's James Beard Awards (the oscars of the culinary world.) Scott Dolich of Park Kitchen in Portland has been nominated for Best Chef Northwest, and Gabriel Rucker of P-town's Le Pigeon is up for the "Rising Star" chef for the entire U.S. Both of these guys hugely deserve it, are wonderfully talented, and run great restaurants - not to mention they sell a lot of Scott Paul wine! (Martha & I had a great meal at Le Pigeon two Saturdays ago, and saw our '06 La Paulée being ordered and served at four other tables - quite a thrill, indeed!) Scott D. cooked our very first IPNC dinner here at the winery two years ago, and Gabe has promised us to do our IPNC dinner in 2009 (no getting out of it now, big boy!) Good luck to both when the awards are presented on June 8th in New York...

April 8, 2008 - I just wanted to share some very exciting news - in the May issue of Food & Wine magazine (subscription copies have already been mailed out, but it's not on newstands yet), there is a feature article on the "World's 30 Best Pinot Noirs" by senior wine editor Ray Isle. I was blown away to open up the magazine to see that we had been selected as one of the top 30 (our 2006 Audrey was singled out), and that one of the producers we import from Burgundy, Domaine Taupenot-Merme - was selected for their 2005 Gevrey-Chambertin! Two of the top 30 on the planet - wow! To say that we are thrilled and honored is the understatement of the year. Major thanks to Ray Isle for including us, and huge kudos to winemaker Kelley Fox for taking our wines to new heights. Keep your eyes out for the magazine when it hits the stands (the on-line version only lists the wines that were chosen, but does not include the full text of the article...) Also huge kudos to my old friend and mentor Greg LaFollette whose own Tandem pinot from California was also chosen for this select group...

April 4, 2008 - Don't forget - our release party for the 2006 La Paulée is coming up here on April 12th - next Saturday - from 11-4 in the tasting room. Please plan to join us for a nice day of sipping and munching. As always, we'll have some nice Burgs open for tasting as well. And for the first time ever, we've got a bunch of Magnums of the La Paulée available - so if you're into big bottles, come and get 'em...

Man, I love the Champions League - it's the most exciting action of the year for me. It looks like ManU and Barcelon should meet in one of the semis, and the other is still wide open - the Arsenal/Liverpool 2nd leg will be monumental on Tuesday, as will the Chelsea/Fenerbache 2nd leg. I'm sure José Mourinho is smiling broadly wherever he may be. I'd love to see Arsenal/Chelsea in the other semi, but there's a lot of football to be played between now and then. We will know by about 1:45pm pacific on Tuesday, but who's counting...

Any French pop music fans out there? In addition to my passion for Burgundy I am obsessed with all things French, particularly stuff that sheds some light on the culture, as in their cinema, music, lifestyle magazines, etc. I've turned our daughter Pirrie on to the music of Lorie and Alizée (more or less the french versions of Britney Spears, but without the bizarre history) and she's become a big fan. I've just started really getting into Mylène Farmer, a gigantically popular french diva who has been huge there since 1986, and still sells out 80,000 seat stadiums two years in advance. Very interesting stuff. What are you listening to lately?

I'm looking forward to teaching another Burgundy 101 class here at the winery tomorrow night. There are still a few seats left for the upcoming class in May, but everything else is sold-out. Give us a call if you'd like to come...

April 1, 2008 - I am now officially back in the swing after the latest French adventure - though with Champions League quarter-finals staring in about an hour I will be distracted a bit these next coupleof days, to be sure. Go Gunners - beat Liverpool!

I was recently interviewed for the popular podcast Grape Radio - and the show has just been published. You can listen now at http://www.graperadio.com, or the show is also available on iTunes. Huge thanks to Rusty Gafney, Jay Selman and Brian Clark for including us, and for putting together a great show. Check it out...

March 21, 2008 - 2 1/2 days after re-entry, and I am now mostly human. There hasn't been any sunshine since my return, which probably makes it harder to get back into the rhythm of the days and nights (they all look the same, kind of a dullish-gray!) I'm teaching a Burgundy class tomorrow night here at the winery, and am looking forward to it. I really love to turn people on to the mysteries of Burgundy, and give them a few keys to unlock the doors...

I think a Frenchman stole my monkey! As i mentioned when I left for France a couple of weeks ago, I took along a tiny, stuffed orange monkey of Pirrie's, with the plan to photograph him in various sites around Burgundy and email the pics back to Pirrie over the course of my trip. This worked well until the monkey disappeared! About a week into the trip, I took a shot of the monkey on a barrel-top in a cellar in Beaune, then stuffed him back into my bag (or so I thought.) At any rate I returned to the Volnay house that evening sans monkey. Fortunately, it was not something Pirrie was terribly attached to. Noentheless, somewhere in Beaune there's an orange monkey on the loose. And we want him back!

Happy Easter weekend to you - we'll be closed on Sunday to spend the day with our familes, but please come out and join us tomrrow if you get the chance...

March 18, 2008 - 4:30pm, 38,000 feet over the Atlantic -Up at 4:30 this morning. One rental car, one TGV train, one airport shuttle train, one luggage cart, three security lines, and one airplane so far - and I'm about a third of the way home, I think! It is always quite a safari, to say the least. I'm old enough to remember when flying was enjoyable, and a quality way to travel. What happened? We're now at the level of a Greyhound bus, or perhaps even worse.

At least on a bus you can get out and stretch your legs and get a good greasy coffee-shop cheeseburger - which would be vastly preferable to the synthetic cheese and stale crackers that pass for a meal up here. I bought a chicken ciabatta sandwich at the airport in Paris - definitely the smartest thing I've done all day. The bad news is that I ate it too early, and now have to wait another four hours or so until we land in Philadelphia in hopes of finding anything remotely decent to eat (Cinn-a-bon and Burger King do not qualify in my book, btw...)

Speaking of food, quality ingredients, and respect for the environment - I was very impressed how strongly the local/organic movement is really entrenched in Burgundy. I guess it should be no surprise, after all the europeans have been eating that way for centuries - we're the ones just catching on. However, the arrival of Le Fast Food and global marketing from multi-national processed-garbage manufacturers managed to make some very strong inroads over the last 10-20 years. The French are fighting back and seem to be winning. There is a law there now that requires all processed food advertising on TV to include a very large and visible disclaimer throughout the ad, stating "For your health, don't snack between meals. Don't eat too much fat, sugar, or salt. Exercise regularly." How amazing is that? Can you imagine that law getting passed in the U.S.? (It's a great idea, imho.) Something tells me McDonalds and Coke would spend their last nickels making sure that never happens here in the land of freedom...

I guess I've never thought of it in exactly those terms, but that is what the average French person's view of America is - Mcdonalds and Coke (It was said to me in exactly those terms by two different people in the last week.) That and half of the French language is now English. Every conversation these days is studded with 'cool", "stop", "le parking", "le planning", "le weekend", "le fast food", "le snack bar" - even the radio plays "le hits". Seems I didn't really need to study French so hard - I already knew half of it! (Although I did learn an incredible new vocabulary of swear words and crude insults from the Lyonnais gentlemen sitting next to me at the soccer match last week...)

My love affair with France and the French continues undaunted. There's a certain part of me that comes to life only in France - I don't know that I can articulate it properly - but it's just someting that makes me smiley and happy inside all the time when it's turned on (and you can ask Martha - that is NOT my normal demeanor!) The stress just sort of melts away in the land of a thousand cheeses (the insanity of Charles de Gualle airport excluded, of course.) All that said, nothing could be better than being home and snuggling with my girls - and that is about 12 hours away. (I am very thankful to Steve Jobs and everyone at Apple - for without the iPod I don't know how I'd make it...)

March 17, 2008 - 4pm in Volnay - Wow, another amazing meal. This one was lunch at the Bistro at Hostellerie Levernois with Aleth Girardin. Confit of chicken livers and mushrooms on toast to start, followed by roasted pork tenderloin over potatoes dauphinois and more mushrooms. Yikes - I better get out of here before I have a serious crise de foie (liver crisis!) This is likely my last post before I hit the road tomorrow morning - though I plan to write on the train and the planes en route (but may not be able to post them until I'm back on Oregon.) In any case, it's been an amazingly successful trip, I am really looking forward to getting home, and I look forward to seeing you at the winery soon, I hope!

March 17, 2008 - 9am in Beaune - By now I have just really gotten into the flow of living here, and of course I leave tomorrow. I cannot really comprehend that in just a few days I'll be back in the winery in Carlton and teaching a Burgundy Class (the Graduate Class is Saturday night.) I miss my girls, I miss my winery, I miss our vines, but at the same time it is hard to pull myself away from what has become a second home over these last few years. At the end of the day I realize that I have the best of both worlds - so you shall hear no complaining from me!

I am still entranced by how wonderful the dinner was last night at Le Charlemagne. One course consisted of about five perfect bites of the tenderest, most flavorful Limousin veal I've ever had the pleasure of tasting (I'm a huge fan of the Limousin beef too, way better than the over-rated and often lacking in taste Charolais beef that seems to be everywhere here.) The food was so good it was intoxicating - I think I had more of a buzz from the food than the fabulous wines (see below). All of which serves to remind me that I need to update my Burgundy travel guide (if you're ever headed to Burgundy, just drop me an email and I'd be happy to shoot you a copy.)

I'm off to Premeaux-Prissey to taste with Alain Meunier at J-J Confuron today, then a tasting and lunch with Aleth Girardin in Pommard, and then I need to make the rounds to say good-bye and thank-you to all my friends and hosts, and tackle the daunting task of packing for my return flight. How did all this stuff grow so much in the last two weeks?

