Spring 2010 – The Very Best of Burgundy Indeed

We are proud to have added five more of Burgundy’s most esteemed producers to our Scott Paul Selections Import portfolio – we just may have the best lineup of Burgundian producers under one roof anywhere.

Scott is just back from his spring tasting trip, and has returned with the news that we will now be importing the wines of one of his winemaking heroes, Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier in Chambolle-Musigny. “Freddy” is revered around the world for his ethereal, graceful, and achingly beautiful wines from his spectacular vineyard holdings in Chambolle-Musigny and Nuits-St. Georges. His Musigny, Bonnes Mares and Les Amoureuses bottlings are for many the reference-standards of great Burgundy, and we are honored to work with this special man and his pure, elegant wines.

Our first tiny allocation of the Mugnier 07s is arriving shortly.

We’ll introduce one or two of the Mugnier wines in the tasting room on Saturday June 12^th noon -5pm – watch your email for more info soon…

If that’s not enough excitement, we’ve also added the other superstar “Freddy” – Frédéric Lafarge of Domaine Michel Lafarge in Volnay. One of the leading practitioners of Biodynamic viticulture and winemaking in Burgundy, the Lafarges produce a stunning array of wines, from amazing Passetoutgrains to the best of the best Volnay 1er Crus. Scott has been a great fan of Lafarge for many years, and first met Freddy and his wife Chantal at the International Pinot Noir Celebration in Oregon in 2008. Truly at the top of their game, the Lafarge wines are a brilliant addition to the Scott Paul family. Stay tuned for arrival and availability information…

One of the great white wines on the planet is undoubtedly Corton-Charlemagne. The rock-star producer of Corton-Charlemagne is the venerable Domaine Bonneau du Martray – whose 22 acres in the heart of the best part of the Corton hill produce one of Burgundy’s most intense, thrilling, and age-worthy Grand Crus. Jean-Charles le Bault de la Morinière is now at the helm, continuing the family’s tradition of excellence. A very limited allocation of the beautiful ’07 will be here this fall.

Since the beginning, we’ve always wanted to have the great-value wines from the village of Savigny-les-Beaune in our program. The best producer there is Domaine Jean-Marc & Hugues Pavelot – who was already being imported here by another company. Rather than settle for second best, we waited. Our patience was rewarded, as the wines of Domaine Pavelot now have their home with us.

Last year we started working with one of Burgundy’s hottest young winemakers, Benjamin Leroux, who started his own operation in the 2007 vintage. Now we’ve completed the circle, as we’ll also be importing the wines Ben makes at Domaine Comte Armand in Pommard, where since 1999 he’s been drawing raves for some of the most exquisite and thoughtfully crafted wines in the Côte de Beaune. The 2^nd vintage of his Benjamin Leroux wines arrive here shortly, and he’s added a great Puligny-Montrachet and a stunning Clos St. Denis Grand Cru to the lineup this year. We’ll feature several of his wines in the tasting room on Saturday June 12^th noon – 5pm. Details soon…

In the Vineyards

We had an early start to spring here in the Willamette Valley, but then a cold spell slowed things down a bit. Bud-break and first leaves burst forth late in the 3^rd week of April, and we should be on track for flowering the 2^nd week of June or thereabouts.

At our new Azana vineyard on Chehalem Mountain, we’re in the middle of building a party deck up at the top of the upper block, which we hope to have ready in time for the nice weather (which is not reliably here until the 1^st week of July, most years…) We’ll be sending more pictures and updates, and we look forward to having you join us for some great events this summer on the deck overlooking the vines and one of the best views in the valley. In the meantime, the young vines are taking root and settling in nicely, and we’re looking forward to our first tiny crop there in fall 2011…

The Burgundy Express Wine Club – and our first Scott Paul Chambolle-Musigny

We have just bottled our single barrel of 2008 Chambolle-Musigny in the cellars of Anne & Hervé Sigaut – the first Scott Paul wine produced in Burgundy! There are only 300 bottles of this beauty, so we have decided to let our Burgundy Express Club members have the first shot at it. Each club shipment this fall will contain one bottle of our 2008 Scott Paul Chambolle-Musigny (along with new arrivals from Mugnier, Lafarge, Pavelot, and more goodies). To guarantee yourself a bottle, you just need to get signed-up for the club (if you’re not already a member). Then, whatever bottles remain available will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis this fall.

There is no charge to join the club – you simply sign up to receive two 5-6 bottle shipments each year of Burgundies that Scott has personally selected to be a part of each shipment’s “Burgundy Seminar In a Box” – accompanied with pages and pages of maps, tasting notes and  historical information. It’s all about information and education, and the wines rock! Email Kelly Karr to sign-up now and assure yourself of a bottle of our Chambolle-Musigny. kellykarr@scottpaul.com.

A special dinner in Portland – and more Events Winemaker Dinner at The Heathman, June 3rd

Join us at the Heathman in Portland on  June 3^rd for an amazing dinner benefiting the Classic Wines Auction and Metropolitan Family Services. Top Chefs Jason Wilson (the James Beard award-winner as Best Chef Northwest) of Crush in Seattle, Ethan Stowell of Union in Seattle, Cory Schreiber of Portland’s Wildwood, and Philippe Boulot of the Heathman are teaming up at the stoves, and pairing dishes with Scott Paul Pinots and wines from Chehalem, St. Innocent, and Matello. It should be a great night – get your tickets. here

Great Reds from the Côte de Beaune, this Saturday 12-5

We look forward to seeing you here in Carlton on Saturday May 15^th from 12-5 for a special tasting of the Great Reds from the Côte de Beaune. Scott will be pouring reds from Beaune, Pommard & Volnay, and leading you through these delicious yet distinctively different villages.

Benjamin Leroux and Freddy Mugnier tasting, Saturday June 12^th 12-5.

Details on the specific flight etc to come…

Please visit our Events Page for details on these and all other upcoming events – including our annual Memorial Day  Weekend Open House May 29^th & 30^th which includes a Siri Jewelry show. See you here!

Fall 2009 — “Better Late Than Never…”

Well, harvest certainly won’t be as late as last year, but as I write in mid-September we seem to be at least another 10-15 days away – definitely pushing us into a later-than-average start. It has been an odd growing season – a late, cool start to spring, a few early hot days (followed by a quick frost that wiped out portions of Ribbon Ridge), three distinct major heat spikes over the summer (each followed by uncharacteristically cool periods), a couple of August rain episodes, and then some more yin-yang in September – going back and forth from hot and dry to cool and wet. All that said, it looks like we have the potential for another good one, but until the grapes are in the fermenters, we really have no idea… Follow all the harvest updates – Burgundy and Oregon – here on the Blog…

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2007 Cuvée Martha Pirrie Pinot Noir – The end of the line!

“Last of the Cuvée Martha Pirrie” Saturday, October 3rd, 12-5
To order online, click here…

Not only are we nearing the end of our supply of the 2007 Cuvée Martha Pirrie, it is also the end of Cuvée Martha Pirrie, period (at least for the foreseeable future). 2007 was the last vintage we produced this wine. Throughout the years it has mostly been from younger vines and from purchased fruit, from vineyards that we no longer work with. (Going forward we will only be working with fruit that we farm ourselves, from our estate and leased sites in the Dundee Hills and Chehalem Mountain.) At $25/bottle (and a 10% case discount) – it’s one of the best values around in delicious Oregon Pinot from top pedigreed vineyards. Only 75 cases available.

Join us in our tasting room for the “Last of the Cuvée Martha Pirrie” event on Saturday, October 3rd and we’ll taste the first and the last vintages (2000 and 2007) – we’re sorry to see her go, but happy that she’ll be going to good homes! Our daughter Pirrie will happily sign your bottles too!

The 2007 version of our value-priced Cuvée Martha Pirrie is an excellent example of everything we hope for in this bottling – pretty red fruits layered over a lithe and supple frame, nicely balanced acidity, and a silky, yummy finish. It has put on some weight and added complex spice notes over the last year in the bottle, and is drinking beautifully right now.