March 16, 2008 - 11pm in Volnay - What a great dinner tonight! I'm just back from Le Charlemagne, where we did the chef's 7-course tasting menu - which was simply outstanding! It was far and away the best meal I've had in Burgundy in several years. They've just redone the decor, the dining room is exquisitely done, and the food rocked my world. We plundered the list for a few lovely bottles, starting with a 2002 Puligny Champs-Canet from Sauzet, then a 2002 Corton Charlemagne from Tollot-Beaut, and then an amazing 2002 Vosne-Romanée Beaux-Monts from Bruno Clavelier. A million thanks to Thierry & Estelle Violot for a truly wonderful evening. Once again the generosity and the warmth of the Burgundians is simply overwheming. I am a very lucky man...

March 16, 2008 - 7pm in Volnay - I tasted through the cellar at Huber-Verdereau with Thiébault Hubert yesterday. Many of the 2007s are already finished with malo in a lot of cellars I've visited this trip, but several of Thiébault's cuvées have not even started malo yet! Temperatures have warmed here significantly in the last few days, so I wouldn't be surprised to see the malos kick off pretty quickly now - in fact we found a barrel or two that had already started as we sampled through yesterday. The wines have lovely fruit and a very pretty mouthfeel (I love how the french pronounce it "mouse-feel"), but it's really hard to tell what they're all about until after malo. If anybody tells you they can judge a wine before or during malo, be very aware, be very aware...

I had the chance today to explore a bit around the Hautes-Côtes. It looks remarkably like Oregon up there (except for the 16th century villages, of course!)Up and down the Côte d'Or it's basically an endless hillside of vines stretching as far as you can see - but up in the Hautes-Côtes there are small vineyards scattered here and there, hidden inbetween forests, and it really reminds me of the Dundee Hills or Ribbon Ridge. The vineyards are planted at lower density up there as well, looking very similar to the wide-spaced plantings of the Oregon vineyards that were planted in the 70s...

I am definitely ready for it to stop raining, and ready for a great meal tonight at Le Charlemagne - an excellent Resto in the middle of the vines in Pernand-Vergelesses. I went a couple of years ago and loved it, and am looking forward to a nice night with Thierry & Estelle Violot. Details tomorrow...

March 15, 2008 - 9pm in Volnay - The "Grands Jours de Bourgogne" events are now officially over. Today I enjoyed the stop in Savigny-les-Beaune for the Salon des Jeunes Talents - an expo for the hottest new young vignerons throughout Burgundy. I was especially excited by the wines of young Mlle. Errel Ninot, who is doing beautiful things in Rully and Mercurey...

The Meursault tasting today was very nice - in a gorgeous setting at the chateau of Domaine Jacques Prieur. The Buisson-Charles '06 lineup was showing well, most notably the Charmes and Goutte d'Or. It's always interesting to see who doesn't show up at these events - and as at the Puligny/Chassagne tasting yesterday, essentially none of the big guns were present. (Interesting to note however that Dominique Lafon did show up and pour all day at the Volnay tasting, but was not involved at Meursault...) A true "light dinner" tonight of cheese and charcuterie at La Part des Anges in Beaune (my favorite wine bar around), and then some killer profiteroles at Le Gourmandin on Place Carnot. A big YUM all around...

As much as I don't want to leave, I'm also really looking forward to getting home to my girls. We'll be back here for three weeks when school gets out at the end of June, which will be here before we know it. Only two more days remain on this journey, just enough time to wrap up visiting the few remaining growers I haven't seen yet and then figure out how I'm supposed to get all of this stuff back in my suitcase for the return trip!

March 14, 2008 - 11pm in Volnay - Just back from an outstanding dinner at Ma Cuisine in Beaune (though co-proprietor Pierre was in an especially nasty mood.) Fabienne's food was delicious as always - foie gras, escargots, magret de canard, and veal with mushrooms were all delicious, as was the bottle of Jacques Selosses Brut Rosé and the 2000 Chambolle 1er Cru from my friends at J-J Confuron. Wow, what a night! The place was loud and noisy and full of Germans and Belgians and Americans - not a Frenchman in sight! The Grands Jours tastings today were all excellent - starting in Santenay for the Puligny/Chassagne wines (exceptionally nice stuff from Carillon), then on to Volnay (Huber-Verderau, Bouley, and Pousse d'Or were my favorites, what a surprise), and ending up in Pommard where the wines of Thierry Violot-Guillemard and Aleth Girardin were shining brightly.

This afternoon I was introduced to a young vigneron and his wines from Morey, Chambolle, Vosne, and Nuits-St. Georges, and I was quite simply blown away. The purity, the etheral qualities of the wines (organic since 1971!), the balance, and the overall excellence of the wines was like nothing I've seen from a new producer since the likes of perhaps Benjamin Leroux when he started at Comte Armand or the Bret Brothers down in the Mâcon. Watch out for the name of young (he's only 26!) Aurelien Verdet - we will proudly start to market his wines in certain markets later this year - I am simply in awe of how detailed and precise his wines were showing today. His first vintage was 2003 - before that he was a professional motorcycle racer, and took over the domaine from his father who was forced to retire due to a back injury.(Aurelien is also appparently in line to purchase some Echezeaux and V-R les Gaudichots 1er cru soon- if that happens, watch out!) Details soon...

March 14, 2008 -

http://www.bienpublic.com/actu/beaune/20080314.BPA0365.html - That's the link to the article in Le Bien Public about our winery in Oregon and our Burgundy import business. I was blown away this morning to grab the paper at the boulangerie and see my smiling face on the front page! If you don't read French, basically it describes our businesses and my life in the music business before, and he made me sound much more intelligent than I am (and he corrected my French immensely.) I am thrilled! Huge thanks to my friend Jean-Pierre Charlot from Domaine Joseph Voillot in Volnay who set up the interview, and to Gilles Mathieu who wrote a great article... The tastings in Puligny/Chassagne, Volnay and Pommard were all excellent today (notes later), and the sun came out this afternoon and it shot up to about 72 degrees! It was a perfect afternoon to drink a cold beer at a café outside on the Place Carnot - and that's exactly what I did. I am a happy man. Now if only the dollar/euro situation would stop spiraling into the toilet, life would be perfect (Too much to ask, I guess... More soon...

March 13, 2008 - 8:15am in Beaune - It was a fun night at the Violot's last night. Thierry & Estelle were in rare form, and there was a group of 6 from the Czech Republic joining us for dinner (a restaurateur, a sommelier, and a tv personality/wine writer - all from Prague.) A few of them spoke French, but it turned out that the language in common was English, for the most part. There were a few who spoke only Czech, however, so it ended up being a multi-lingual free for all - nobody understood everything, that's for sure. Ended speaking mostly French and nodding and laughing a lot. Wouldn't you know it that Estelle made slow-cooked beef cheeks for dinner (that makes two nights in a row, if you're counting.) Tnierry opened a magnum of 1999 Pommard Rugiens that was just gorgeous (and still very young and primary...)

Martha and I have always noted that the service is particularly surly at Bouché in Beaune - the greatest chocolatier/pattisserie on the planet. So it was interesting to hear that the locals find it cranky and mean as well! Estelle said that the young women who work in the shop are scared to death of Madame Bouché, who often reduces the girls to tears and is legendary in Beaune for her brusk and biting demeanor. Nice to know it wasn't just me! Regardless, the tarts, cakes, croissants, chocolates and caramels are absolutely some of the finest anywhere. Vieux Monsieur Bouché is stooped over and way into his 80s, but still bakes it all and makes the chocolates himself. At the end of the day, the place is a treasure and it is worth the negative tension in the air, locals and Americans alike!

Apparently the café proprietors in Beaune have decided it's not a good idea to have WiFi - cause I haven't been able to find one yet. I have, however, been able to hop on to one of a few dozen private WiFi hotspots from neighboring offices and apartments - it's everywhere, just not where it should be! Ah, such is the beauty of France...

More tastings on the horizon today, including round two of the DIVA tasting that started yesterday, then a quick ride up to Vosne-Romanée to taste at Bruno Clavelier, then back to Meursault to hook up with everyone at Buisson-Charles. I've actually got a couple hours off to meet with a British expat who buys and renovates old homes in Pommard, Puligny and Meursault (I stayed in one of his places a couple of years ago) - he's going to show me his latest projects (just so I can drool and covet them from afar, I guess...) I have a major dream to have a place here one day, but I expect that day is not in my immediate future. But I can dream, can't I?

March 12, 2008 -7:20pm in Volnay - Thankfully I was able to grab an hour or so between today's tastings and dinner tonight at Thierry & Estelle Violot's. A quick review of some of the days adventures so far -

A great tasting in Beaune this morning of about 25 top domaines. The entire range from Guy Roulot was absolutely outstanding, as of course were the wines from my friend Benjamin Leroux at Comte Armand. Sophie Meunier from J-J Confuron was on hand, showing a few of their pure and lovely 2006s (I'll be tasting the whole range again with Alain in the cellar in Tuesday.)

Then it was on to lunch with Pascal & Réyane Bouley, who took me to l'Auberge du Vieux Vigneron just outside of Puligny in the tiny village of Corpeau. Not only was the meal outstanding, it turned out that the proprietor - Jean-Charles - had recently drank a wine from Oregon that he loved - a 2004 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Laurène. He proudly brought the bottle out to me and asked if I was familiar with it. I replied that I had been the Managing Director there from 2001-2004 - and he nearly fell on the floor! The world is small indeed. To make a long story short - this tiny restaurant will soon be the only place in France to serve Scott Paul Pinot Noir! The 2006's at Bouley in barrel were excellent, as was the 2000 Champans and the brilliant 1978 Clos des Chênes that Pascal brought to lunch...

Afterwards was the Mâconnais tasting at the convention center in Beaune- it seemed like over a hundred different producers were present, most notably of course Christophe Thibert, whose wines we will proudly begin to market later this spring. Another full day on tap for tomorrow - and I've been told that the article about us in the newspaper here will appear either tomorrow or Friday. More soon...

March 12, 2008 - The 2007s at Taupenot-Merme are gorgeous! The Chambolle-Musigny, Gevrey-Chambertin, Combe d'Orveau, Bel-Air, Charmes-Chambertin and Mazoyères-Chambertin were all just singing last night as we tasted through the cellar before dinner. I'll be back to taste the entire range in November, but I must say I was thrilled with these at this point. They will deliver a lot of upfront pleasure without having to wait the usual 5-10 years, and they are quite simply pure, elegant, and lovely.

Dinner at Chez Guy was excellent - a rockin' good slab of foie gras with Pinot noir jelly, followed by beef cheeks cooked for 12 hours and served in an individual cast-iron pot right to the table. Yum! Romain brought a 2000 Charmes (still young, unlike most 2000s these days) and a 1983 Charmes (surprisingly good for the vintage.) The kindness and generosity of all of the Burgundians never ceases to amaze me. More later, as the tastings continue...

March 11, 2008 - The first day of the Grands Jours tastings went well - but my palate is worn out, and I took it easy today! Went to three major tastings, starting with the joint Chambolle/Morey tasting. My favorites there (all 2006s) were the Mugnier les Fuées and Musigny, the Roumier les Combottes, Anne & Hervé Sigaut's Sentiers and Chatelots, and the Taupenot-Merme Combe d'Orveau, which was really showing well. Shot up to the Gevrey tasting next (again loved the Taupenot-Merme wines - both of the Grand Crus - the Charmes and Mazoyères were in excellent shape.)

Then it was on to the Chateau Vougeot for the Vosne-Romanée/Clos Vougeot madhouse. It was hugely packed, really uncomfortably so at times. A lot of wines showing well nonetheless - including the Drouhin Petits Monts which was stunning, the full range from Jean-Marc Millot, La Grand Rue from Lamarche, Alex Gambal's Clos Vougeot, Bizot's Les Jachées, the Richebourg from both Anne Gros and Anne-Françoise Gros, and Bruno Clavelier's line-up (which I'll get to taste in a less insane environment Thursday in his cellar...) Tonight it's dinner with Romain Taupenot at Chez Guy in Gevrey (always a fave), and then another full day of tastings tomorrow. More soon...

March 11, 2008 - I'm just back from dinner in Beaune with Becky Wasserman, Mike Stephens, Jeanne-Marie de Champs and assorted vignerons and importers. A bunch of nice wines over the course of dinner, most notably the 2000 de Vogüé Les Amoureuses, which was absolutely lovely tonight...

I tasted at Domaine Serveau in Morey today. Jean-Louis' line-up of 2006 Chambolles was really nice, with Amoureuses the star once again. Also very interesting to taste the very rare Chambolle Les Chabiots, a tiny 1er Cru that's directly next to Amoureuses, but is rarely if ever seen on a label. There are only three owners, and the other two blend theirs into other Chambolle 1ers, so I believe the Serveau is the only one... Big tastings in Chambolle/Morey and Vosne-Romanée/Clos Vougeot tomorrow - I'll report on the 2006s afterwards...

March 10, 2008 - Lyon 4, Bordeaux 2!!! Wow, what a night. That was truly the most fun I've had with my clothes on in a long time. Being inside the surging energy of the crowd of 40,000 screaming Lyonnais - I've never experienced anything like that. Thiébault got us great seats in the lower level right at mid-field,and I got to watch one of my heroes, Juninho, up close and personal, got to see the amazing Benzema score the winning goal, and got to be a part of the euro-soccer experience for the first time ever. What an amazing treat!

The entire wine world has arrived in Beaune for the Grands Jours events, and I'm looking forward to it immensely. I'm finally sleeping in a normal rhythm here, and I promise not to discuss jet-lag any more! There's a new producer in Chambolle I'll be tasting today - details soon...

March 9, 2008 - I'm just back from another great hike/run this morning - this time down to Meursault and back, through the village and on the vineyard road that runs through Clos des Chênes. I usually only see one or two human beings on these expeditions ( a lot of rabbits in the vineyards, though) - but when I do I definitely get some strange looks. Le Jogging seems to be viewed with at least a bit of suspicion around here. The lady in the boulangerie next door makes sure to wish me a ''bon promenade" when I come in for my pain au chocolat, as if to point out that she (and everyone in the village) knows that I'm the crazy american that goes jogging through the vineyards in the morning. That said, the last two mornings in a row I've seen an 80+ year-old woman climbing a steep hill with a clutch of baguettes under her arm - a hill that would have most 30-somethings weezing. Must be all the cigarettes and croissants that keep them in shape...

I went to the cinema in Beaune last night, and saw the new Juliette Binoche movie "Paris". As my wife Martha would say, it's one of those French films that seems like they ran out of film, because the story has no end - the film just stops. This is fueled, I believe, by the strong French attachment to debate and intellectual discourse. I guess if the films all had real endings, there would be nothing to argue about on the way home...

I'm off to Sunday lunch at Thiébault & Marielle's today, and then heading down to Lyon for my first-ever live european soccer match - where I'll be rooting like crazy for Lyon to hang on to first place in Ligue 1. Les Grands Jours de Bourgogne starts tomorrow, and I will soon have hundreds of tasting notes to report. Stay tuned...

March 8, 2008 - Well, I still haven't managed a decent night's sleep. This is my fourth day here - by now I should be getting in the rhythm. Hopefully tonight. I was interviewed this morning by Gilles Mathieu of Le Bien Public - he's the wine writer for the Burgundy daily newspaper. I think it went well - I'll let you know when the article is published and I'll post a link to the site if you're interested (and if you don't read French, I'm sure it will be even more interesting!)

I love the Saturday market in Beaune. I was able to drop by for a while this morning before having another "light lunch" - this time at P'tit Paradis - a tiny, 20 table restaurant that's tucked into a space about the size of most American bathrooms. The food was fantastic - I hadn't been in a couple of years, and I was happy to return. I started with a fabulous dish of escargots in a cream and mushroom sauce, followed by a great steak covered in melted epoisses cheese - it was as good as it sounds, and as heavy as it sounds! The dessert was one of the best I've ever had - an individual mason jar of killer chocolate mousse with a side of white-chocolate ice cream that was out of this world. Fortunately, I did go for a vigorous hike in the hills above Volany and Pommard this morning, so I almost feel I earned the lunch. I actually have the rest of the day to recover - I may head for the cinema in Beaune later on, but definitely no dinner tonight!

.March 7, 2008 - 10pm in Volnay. I'm back from Champagne, and today was even more amazing than yesterday. We now have two new producers in Champagne joining the Scott Paul portfolio. All I can say for now is that one is on the Montagne de Reims, and the other in the Valee de la Marne, and they both rock my world...

I was served a "just a lite lunch" today in the home of our newest producer, which consisted of: fresh radishes and salted butter, house-made eggplant paté, a roast leg of lamb, haricots vert, flageolets, 6 cheeses, fresh strawberries and raspberries, and a brioche cake. Not to mention 4 bottles of Champagne and a 1993 Pommard Pezerolles from Joseph Voillot. Needless to say, I am skipping dinner tonight - and going for a hike in the hills above Volnay in the morning!

Tomorrow, I am going to be interviewed for an article in the Burgundy newspaper, Le Bien Public - here's hoping I don't make too much of a fool of myself! Then it's the Saturday market in Beaune, which should be festive as always. More soon...

March 7, 2008 - (live from Rilly la Montagne in Champagne) - Sorry for the delay - I've had one of the worst cases of jet-lag ever since arriving (and I've had difficulty finding a working internet connection in these tiny villages.). I'm dead tired all the time, but when I fall asleep it only lasts a few hours and then I pop up wide awake at 3 in the morning! Help!

At any rate, since the last post I got settled in to the guest house in Volnay, had a great dinner at Thiébault and Mariel Huber's house in Pommard, and then took off early the next morning with Jean-Pierre for our Champagne adventure. Spent all of yesterday tasting with small growers here, and I'm thrilled to say I've found one I'm excited to work with! Details forthcoming as soon as our deal is done, but suffice it to say there will be some fabulous bubbles in our future. I'm writing this at 5am here in my lovely guest room overlooking the Montagne de Reims, in the home of the newest addition to the Scott Paul family. All will soon be revealed...

I'll be tasting at three more Champagne estates today, and then heading back to Burgundy late this afternoon. The two home-cooked dinners I've had so far have been outstanding, but the bistro lunch in Rheims yesterday was quite a disapointment (maybe because my host insited on ordering for the table, and I wouldn't have picked any of those dishes - but I digress.) Maybe I can get back to sleep for an hour or so - I'm gonna give it a shot. More soon. Zzzzz

March 5, 2008 - Well, first off - no, I did not get any sleep on the plane to Paris. I am on the TGV headed to Dijon, in my usual semi-zombie state, but at least I'm used to it by now! I've got a new issue of Bourgogne Aujourd'hui to read, and I'll check back in when I get settled in Volnay later this afternoon...

March 4, 2008 - Live from the Philadelphia airport, where I've just landed and learned that Arsenal beat AC MIlan 2-0 today in the Champions League - YAY! My beloved Lyon lost 1-0 to ManU, however. Oh well. I hope Lyon is not too deflated after the loss - I'll be in Lyon Saturday night for their match against Bordeaux with my friend Thiébault Huber - my first live in the flesh Lyon game, I am so looking forward to a great night...