Burgundy Harvest 2009, and Incoming 2007′s

Reports from our growers throughout Burgundy have been reverberating with excitement – most started picking around the 10th of September, and at this point they feel they have the potential for a spectacular vintage. The grapes were ripe, healthy, clean, and delicious. I can’t wait to get over and taste in November and get a first look at what the vintage has to hold. In the meantime, here come the yummy 2007s!

New releases from J-J Confuron, Lucien Le Moine, Taupenot-Merme, Jean-Marc Millot, Benjamin Leroux, Anne & Hervé Sigaut, Huber-Verdereau and Violot-Guillemard are on the way – watch your email for all the updates, and our annual special pre-arrival offering of the micro-quantities of the Lucien Le Moine wines (which are once again drop-dead gorgeous!)

The Burgundy Express Club

If you’re interested in learning more about the complex and fascinating wines of Burgundy – the Scott Paul Burgundy Express Club is the way to go. It’s a unique wine club, in that it’s really all about education. You get two 4 to 6-bottle shipments per year of wines from our Burgundy portfolio, hand-selected by me specifically for the club, and you get them at 20% off.

Each of these shipments comes with a packet of detailed maps, tasting notes, photos, and historical information – making these shipments a virtual “wine seminar in a box”.

The next shipment will go out in mid-October, and it’s a fascinating study of the wines of Chambolle-Musigny, the village that produces Burgundy’s most elegant, refined, lacy and delicate reds. The wines in each shipment are sold at 20% off the retail price – and while you are an active member of the club you also receive 20% off all of your Burgundy purchases from us. To join the club, just contact Kelly Karr – kellykarr@scottpaul.com or call (503) 852-7300. We currently have openings for 25 members. Club memberships also make a great gift (hint, hint)…

2008 Audrey Futures!

Every year since the first vintage of Audrey in 2003 – this wine has developed a cult-like following of its own. Audrey is our selection of the best few barrels of the vintage, and since 2005 has always come from our old-vine blocks of Maresh Vineyard in the Dundee Hills, originally planted in 1970 (making it Oregon’s 5th oldest vineyard).

The 2008 Audrey is a study in elegance, balance, and texture. Winemaker Kelley Fox and I had little to do but watch this wine “make itself” – the grapes were perhaps the finest we’ve ever worked with, and our job was simply to stay out of the way and let this wine display all that mother nature brought to the table. Only 200 cases were produced, and you can taste the wine for yourself here at the winery every weekend in November – we’ll be taking futures orders starting on November 7th, and will continue until the end of the month. Futures are sold in 6-bottle quantities only (maximum 24 bottles per person), and are offered this year at the Futures price of $44 per bottle. If any wine remains after the futures offering, the release price will be $65.

Holiday Bubbles

Our wines from Champagne Marc Chauvet have been selling like proverbial hotcakes. We’re excited to have more coming in for the holiday season, with more of the delicious NV Brut Réserve, and their top-of-the-line Special Club 1999 (which spent nine years on the lees in bottle prior to disgorgement – an awesome bottle for your celebrations at $55.)

And of course the greatest value sparkler of all is Domaine Huber-Verdereau’s Crémant de Bourgogne – 100% Pinot Noir from just below Volnay, and it totally rocks at $22.

UPCOMING EVENTS…

Farewell to Cuvée Martha Pirrie – Saturday October 3rd
As noted above – this is the end of the line for our young-vine, yummy, value-priced Pinot. We’ll have a bunch of special goodies on the tasting flight along with the first and last vintages (2000 and 2007)– plan to join us in the tasting room from 12-5, and take home some wine to stash for your upcoming parties.

Volnay Tasting and Wine Club Pickup day– Saturday October 17th 12-5.
Our Pommard tasting last weekend was a big hit, and now we’re moving next door to the village of Volnay. Home to the most floral, feminine and graceful reds of the Côte de Beaune, the tiny village of Volnay (Pop. 250) is the base for an exciting new generation of vignerons. We’ll feature both village and 1er Cru wines from Huber-Verdereau, Pascal Bouley, and Violot-Guillemard – all of which will be offered at 25% off. Watch your email for all the details…

La Paulée de Carlton – Saturday November 7th (Let’s Party!)
Our 4th annual “La Paulée de Carlton” is set for Saturday, November 7th, and we are ready to eat and drink exceedingly well – with the hopes that you can join us!