I am desperatley hoping to be able to get some zzzs on the flight to Paris - I have never been able to sleep on planes, but I am pleading with the universe for tonight to be the first! Wish me luck - I'll let you know when I get to the train station in Paris...

March 3, 2008 - I'm in the middle of packing and getting ready to take off for Burgundy in the morning. This will be a long trip - 15 nights away, the longest I'll ever have been away from my girls. We've got our Skype internet video-conferencing all set up, so at least we can see each other's smiling faces along the way. Pirrie has been influenced by the cell-phone commercial on TV that shows the daddy sending back pictures of the daughter's stuffed animal from points along the trip - so I am now in posession of a small orange monkey named "Banan-o" that will be digitally photographed all over France...

My friend Jean-Pierre is coming to Champagne with me for a couple of days later this week. I'm looking for some killer grower-Champagnes to start marketing in the states this year. There are over 6,000 producers in the region, and as in Burgundy there are some gems that are never seen on this side of the pond. It is my mission to rectify that toute de suite!

As excited as I am about the trip, I must say that I'm hugely bummed to be missing the Champions League games tomorrow - I'll be in the air (I'll get to see at least one of the Wednesday games after I arrive - hopefully the Real Madrid/Roma game.)As soon as I land I'll find out what happened with Arsenal/Ac Milan and Lyon.ManU - this is the most intense time of the year for soccer fans. I'm totally stoked!

In addition to my Champagne foray this trip, I'll be attending "Les Grands Jours de Bourgogne" -a 6-day event that attracts the top wine industry professionals from all over the world for a bunch of great tastings, seminars, and general all-around hedonistic delights. It takes place every two years - I can't believe how much has happened and how our portfolio has grown since the 2006 event...

As always, I'll be reporting from the road (and the train and the plane) - so watch this space for all the updates! A très bientôt...

February 13, 2008 - A quick reminder that our big Burgundy Library Blowout tasting and sale is this Saturday from 11-4 in our tasting room. We'll have a bunch of wines open to taste and the prices are blow-away great on some killer burgs from 1999 thru 2004. Please join us!

Due to cancellations we also have a couple of seats open for this Saturday's Burgundy 101 class - call Kelly Karr at 503 319 5827 to sign-up.

Three weeks from today I'll be arriving in Burgundy for my two-week spring visit - this time including a few days up north in Champagne. I hope to return with some rockin' bubblies to add to the portfolio. There are over 6,000 small growers in Champagne, over 90% of which is never seen in the U.S. It's my mission to find a couple of gems - watch this space for updates on all the adventures across the pond in the weeks to come.

I am also happy to report that Arsenal is now 5 points clear in first place in the English Premier League. It should be an interesting finish to the season - with the dreaded Manchester United and Chelsea still in the race. (FYI - I switched allegiances to Arsenal when Chelsea and Jose Mourinho parted ways last fall. Go Gunners!) Champions league action resumes next week - the Milan/Arsenal and Liverpool/Inter fixtures should be very exciting - I can't wait!

February 8, 2008 - I'm just back from a week in San Francisco and the greater Northern California area. It was nice to see sunshine and 60 degrees again! Also very nice to see our new distributors at Martine's Wines doing such a great job for us - our wines are at a bunch of the best restaurants in one of the great restaurant cities in the world. Check out Quince, Spruce, La Toque and tons more for amazing meals and some Oregon Pinot that doesn't suck!

Meanwhile back at the ranch it is cold, rainy, grey, and did I mention cold and rainy? Ah, such is life in Oregon in the winter. We get to gloat in the summer, though, when we're basking in gorgeous 80-degree days while the rest of the planet bakes in the stifling humidity. Our time will come!

Speaking of the summer - we're proud to have been invited again this year to be one of the featured wineries at the annual IPNC events here in Oregon in late July. A couple of our Burgundy producers will be here as well. Thiébault Huber from Huber-Verdereau will be here for sure, and we're working on a one or two more - details soon. In the meantime - mark your calendars now - IPNC is set for July 25-27, and our annual pre-IPNC dinner will be here at the winery on July 24th. All the details to come...

January 30, 2008 - Wow - another snow day - this one closed the schools, so Pirrie is having a play date with her BFF Lauren while Martha and I work from the home office today...

Attention Burg lovers! Your best shot to grab some killer wines at the best-ever prices begins on Friday - watch your email for the notice of our 1st Burgundy Library/Blowout sale. We've got a case or two of several assorted older wines around from a number of our producers, some bits and pieces of 2004s, and a bunch of way cool wines at ridiculously low prices. We've got the 2006s starting to arrive in the spring - so help us make room and grab yourself some rockin'good deals. If you can make it by the winery, we're opening a bunch of these goodies for tasting on Saturday Feb. 16th from 11-4 in our tasting room - please join us.

I am way excited - Volnay producer extraordinaire and dear friend Thiébault Huber has scored us a couple of tickets for the Lyon v Bordeaux soccer match on March 8th in Lyon - I can't wait! I'll be over there March 5-18, and the chance to see my boys from Lyon live at the Stade Gerland will be a major treat. (As will the new producers I'm hoping to bring into the fold this trip- details as they happen...)

January 28, 2008 - Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! It doesn't happen here too often - maybe 2-3 times a year - but the valley looks amazingly beautiful under a carpet of freshly fallen snow. We got an inch or two last night, and except for almost breaking a leg on the sheet of glare ice that was lurking under everything on my hike this morning, it was a magical sight.

Speaking of magical "sites", prep continues for the planting of our new 10-acre parcel on Chehalem Mountain. Timing will all depend on the weather, of course, but we will have plants in the ground this spring, looking forward to our first estate fruit in 2010. For those of you familiar with the area, our land is just above the famed Jacob-Hart vineyard and adjacent to Adelsheim's Bryan Creek...

Thanks to everyone who joined us at Meriwether's in Portland for the winemaker dinner that was billed as a "Winter Burgundian Feast". It was a feast indeed. Our friend chef Tommy Habetz did it up right, with bacon-wrapped grilled chicken livers, individual escargot & bone marrow pot pies, a whole spit-roasted pig, white beans baked on the coals, and a slew of killer cheeses and dessert bites that sent me off to the hiking trails first thing this morning to attempt to work off some of the excess. The assortment of Burgs and Scott Paul Pinots were not half-bad either...

I get very excited during Oscar season - I'm a movie junkie and am looking forward to this year's awards next month. Martha & I just saw Atonement over the weekend and thought it was really wonderful .I'm also a huge fan of Juno and No Country for Old Men - and can't wait to see There Will be Blood shortly...

January 22, 2008 - Lookout - here we go again! After the feeding frenzy that surrounded the 2005 Burgundies last year, it appears that we've got another excellent vintage coming our way when the first of the 2006s start to arrive this spring. I was thrilled with the wines when I tasted over 400 examples in the cellars last November, and now the first official word is out on the vintage, from the man who has become the last word in Burgundy - Allen Meadows of Burghound.com. Here are some excerpts for you -

“…it is certainly a very fine vintage that produced classically styled wines of superb purity and transparency that will deliver much pleasure, and sooner, than the more consistent 2005. Indeed, I would go so far to say that in some cases, the 2006s actually surpass their 2005 counterparts…”

“…if you were to imagine the superb terroir transparency, vibrancy and purity of 2001 allied with the generosity and ripeness of 2000, you will have a good idea of the character of the vintage..."

“the ‘06s are indeed classic burgundies that are exceptionally aromatic and elegant with the best transparency to the underlying terroir since the 2001s, all wrapped in admirably persistent finishes with fine detail and a more pronounced sense of minerality than most vintages possess. They really are gifted in terms of their transparency…”

“I confess that I very much like the vintage and I would go so far as to say that if you enjoyed the 2001s, you will also enjoy the 2006s..."

“…take advantage of the generally lower prices that appellations such as Fixin, Nuits and Gevreyvillages, Chambolle and Morey 1ers and or second-tier grands crus such as Clos de Vougeot, Echézeaux or Charmes-Chambertin. I have chosen these appellations not because they are often somewhat unpopular but because the ’06 vintage has sophisticated tannins and thus the rusticity, even sometimes toughness that these appellations display is much ameliorated. In other words, my advice is to buy up and down the food chain and do NOT avoid purchasing regional and villages level wines. This approach makes sense to me because it will enable your available funds to buy more wine and it will also enable you to purchase “protection” as it were for your ‘05s because you will have something else to try while you wait for your gems to fully mature.”

All quotes from Burghound.com, Issue 29 – Jan. 21, 2008

I personally find this very good news - as we happen to be an excellent source of some highly-rated Gevrey villages, some gorgeous Chambolle and Morey 1ers, several killer examples of Clos Vougeot andEchezeaux, and a knockout Charmes Chambertin.

The toughest part of the equation is indeed the downward-spirialing value of the dollar vs. the Euro. Our producers have held pricing steady - some have even lowered them a bit, but after factoring in the exchange rate we're looking at prices above the 2005s pretty much across the board. We are cutting margins as far as we can, while still trying to make this a business rather than a hobby.

At the end of the day - I still feel these wines are excellent values for their quality level. I also feel that 2006 may especially be a vintage to look at the "non-superstar" producers - whose wines rival or surpass the big names in quality, but do not command the whopping price premiums in the marketplace. I'll take a Taupenot-Merme Charmes Chambertin at $110 any day over equivalent bottles from the "big guns" at 5-8 times the price... Watch your email and our website for our advance offerings on the incoming 2006s this spring...

January 17, 2008 - First off, a belated Happy New Year to all. I hope you enjoyed a nice holiday break and got to spend plenty of time with loved ones. We had a very relaxed and peaceful holiday - no travel, a lot of nice snuggling time at home, lots of good food & wine, and a great visit with my kids Ally & Kevin who came in from college for a few days between Xmas and New Year's - we had a blast.

The year has started off fast and furious, with a bunch of exciting projects on our plate and everything moving forward at once. We're getting ready to plant our new estate vineyard, we've just launched our new Burgundy club - "Burgundy Express", our series of Burgundy seminars starts up again this weekend, we're placing orders and making reservations for the delicious 2006 Burgundies, Kelley Fox is over in Paris and Beaune right now for her first visit (and we pray she comes back!), we're geting ready for the release of the 2006 La Paulée and Audrey in March, I'm heading off to San Francisco in February, Burgundy and Champagne in March, and we've just scheduled all of our special events for the rest of 2008. Other than that, there's not much going on!

Most exciting of all of that is our new vineyard - once we get plants in the ground I'll go into more detail here. In the meantime I can tell you that we've purchased all biodynamic plant material and will farm this site biodynamically from the beginning. We've really focused our commitment on biodynamic and organic agriculture going forward, and I'm happy to say that we will be 100% organic (88% biodynamic) for the 2008 vintage. We, along with many of the finest winegrowers across the planet, believe that working in close harmony with all of nature is the right way to go, and ultimately better for our earth and maybe even better for our wines. There is no "magic bullet" when it comes to viticulture and winemaking, but we believe this choice gives us the best chance to achieve our goals and be in sync with our mission...

And finally, watch this space for info on our upcoming irregular series of Scott Paul Podcasts - details and downloads soon!

December 21, 2007 - These last weeks have passed in a blur - funny how that always seems to happen this time of year! As we get ready to go into shut-down mode for the holidays, and enjoy a couple of nice, relaxed weeks with family and friends, I'd like to take a minute to look back over the year and give thanks for all of our good fortune.

First of all to my wife and children - who support me unswervingly with love and patience, put up with my travel schedule and all the working weekends - thank-you, I am truly blessed to have you in my life. On this day of the winter solstice I must also thank our great friends and partners Cameron Healy and Suzy Snow - none of this would be happening without you, and we love you dearly.

It all moves so fast that I often forget that it was just 9 years ago I was crazy enough to think that we could make wine somebody would like enough to actually buy. And only 7 years ago that I convinced my wife Martha, with 4 month-old Pirrie on her hip, to move to Oregon to follow my dream of making true cool-climate Pinot Noir. Somehow or other we managed to build a new winery, start a major Burgundy import company, manage Domaine Drouhin for a few years, and build alittle brand that has come to have unbelieveable support from you - our customers. Huge gratefulness goes to you who buy our wines, year-in, year-out, and help spread the word about our elegant little Pinots.

We've been so fortunate in bringing in an amazing team of professionals to join us on our journey, and I am proud to thank Kelley Fox, Kelly Karr, and Emily Freiler for their immense contributions to our success. And I'm happy to announce that Emily will be taking on the full-time position of Tasting Room Manager beginning in April.

Oh yeah - and we'll be planting our first estate vineyard in the spring - a spectacular 10-acre piece on a Jory soil high on a south slope of Chehalem Mountain. Details soon!

Again, many thanks for all of your support. At the end of the day, it's all about putting good wine in the glass that will be enjoyed with good food and good friends - and if we can continue to do that, life is good.

My best wishes for a joyous holiday season - see you here (and at the winery) in the new year!

December 3, 2007 - I am in total denial, and unable to accept that it is already December, with Christmas just three weeks away. Yikes! I am looking forward to a relatively quiet month, after the non-stop action of September/October/November. It is pouring rain here for the forseeable future, and a nice time to cocoon, to recharge the batteries, and get ready for the new year.

The one thing I'm really grappling with right now is our Burgundy program for 2008. I need to finalize my reservations and orders for the 2006 wines in the next couple of weeks. What's making it difficult is that we've hit the "perfect storm" - the producers have raised their prices slightly over the 2005s, the dollar is at the all-time low versus the Euro, and while the 2006 wines are indeed excellent, they do not have the reputation of the superb 2005s. The result is that the 2006 wines will be more expensive than the 2005s, and I can imagine that they will not sell at the blistering pace of the 2005s. I need to buy carefully this year, of that I am sure.

There will be no great "bargains" in 2006 Burgundy, but of course that's all relative. One thing I'm very proud of is that our portfolio, on the whole, offers excellent values in relation to the quality. Most of our wines seem to get one or two fewer ratings points than the "trophy" wines, but are sold at a fraction of the price of the "big boys". Even with the crash of the dollar and producer price increases we can still offer a great wine like the René Leclerc 2006 Lavaux St. Jacques for around $80, while the Armand Rousseau version will likely be offered by major retailers at over $500 (at least that's what they're getting for the 2005). As a point of reference - Burghound scores for the 2005 versions of these wines were 89-91 points for the Rousseau, and 90-93 points for the René Leclerc. You can have six bottles of the Leclerc to enjoy over the next several years, or one bottle of the lower-rated Rousseau. It seems like an obvious choice to me, but then I'm biased...

At any rate, my hope is that true Burgundy lovers will recognize the value in our offerings of the 2006s. Many of the 2005s were purchased by people who never bought Burgundy previously, many in fact who were not even big wine lovers. There was a feeding frenzy for the 2005s unlike anything I've ever seen. 2006 will be a vintage for people who really love the stuff - and fortunately the wines rock and there will be a lot to love!

November 27, 2007 - In the few days since my last post, I have: Slept. Spent a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with my family and friends. Slept. Held an open house for a few thousand of our closest friends at the winery for three days. Slept. Reintroduced myself to my wife and daughter. Slept. Changed the cat box. Slept. And now I am close to feeling back to normal - whatever that is! It's nice to be back, even nicer not have any major events on the calendar for a while (just that little thing called Christmas coming up in a few weeks...)

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the open house over the weekend- thanks to you it was our most successful ever. The 2006 Cuvée Martha Pirrie is nearly sold out, only a handful of cases are left. Same goes for the 2006 Audrey futures - if you're interested in picking up a 6-pack, we have only a few left after the weekend events. It looks like there will be none left to offer when the wine is actually released in April... As for 2005 Burgundies, some treasures still remain, but in short supply. We'd behappy to put together a nice gift selection for the Burg-heads on your list - just get in touch with Kelly Karr at the tasting room and she'll hook you right up. Now back to catching up with two weeks worth of mail and bills - you know the drill...

November 21, 2007 - So I've got about three hours between planes here at JFK in NYC - it's been quite a safari already and I'm only half-way there! The strike was still in full effect this morning in France, so I had to drive to the airport in Paris rather than take the train. Because of the crazier than usual traffic (due to the strike) - it took almost 6 hours to drive what is normally a 3 1/2-hour jaunt. I've been up since 4am French time, and will hopefully reach PDX around midnight Portland time - just a little journey of 29 hours. To top it off, the A/C is out in the Delta teminal at JFK and it is hot and clammy in here. Help! At any rate, it occured to me that a few comments on some more of the wines from the Paulée might be in order. I was still on a spiritual high from the '47 Moose when I posted last...

It was very educational to have the 2000 DRC Richebourg, La Tâche and Roumier Musigny side by side - they were all lovely, to be sure, but the Roumier had extra dimensions, more elegance, better length, and blew the other two away on this day. Less than one barrel made, but I was happy to sacrifice one in the name of science, of course...

As for the whites - the 1918 Meursault Goutte d'Or from Grossweiler was amazingly fresh and alive - I mean there was still fruit! I was sitting across from my crazy German friend Dieter and we toasted the end of WW1 with that one. Out of all the other whites, the one that really stood out was the '93 Drouhin Clos des Mouches blanc in Mag - wow! Amazingly complex on the nose and in the mouth, and a kaleidescope of swirling flavors and aromas that never seemed to end. We were all blown away at my end of the table.

Pretty much everything was interesting throughout the day, but a few more deserve special notice. The 1938 Clos des Lambrays generously shared by Allen Meadows was rockin'pretty strong, as was the '47 Richebourg from Grivelet and the '47 Chambertin from Grafe/Drouhin. The 1923 Clos Vougeot from Bouchard also had a lot going on, but it was trumped by the '49 Clos des Mouches from Drouhin - my notes simply say "superb!". Not a bad day, indeed...

I wrapped up this trip with a great tasting at JJ Confuron yesterday, and I was thrilled with the 2006s there. Alain Meunier was a joy to spend some time with as always. The 2006s are really strong across the board at all of our producers, and I imagine they're going to get some very good press - which is pretty amazing coming on the heels of the 2005s. I hope people aren't drinking the 2005s too soon, as many are closing down, and most won't be at their best for many years to come. I recommend drinking your 2000s, 2002s, 2004s, and the upcoming 2006s and 2007s before you get to the '05s. Your patience will be rewarded...

November 19, 2007 - Today is my favorite day of the year, every year - for this is the day of La Paulée in Burgundy. As much as I anticipate it, I am never disappointed, and in fact it usually exceeds my wildest expectations. This year may have been the best of them all.

I started off with a couple of great tastings this morning, first at a super-secret location (that I hope to be able to reveal to you in due time), and then my annual November visit to Lucien Le Moine in Beaune. Suffice it so say that the 2006s at LLM are beyond stunning - I like them better than the 2005s at this point, and they will surely be some of the highest rated wines of the vintage once again. Look out for their Amoureuses, Clos de Beze and Clos Vougeot next year - they are mind-blowing.