Be here for a special Multi-Winery event in our tasting room all day from 12-5. First up, it’ll be your first chance to taste and buy futures of our pride and joy and most sought-after wine – the 2008 Audrey Pinot Noir. Only 200 cases of this beauty were produced, and like its predecessors it is simply stunning (in our humble opinion!) The complete Scott Paul line-up will be available for tasting as well.

In addition, we’ve invited a few other friends & neighbor winemakers to join us. Scott Paul’s own Kelley Fox, who started her own brand two years ago, will be pouring her first releases, along with our friends from Belle Pente– making it a very festive day, with all sorts of great wines open for tasting from all the producers. (And of course a nice Burgundy or two will be in the mix!)

Then that evening it’s our annual La Paulée dinner. Since it’s inception in 2006 we’ve held it in our cellars, but this year we’ve decided to try something different. With world-class The Allison Resort & Spa now open in Newberg, we’ve got the perfect venue for a luxurious evening of dining and pinot-swapping of the highest order. In the tradition of Burgundy’s famous “La Paulée de Meursault”, all guests are invited to bring some older wines from their cellars to share around the room. The past few years have seen a veritable ocean of great old Burgs and Pinots making the rounds – it has become one of the great nights of the year for us, and I look forward to it immensely! A special menu will prepared for us by chef Nathan Lockwood and his team at the Allison’s Jory restaurant – the hottest new dining destination in wine country. Seats for the dinner are $125 each, and space is limited. To reserve your spot contact kellykarr@scottpaul.com or call (503) 852-7300 asap.

Salud – November 13th & 14th
Salud is the Oregon Pinot Noir auction – 42 of the valley’s top producers make a single barrel of their best wine specifically for Salud – and the wines are sold at auction in case lots over the course of two back-to-back events every November. All proceeds go directly to funding health care for Oregon’s vineyard workers – the program is currently serving over 8,000 workers, in fact. We are proud and honored to part of Salud again this year, and urge you to join us for these great events (and to bid high for our wine in the auction!) Tickets and details at http://www.saludauction.org

Champagne & Chambolle – November 21st & 22nd
The weekend before Thanksgiving has become a wine-tasting tradition in its own right here in the Willamette Valley – especially for those who want to get out ahead of the holiday crowds. This event was so well received last year, we’ve decided to make it an annual affair. It’ll be festive all weekend with Champagne from Marc Chauvet, and a selection of Burgs from my favorite village of Chambolle-Musigny – including bottlings from J-J Confuron, Hervé Sigaut, and Taupenot-Merme. And our own Scott Paul goodies will be here too, of course. We’ll be open 12-5 Saturday and 1-5 Sunday. Tasting fee is $20 for this event, refundable with any 3-bottle purchase.

Thanksgiving Weekend Open House – November 27th, 28th & 29th
The granddaddy of them all! Come on out for our joyous annual celebration in wine country. We’ll be open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11-5 with a great line-up of Scott Paul Pinot and Burgs to taste, including your chance to taste and buy 2008 Audrey Futures.

Your $10 admission fee is refundable with a purchase of 3 bottles or more, and includes a selection of yummy cheeses, patés and charcuterie.

Burgundy Seminars

We’re excited to continue our series of Burgundy seminars next year, with classes for both beginning and advanced Burg-lovers. If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about one of the world’s finest (yet most confusing) wine regions – these seminars are for you. Classes take place every month January through June – call Kelly Karr at (503) 319-5827 to book your seats and for more information. The 2010 Schedule will be available in December.

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

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

Harvest 2008 — “The waiting is the hardest part…”

As I write this, we are awaiting the start of a very late harvest, which may have just begun by the time you read this (we’re guessing around the 8th of October or so.) That would make this the latest harvest since 1999, which also started in the second week of October. Spring came late this year and was cooler than normal, and we’ve just never really caught up over the course of the growing season. September, however, was nearly perfect – with an endless string of sunny days and plenty of heat (average highs in the mid-80s for a good chunk of it). Watch our Blog page for current harvest updates – but as of now we have good hopes for an excellent year…

More Yummy Burgs on the way!