Before I forget, I am happy to report that we were successful in buying a barrel of the 2007 Beaune 1er Cru cuvée Maurice Drouhin at the Hospices de Beaune auction yesterday - the wine is lovely, and we'll offer it as futures in a year or so. Great stuff...

And on to La Paulée. Where do I begin? It is a great pleasure to attend this special event, and I thank our hosts Véronique Drouhin and her husband Michel for putting together the greatest of all wine events on the planet. In attendance were winemaking luminaries from Drouhin, de Vogüé, Latour, Jadot, Moet et Chandon, George Mugneret, Chandon de Brialles, Egon Müller, Etienne Grivot, and of course Allen Meadows and a group of some of the most passionate Burgundy lovers/collectors on the planet. Lunch was prepared by Jacques Lameloise of the 3-star Lameloise in Chagny. The Burgundy truffle ravioli rocked my world in a big way.

On to the wines. Over 70 amazing bottles crossed my path over the course of the day, and I'm sure I missed at least a hundred more that were going around. It was truly an exercise in excess and pure hedonism, and I find nothing wrong with that!

I am clearly one of the most fortunate people on the planet. There are two legendary wines that mean a great deal to me, that are deeply engraved in my memory, and are the reasons I set off on this path to make wine and ultimately import wine from Burgundy. Amazingly, in the last two years I've had the opportunity to taste both of them at the Paulée. Last year a lovey lady from the UK brought the '61 Krug in magnum, and this year it was the mythical '59 La Tâche. Whenever I'm asked what got me into wine, I always mention the '59 La Tâche - and this time around it was again a truly transcendental experience. Only a handful of times in one's life do you drink a wine so profoundly great that it seems to stop time - it is only you and the wine, fully concentrated and focused in a moment of intense clarity that feels as if it could last forever - and in fact that feeling is indelibly etched in my soul. I can truly say that I will likely never have anyting finer cross my lips, and the thought of being able to die happy comes easily after a wine like that.

So what can I say when I am then presented with not one but two magnums of the legendary '47 Musigny from de Vogüé (made by Christophe Roumier's grandfather) - one bottled by Drouhin, and the other an estate bottling. I was in absolute awe of simply being in the presence of these bottles. Tasting them side by side proved monumental. The Drouhin bottling was in better shape and thus fresher, but they were both stunning. To cut to the chase, the last swallow was the single greatest wine experience I've had. It is hours later and I'm still moved. I was then staggered to be confronted by a bottle of the '45 de Vogüé Musigny and a magnun of the '52! Many burg-geeks will tell you that the '45 or '47 Moose is the greatest Burg of all time - and having both on the table tonight was simply beyond belief. The bottle of '45 turned out not to be a great example, but the underlying material was amazing nonetheless. I expected not so much from the '52 (a difficult vintage with very few good wines) - but this mag was singing nicely - not transcendental, surely, but still a great treat. I feel very blessed. This was the most most enjoyable day of my life in wine, and 365 days from now we'll do it again!

Here then the list of of wines we enjoyed with lunch today in the ancient cellars at Drouhin...

’99 Clos des Mouches Blanc – Drouhin

90 Puligny les Referts – Carillon

’04 Batard Montrachet (mag) – P. Colin-Morey

’55 Chassagne-Montrachet – Dumay

’93 Puligny Combottes – Sauzet

’64 Meursault – André

’99 Batard Montrachet – Latour

’93 Chassagne Maltroie – Niellon

’92 Corton – Chandon de Briailles

’93 Meursault Rougeots – Coche-Dury

’90 Montrachet – Laguiche (Drouhin)

’18 Meursault Goutte d’Or – Grossweiler

’86 Batard Montrachet (mag) – Delagrange-Bachelet

’92 Chassagne Grands Ruchottes – Ramonet

’91 Chassagne Grands Ruchottes – Ramonet

’78 Batard Montrachet (mag) – Bachelet-Ramonet

’64 Reisling Spatlese – Egon Muller

’02 Corton Charlemagne – Latour

’92 Corton Charlemagne (mag) – Jadot

’92 Corton Charlemagne – Raphet

’90 Corton Charlemagne – Drouhin

’99 Chevalier-Montrachet – Geo. Deleger

’93 Clos des Mouches Blanc (mag) – Drouhin

’00 Richebourg – DRC

’85 Bonnes Mares (mag) de Vogüé

’85 Pommard Rugiens – Ganoux

’05 Romanée-St. Vivant – Dujac

’04 Bourgogne – LeRoy

’05 NSG 1er – Dom. De Perdrix

’47 Richebourg – Grivelet

’78 Clos de Beze – Moillard

’99 Clos Vougeot (double mag) – Grivot

’00 La Tâche – DRC

’85 Savigny Lavières – Camille Brouchon

’62 Beaune – Hospice de Beaune

’92 Chambolle les Amoureuses – de Vogüé

’85 Grands Echezeaux – DRC

’71 NSG les Pruliers – Faively

’94 Clos de Tart – Mommesin

’93 Grands Echezeaux – Engel

’38 Clos des Lambrays

’90 Bonnes Mares – de Vogüé

’59 La Tâche – DRC

’00 Musigny – Roumier

’48 Grands Echezeaux – DRC

’90 Clos de la Roche – Ponsot

’91 Savigny les Beaune – Chandon de Briailles

’90 Corton – Chandon de Briailles

’71 Echezeaux (6L) – Mugneret

’47 Musigny (mag) – de Vogüé (Drouhin bottling)

’47 Musigny (mag) – de Vogüé (estate bottling)

’59 Corton-Bressandes – Drouhin

’23 Clos Vougeot – Bouchard

’64 Volnay Clos des Ducs – d’Angerville

’44 Richebourg – DRC

’47 Chambertin – Grafé/Drouhin

’91 Clos de la Roche – Ponsot

’78 Volnay Clos des Chênes – Lafarge

’02 Echezeaux (mag) – Mongeard-Mugneret

’24 Clos des Mouches – Drouhin

’46 Clos des Mouches – Chanson

’49 Clos des Mouches – Drouhin

’45 Musigny – de Vogüé

’78 Clos de Beze – Drouhin

’52 Musigny (mag) – de Vogüé

November 17, 2007 - Wow, what a day! Started off with the 90-minute drive up to Chablis (with someone doing 130 km/h inches from my bumber every couple of minutes, of course.) Tasted through the 2007s at Frédéric Gueguen's cellar in the village of Chablis - and they are excellent. Lovers of classic, minerally, intense Chablis will be very happy. The l'Homme More 1er Cru is so palate-stainingly intense and long that I was blown away. Had a great lunch at home with Frédéric and his wife Céline, and their two little ones. Their home is a gorgeous renovation of an ancient stone farmhouse, in the middle of Chablis vines and surrounded by their own private park - really lovely. Fred also took my on a tour of his vineyard parcels, including his oldest vines, dating to 1926.

Then I turned around and headed back down to the Côte d'Or, for an amazing tasting at my friend Jean-Pierre Charlot's cellar in Pommard. He invited about 150 people for a vertical of his Pommard Pezzerolles, going from 2005 to 1961! It was very interesting and educational. The standouts form me were the '93, '90, '85 and the '61 - which I found still amazingly youthful and vibrant. (It always helps that these old wines have never moved since the day they were bottled.)

From there it was on to the "Souverain Bailliage de Pommard" - a confrèrie or brotherhood similar to the Chevaliers de Tastevin. It was created by my dear friend Aleth Girardin, and it is really a great event. Every year on the weekend of the Hospices de Beaune auction they have their annual dinner and induction ceremonies. It starts in the cellars of the Chateau de Pommard, where I was honored to be inducted into the brotherhood - there's a great ceremony in which they place the ribbon and medallion around your neck, hand you an ancient silve chalice and fill it with a gorgeous old Pommard, and then tap you on each shoulder with the preserved trunk of an ancient grapevine and pronounce you a "Bailli de Pommard". I was inducted along with Caroline Parent (the daughter of Anne-Françoise Gros - owner of a great Vosne-Romanée domaine, and François Parent, the famous Pommard producer.) Then we moved on into the ancient cellars below the Pommard City Hall, for a six-course dinner paired with wines - one of which was our Scott Paul 2005 La Paulée Pinot! I was honored, in fact blown away to be asked to provide wine for the dinner - and to have our wine served in this setting, and to have it show well, was so exciting. A number of the guests came up to say how much they enjoyed the wine - and even if they were just being nice, I was very happy indeed. Throughout dinner a singing group serenaded the crowd with dozens of classic Burgundian drinking songs, finishing up just before midnight with a rousing version of my favorite - "Je suis fier d'etre Bourguignon" (I am proud to be Burgundian). Apparently I sang it with much gusto - as Anne-Françoise Gros came up to me afterward and remarked on my spirited rendition, and told me that as a result I had been "accepted as a true Burgundian"! I can't think of much else that could make me happier!

Tomorrow is the auction itself, and a relatively quiet and calm day and a much-needed chance to recharge my batteries. More then...

November 16, 2007 - Just a quick note of appreciation for the hotel Le Richebourg here in Vosne-Romanée. The three hardest things to find in France - a good shower, a great bed, and good climate control - are all here in top form. The Mongeard-Mugneret winemaking family owns and runs this place, and it makes a really comfortable home away from home. The mini pain au chocolat at breakfast rock, by the way...

Continuing now at the end of the day - too many wines to count, too much great food (lunch with my friend Lolo at Caves Madeleine, dinner at the Violots), and warmth and generosity that continues to amaze me every time I'm here. The 06's are much better than anyone expected, and the early view of the 07s is really lovely - they're fresh, bright, lovely fruit, pretty aromas, and will probably drink well young - all of which is good in my book. Huge thanks to Thierry Violot for sharing all the good stuff over dinner, including a spectacular bottle of '93 Pommard Rugiens that was hands-down the wine of the day...

November 15th, 2007 - A mere 47 exciting wines today - the full range at Pascal Bouley, François Lamarche, René Leclerc and Hubert-Verdereau, capped off by a lovely dinner at Les Jardins des Ramparts with Thiébault & Mariel Hubert and a killer bottle of Mugnier "Les Amoureuses" 2002. Yes, I am in heaven. And I can confirm yesterday's findings that the 2006s are rockin'good. So far I'm a fan. The whole world is seemingly here for the auction and all the action this weekend - Beaune is buzzing and it feels very festive. I am completely knackered, and will report back in more detail later...

November 14, 2007 - Well, nothing like easing into it slowly here. I had as full of a day as possible right out of the chute - tasting through the range at 5 domaines today, lunch at the new Table d'Olivier Leflaive in Puligny-Montrachet, and dinner at the estate in Morey-St. Denis with the entire Taupenot-Merme family. 67 Wines tasted in total, including a gorgeous '93 Charmes-Chambertin and a stunning '85 Combe d'Orveau from the Taupenot's cellar. We are off to a nice start indeed!

The best news is that, from the first round of tastings yesterday, I am happy to report that I am very happy with the 2006s at this point. They are succulent, fruity, very friendly and forward at this stage in barrel. My first take is that, from the good producers - who worked dilligently in the vines and sorted rigorously - there will be a lot of crowd pleasing wines. It will not be across-the-board great like 2005, you will need to choose more carefully. I of course am happy to be your guide.Perhaps the major fault of the 2006s is that they are coming right after the 2005s. It's tough to follow a once in a lifetime vintage, but nonetheless, we will have a lot of excellent juice for you next year. I started off down in the picturesque village of Mercurey this morning, visiting an exciting young producer who will likely become the next addition to the portfolio. I look forward to bringing in some really nice Mercurey red and white - excellent prices and killer quality at this estate - details soon...

Without boring you with all the details, suffice it to say that the entire range was a knockout at Philippe Chavy again this year. Ditto for Jean-Marc Millot - where the only problem is the minscule quantities available from 2006. He's got only 2 barrels of the stunning Grands Echezeaux, 4 of his Clos Vougeot, 4 of the Suchots - unfortunately I think the word "allocation" is on our future. I loved the 06s at Anne & Hervé Sigaut in Chambolle (and I covet their house, might I add), and at Taupenot-Merme the entire range is impressive again. I am exhausted but very happy, and am looking forward to round two tomorrow - only 4 estates, just a light day...

November 13, 2007 - So here I sit at the Gare de Lyon, one of Paris' great classic train stations, waiting for my train to Dijon. I am jet-lagged to the max (as usual upon arrival) - which means semi-dizzy and pretty spacey in general. It also means that my grasp on the French language is not in peak form - but I did manage to have a pretty interesting and intense political conversation with my cab driver on the ride in from the airport. (He doesn't like Sarkozy, the new president, and thinks he's about as bad as Bush!) I am apparently very lucky to have arrived today rather than tomorrow, as (quelle surprise!) major strikes are planned for tomorrow, which will shut down the train system nationwide and the Metro in Paris. I am told this is caused by Pres. Sarkozy's plans to change the unbelievably lucrative retirement plans for all government employees (which accounts for a full half of the French workforce!)We can only hope it's over by the time I need to leave next Wednesday...

In the meantime, it is great to be back. Just sitting here in this crummy train-station cafe and having a decent steak-frites and a glass of beer makes me very happy (and it blows away any airport or train food we can conjure up in the states.) My crazy schedule starts tomorrow - with visits to five producers, inluding a potential new addition in Mercurey, as well as Chavy, Millot, Sigaut, and Taupenot-Merme. I am praying the melatonin kicks in nicely tonite and I get a decent night's sleep...

Continuing now from the train - I do love the TGV, what a pleasant and comfortable way to travel... I'm looking forward to tasting the Hospices de Beaune wines later this week. A few friends over here have told me that the Côte de Beaune reds this year will be very interesting, and possibly good deals as well (although with the dollar through the floor right now, it's all relative.) Assuming quality is excellent and prices aren't stratospheric, I will probably pick up a barrel or two at the auction again this year. I am very thankful for my continuing close relationship with the Drouhin family - not only can they do a superb job of élévage and bottling on our auction purchases, they can also place our bids for us directly on the auction floor - relieving me from having to sit through and excruciatingly-slow 7-8 hours of the auction, which is about as exciting as watching paint dry. Don't get me wrong, it's fun to see it all once - the French movie stars and all - but the snail-like pace of the proceedings can be coma-inducing! Speaking of comas, I'm going to try to slip into a quick one here on the train. It's about an hour and a half to Dijon, and with luck I can snooze for most of it....

I have now settled in at Le Richebourg in Vosne-Romanée, my annual home during the Hospices/Paulée week festivities. It really lifts my spirits to drive by my beloved Musigny and Amoureuses on the way here, or to just glance out of the window and see Clos de Beze as I'm whizzing by. (You are pretty much forced to drive crazy here by the local motorists, who to a person always seem to believe it is their god-given right, and duty in fact, to pass any car that might be in front of them. At least I don't tailgate like the locals - a practice that can be terrifying at times...) I am officially out of gas, and am looking forward to a rockin' good sleep in this most magical of all wine villages on the planet...

November 11, 2007 - What a great Salud event this year - it was one of the most enjoyable ever. Pinot lovers from around the country came in for a fun three days of revelry and hedonistic indulgence, and a good time was seemingly had by all. We are honored to be one of the 42 wineries chosen to participate, and even more honored that our wines have been fetching strong prices at the auction. Big thanks and appreciation to all who attended, bid, and put so much time and effort into making this a very special event.

My suitcase is on the bed and my clothes are stacked up and ready to pile in. I leave for Burgundy in the morning, and I've got a seriously full schedule when I hit the ground. Of course I'll be tasting through hundreds of 2006s in barrel from all of our producers, and will take a quick first look at the newly fermented 2007s as well. Extremely young Burgs are nearly impossible to judge - it really takes until after the wines are through malo and have settled in - generally about a year after crush - until any kind of picture begins to emerge that gives a clue to where the wines are really going. Thus the timing of my November trip every year. The fact that it coincides with the Hospices de Beaune auction and La Paulée de Meursault is a huge plus, to be sure. Hey, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, you know?

I've been invited to be inducted into the confrèrie of the Chevaliers de Pommard this year - I expect a lot of funny hats and silver tastevins around the neck and a lot of fun. Our 2005 La Paulée Pinot will be served to all of the attendee at the ceremoniess, and I'm very honored and thankful to Aleth Girardin for the invitation and for including our wines. More from the road tomorrow...

November 5, 2007 - I need to declare publicly that I have recently formed a strong new emotional attachment. It started as a flirtation, then developed into a deep admiration and loving friendship. Elements of lust appeared periodically, I tried to walk away from it, but couldn't. The lure was irresistable. I kept getting pulled back in deeper and deeper. One reaches a point where you realize that there is something you can no longer deny, and you must face up to it. And so, I am happy to state to the world that I have fallen head-over-heels for the wines of Domaine Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier in Chambolle-Musigny.

I've been buying. cellaring and drinking "Freddy's" wines for many many years, and have always had a crush on them. It finally hit me over the head at our La Paulée dinner the other night that I do indeed love them. There is an unmatched grace and purity to his wines - they are drop-dead sexy wihout trying to be. They are ethereal, nearly weightless at times, and truly unlike any others. They're not flashy, but sometimes they let you glimpse a hint of the bare thigh above the stockings. The words finesse and elegance don't even begin to do justice to the silken kisses these wines bestow on you. In the mouth they feel like the tenderest caress you ever had from the prettiest girl you ever knew. And then they captivate your soul. They make you just want to take off and run away together, so you can get away from daily life and just focus on the beauty. This is not an obsession, I'm not going to let this take over my life and get to the point where I neglect my well-being or responsibilities. It's a healthy attraction, but damn they are beautiful.

Beauty of course is in the eye of the beholder. Freddy's wines have gone under the radar of many for quite some time - usually overhadowed by the more famous Chambolle-based domaines of Christophe Roumier and Comte de Vogüé. Within the last three years or so the "secret" has apparently gotten out, and now the world-wide demand for the wines and the resulting prices have gone through the stratosphere. Ah, but what price perfection! The pendulum appears to be swinging away from the bigger-is-better school of wine, and that arc is leading many to the world of Freddy. They're not for everyone, just as no piece of music or no poem is everyone's cup of tea. But be forewarned, if you fall, you are liable to fall deeply. It's a haunting melody you can't get out of your head.

For the record, I have no business connection or interest in these wines whatsoever, I do not import them, in fact I've only met the man himself once briefly. All I know is that I want to live out my days savoring as much of his wines as cirumstances allow. If I could choose my last meal, I'd go for Thomas Keller's foie gras torchon from the French Laundry, the full truffle-menu at Alain Ducasse in Paris, and an assortment of patisserie from François Payard in New York, all tied together with a perfectly mature bottle of Mugnier Musigny. (Of course we'd have to start with a magnum of '85 Krug Clos du Mesnil for the aperitif, and then have a bottle of '85 Jayer Richebourg for back-up, just in case!)

It was a bottle of DRC's '59 La Tâche that was my first and perhaps most enduring love, and the wine that lead me to where I sit today. With no disrespect to that magical wine, and without being unfaithful to it in my heart, I've got a new mistress. Appropriately, one of Mugnier's best wines is the Chambolle-Musigny "Les Amoureuses", which of course means "the lovers"...