A container-load of more of the delicious 2006 Burgs is arriving within days – including new 06s from Lucien Le Moine, J-J Confuron, Hervé Sigaut, Pascal Bouley, Buisson-Charles, Aleth Girardin, some new Champagnes from Marc Chauvet, and two new producers in our portfolio…

Domaine Ninot

Young mademoiselle Erell Ninot is the latest in a very long line to take control of the family estate in the Côte Chalonnaise (the section of Burgundy just south of the Côte d’Or). Many of our producers go back 7 or 8 generations. Domaine Ninot goes back to 1313! Yes, that’s 1313 – as in the middle ages – a mere 695 years ago (but who’s counting).

Erell is an energetic dynamo, in full charge of all viticulture and winemaking for the 29 acre estate. Their holdings are in the villages of Rully, Mercurey and Givry – all of which are capable of producing excellent quality, but most importantly exquisite value – in both red and white. We’re bringing in her white villages Rully and a Rully 1er Cru that have lovely aromatics and great concentration, and a red villages Mercurey from old vines (70 years+) that is an absolute rockin’ deal at $25 – blowing away many $40-$60 villages burgs.

Erell keeps her yields way low (about 2 tons to the acre for the Pinot, under three tons for the Chardonnay), and uses a judiciously small amount of new oak – an average of about 10-15%. The wines are supple and vibrant and pure and quite simply a delight.

Domaine François Leclerc

François has taken over the winemaking at his father’s estate – Domaine René Leclerc – so François is not technically new to us, as we’ve been enjoying wines he’s made for the last few years. However, we are excited to be able to offer for the first time the wine from François’ own small estate, which he launched in 2005. He’s got some lovely holdings in Gevrey-Chambertin, and we were able to get a hold of a whopping 25 cases of his 2006. (He only makes a few barrels for the entire world, but he’s got a soft spot for Oregon, having done an internship here back in ’99.)

He follows the same philosophies and regimen as for his father’s wines, which is to say low yields from old vines, zero new oak, a light touch in the winery, and a focus on elegance and finesse. Burghound.com’s Allen Meadows had this to say about the ’06:

“A deeply pitched nose of somber crushed red and blue berry fruit with similar warm, iron-infused earth and underbrush notes complement the fresh and slightly sauvage medium-bodied flavors that sport plenty of Gevrey character on the delicious and nicely complex, firm and linear finish. 88pts.”

At $35/bottle this may be the best deal on Gevrey on the planet. We are thrilled to welcome François’s own wines to the Scott Paul family!

Burgundy’s new Superstar – Lucien Le Moine

We have the great fortune to import the outstanding wines from Burgundy’s hottest producer – Maison Lucien Le Moine, the project of husband & wife team Mounir Saouma and Rotem Brakir. Since their start in the 1999 vintage, the accolades have been nearly endless. This year alone they’ve nabbed the highest scoring Burgundy of the year in Wine Spectator, Winery of the year in Wine & Spirits, “One of the Wines of the Vintage” in Burghound.com, and an astonishing 56 scores of 90 pts or higher for the 2006 wines from Stephen Tanzer & Allen Meadows.

In the Middle Ages it was Cistercian monks who developed Burgundy’s vineyards and made the wines. Winemaker Mounir is a former monk – “Lucien” is the French translation of his nickname, and “Le Moine” simply means “the monk.” There is nothing simple, however, about their range of wines – over a dozen of the top Grand Crus as well as over 20 of the best 1er Crus of the Côte d’Or.

These two seem to hit a home-run every year, consistently drawing raves from all the critics. In fact only two estates – Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and LeRoy – consistently draw equal acclaim. The huge press and high scores creates a near feeding-frenzy for the wines, exacerbated by the fact that they are produced in minute quantities – usually no more than 50 cases of each bottling, more often only 25 cases. With worldwide demand for the wines, the quantities that reach our shores are even more miniscule – sometimes as low as just a few bottles of the most limited and precious appellations. In other words, don’t hesitate, last year these sold out in the first hour. For the complete listing of wines available, along with tasting notes and scores, click here.