November 4, 2007 - Wow - what a night! The 2nd annual La Paulée de Carlton last night was huge fun. I am exhausted and moving a little slow today (too many good wines - had to explore them in the name of science, of course.) Huge thanks to everyone who joined us and made it the fun night it was, and mega thanks to the Scott Paul team for all of their hard work in putting this together and pulling it off without a hitch. Kelly Karr, Emily Freiler & Cheryl Rogers made it all look easy. The food from Simpatica in Portland also rocked - those guys do a great job, and they came up with the perfect menu for a cool fall evening filled with decadent Pinots & Burgs.

Speaking of the wines - there was surely one of the better collections of New World Pinot and Burgundies in one room that you're ever likely to find. That's the beauty of the Paulée, you never know what treats and treasures are going to be around. We're like kids in a candy store on nights like this - every bottle offers the promise of new discovery, a new joy, or perhaps just a learning experience - any and all of which are fine by me. It would be impossible to catalog the hundred of lovely bottles flowing around the room that night, but the generosity of the guests is really overwhelming. I offer up thanks and gratitude to all for sharing their goodies. Some of my personal favorites from the evening:

2002 Chambolle-Musigny les Fuées - Mugnier, 2001 Musigny from Drouhin, 1990 Evesham Wood (in magnum from winemaker Russ Raney's cellar), the 1996 Musigny from Drouhin, and my fave of the night, a 1985 Charmes-Chambertin from Taupenot-Merme (generously gifted by our friend Romain Taupenot.) Again, what a night. I know it's a dangerous job, but I have to tackle a bunch of old Burgundies at the original French version of La Paulée two weeks from tomorrow. Hopefully that gives my 53 year-old body enough time to recover inbetween!

November 1, 2007 - Ladies and gentlemen, I am very happy to announce that the 2007 vintage at Scott Paul is now all in barrel! The wines have been laid down to rest in their french oak sleeping-lofts, and an entire year's work in the vineyards has now come full circle. Kelley and I are very excited about the potential of the wines. We'll have a much better idea what they're all about after they've gone through malo, which is most likley not until some point in the first quarter. We'll keep you up to date here on all the progress.

Now we get to focus on celebrating at our La Paulée events on Saturday. I get excited like a little kid sometimes before these big events. I'm really looking forward to it, and I've got some nice treasures from the cellar set aside for dinner. I'm not sure exactly what I'll bring, but probably some goodies from Mugnier, Roumier and Confuron, and maybe an older Musigny or Montrachet or two. Stay tuned...

October 29, 2007 - Well, I'm happy to say that my prediction for the end of good weather was dead wrong - we've had a week of the most beautiful fall imagineable, with bright sunshine and temperatures edging up towards 70 - and I'm happy to enjoy every single moment of it.

Crush is winding down to a close - Kelley will have everything drained and pressed and in barrel by Thursday, it looks like. Then we have one whole day to turn the winery from a production facility into a dining facility for 80 for our La Paulée dinner Saturday night! I have every confidence that Kelley, Samuel and JJ, along with Kelly Karr and Emily will once again work their magic and make us shine by the weekend. Please join us for the La Paulée Open House 11-4 this Saturday in our tasting room- we'll have abunch of the new 05 Burgs open and it's your first chance to taste and buy futures on the 06 Scott Paul Audrey & La Paulée Pinots... I leave two weeks from today for my November Burgundy trip, and I've just realized I haven't come to terms with the fact it is actually just two scant weeks away. Yikes! I suppose I need to get ready, non?

October 22, 2007 - Today was perhaps the most beautiful day I've seen anywhere in a long time (and it may well be a long time before we see a pretty day around here again). The sun was bright and crisp, the skies a spectacular blue, the bright white snows on Mt. Hood so clear and close it seemed you could reach out and touch the mountain, the late afternoon light hitting the vineyards in their perfectly bright golden-yellow post-harvest glow - it all made me pause several times today to just take the moment to truly drink it all in. We are blessed here in Oregon, and I am so happy to have the opportunity to be a part of it. Ahhhh...

Kelley and the boys have just finished racking a few more lots to barrel today, and things are moving along nicely in the cellar. I continue to be happy with the character of the new wines at this point. With a little luck we will have everything pressed off and put to bed in time for our La Paulée dinner on Nov. 3rd - but it's possible there may still be a lot or two still in tank then.

It's shaping up t be a great event again this year. The guys from Simpatica will be cooking up a storm, and the array of wines should be spectacular to say the least. The one piece of bad news is that the dinner is completely sold out - we can only fit so many revelers in the winery, and we've had to stop taking reservations 'cause we're at the limit... I'm really looking forward to seeing you all here in a couple of weeks. If you can't make the dinner, please plan on joining us for the open-house affair from 10-4 that day - we'll have a bunch of the gorgeous 2005 Burgs open for your slurping pleasure...

October 17, 2007 - It is just an insanely busy time these days. But then when isn't it anymore? No complaints whatsoever - all is going well and I truly do love what I do. (Otherwise there's no reason to do it, is there?) Kelley in the winery and Kelly in the office are both stretched to the limit with very full plates, and I seem to be the CEO in charge of keeping all the plates spinning!

We're all looking forward to seeing you here for our 2nd annual La Paulée events on Saturday November 3rd. Our dinner that night is nearly sold-out already - so if you're planning to join us please rsvp to kellykarr@scottpaul.com asap. If you can't make it for the dinner, please plan to join us for the Open House from 11-4 that day - we'll have a bunch of great 2005 Burgs open, including some new arrivals from the container that just came in last week.

This is also a good time to mention the 2007 SALUD auction and tasting, held this year on November 9th and 10th. We're proud to be a part of the select group of Oregon producers who are invited to make a single barrel of special wine for this event, which is available only at the annual auction. All proceeds raised go to funding healthcare programs for the vineyard crews, truly a worthy and wonderful cause. I believe tickets are still avaialble - check at www.saludauction.org

Speaking of events, don't forget we open early at 10am the Friday & Saturday of Thanksgiving Weekend for our annual Open House celebration. The inside tip is to come before noon to beat the crowds and the traffic - it can get quite crazy in the afternoon. Don't miss your shot to taste and purchase futures of the 2006 Audrey and 2006 La Paulée - there is an exceptionally small amount of the Audrey, and it will disappear quickly...

And most importantly, the wines. Fermentations continue nicely on the 2007s in the winery. Maresh and Ribbon Ridge are the standouts so far, but across the board the quality is looking pretty nice...

October 15, 2007 - Whew - all the fruit is in the barn! We brought in all the remaining parcels at Momtazi and Zenith vineyards on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and our 2007 harvest is now done. It's always a great feeling to have all of the vintage in house, until you look in the winery and realize we have 64 separate fermentations to deal with now! We are packed to the gills in there, and have definitely maxed-out the capacity of our new facility. (It's some kind of law, isn't it - that you will always expand to fill whatever space you've got?) Kelley & the crew are doing a great job staying on top of it all. It's quite an exercise in logistics, with a number of fermentations now finished and needing to be drained and pressed, others soaking and waiting to get started, and others mid-ferment and needing constant monitoring and attention.

The good news is that we're going to have some really nice wines when all is said and done. Alcohol levels should be in the 13-13.5% range across the board, which we feel is the sweet-spot for our style. The native-yeast ferments have been behaving very nicely, and the early lots from Maresh, Ribbon Ridge and Shea are showing signs of being outstanding at this point.

Sadly, the press will probably seize on the rain we had off and on during harvest, and use that to cast a negative pall over the vintage. Then, when the wines come out in 18 months-2 years from now, they'll remind everyone again that it was a "weak" year. There certainly won't be any of the 15-16% alcohol big-boy pinots that much of the press seems to love, so it can't be agood vintage, right?

Did the rain affect the vintage? Absolutely. The rain and cool weather the last couple of weeks slowed down ripening, created varying amounts of rot at different sites, and probably diluted flavors - all site-specific and dependant on when you picked. Will the wines be tremendous across the board? No. Will there be some excellent wines from 2007 in the Willamette Valley? Absolutely. Only time will tell the complete story, but as always it will be a complex story with a thousand different facets, not easily summed up as simply "good" or "bad". Rating a vintage can only be the broadest of generalizations at best, with the possible exceptions of those rare vintages like 2005 Burgundy or 2002 Oregon, when virtually everyone made excellent wine. At the end of the day, the old adage remains true - there are no great wines (or vintages), only great bottles...

October 12, 2007 - First of all, we are honored to have once again been selected by leading Burgundy/Pinot critic Allen Meadows as producers of two of the top wines of the vintage! In the new 4th quarter issue of Burghound.com we received a 91 for the '05 Audrey and a 90 for the '05 La Paulée (Allen is notoriously stingy with scores - anything over 88 is a big success in his system). Kudos to a couple of our favorite Oregon winemakers - Steve Doerner at Cristom and Russ Raney at Evesham Wood - they grabbed the two top scores of the year (93 and 92), but hey, we're #3 (and we try harder, or something like that...)

We're bringing in fruit from our remaining blocks at Momtazi today, in fact the first load is on the truck and headed our way as I write. Kelley and the crew have pressed off and barreled down a couple of the early lots from Maresh over the last two days, and the juice is really really nice. The sunshine has returned, so we should have perfect days for bringing in the last of our 2007 fruit. I'm fighting off some kind of virus/flu (nice timing, right in the middle of crush,eh?) - at this point I'm just hoping to make it through the weekend. More from the trenches as it happens...

October 9, 2007 - 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...

September 30, 2007 -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 suns