2006 Burgundies – Drink ‘em Now!!!

What a joy it is to finally have a vintage in Burgundy that produced wines that deliver a lot of drinking pleasure when they’re young! They are delicious to drink over the near-to-medium term, and you can enjoy them now – instead of having to wait 5-10 years before they’re approachable. I direct you once again to Burgundy authority Allen Meadows for the straight scoop on 2006:

“… 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…”

A word (or two) on Value…

The wines of Burgundy have a reputation of being terribly expensive. That can be very true – especially in the case of a handful of the most famous producers. These estates (DRC, LeRoy, Coche-Dury, Lafon, Roumier, de Vogüé, for example – and perhaps another 20 or so) have intense world-wide demand for their wines, which are often produced in minute quantities (as in less than 25 cases of Roumier Musigny for the entire world.) Yes, the prices for these wines are stratospheric. Every billionaire from New York to Dubai to Hong Kong to Moscow is chasing after the wines, and they frankly don’t care what they cost.

When you get past the level of the superstar estates that command ultra-premium prices (and even more ridiculous prices in the secondary and auction markets) – you can find great wines from great producers who sell their wines for a lot less money. Often less than half the money. What’s even better is that the wines from these more reasonably-priced producers are getting the same scores from the critics as the “big boys.” A random look at a number of the Scott Paul Selections producers shows them getting, on average, the same level of critical reviews, but their wines cost 50% (or more) less!

A couple of quick examples – a 2006 Gevrey-Chambertin from Armand Rousseau or Claude Dugat sells for $150 – they get 87-89 and 86-88 Burghound points respectively. Our ’06 Gevrey from Taupenot-Merme is $46, and it scores 87-89 Burghound points. Or how about a 2006 Chambolle-Musigny from Domaine Roumier, it’s 86-88 points and $100. Our ’06 Chambolle from Hervé Sigaut gets 87-89 points for $55. There are dozens of examples like this throughout our portfolio. The choice is yours – you can pay for the label, or the quality of the wine in the bottle. (We’d choose the wine, btw…)

Two of our Burgundies Featured In Wine Advocate’s Value Issue

“The World’s Greatest Wine Values” – that’s the title of the latest issue of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. We are honored that two of our wines from Domaine Thibert Père & Fils in the Mâconnais are highlighted in this report – one of just a handful of producers in Burgundy to be included (the report included only wines that retail for $25 or less).

Thibert’s 2007 Mâcon-Prissé ($20) scored an 89 and the St. Véran ($20) grabbed 90 pts. – with this lovely write-up up from WA reviewer David Schildknecht –

“This was my first opportunity to taste wines from this estate and based on their two least expensive offerings, they are a superb source. “

Holiday Bubbles

Our first shipment of wines from Champagne Marc Chauvet sold like proverbial hotcakes. We’re excited to have more coming in for Champagne season, with more of the delicious Brut and Brut Réserve (both excellent values) and two new wines – the just-released 2002 vintage, and their top-of-the-line Special Club 1998 which spent nine years on the lees in bottle prior to disgorgement this year – an awesome bottle for your celebrations at $55.

And of course the greatest value sparkler of all is Domaine Huber-Verdereau’s Crémant de Bourgogne – 100% Pinot Noir from just below Volnay, and it totally rocks at $22. Happy Holidays!!!

Scott Paul is On The Air…

After spending more than 25 years of my life on the radio every day, it’s fun to be back “on the air” after a 15 year lay-off. The Scott Paul Pinot Podcasts are an irregular series of radio shows covering all things Pinot – interviews with industry heavyweights, mini-Burgundy seminars, anything and everything Pinot that might be entertaining or educational (or both!) The podcasts are available for streaming or downloading directly from our Blog page – so check ‘em out and let us know what you think…

2007 Cuvée Martha Pirrie Pinot Noir – Grab it Now!

There are only 150 cases left. To order online, click here… Wine information is here.

Burgundy Express Wine Club

Thanks for your tremendous response to the launch of our Burgundy Express Club earlier this year. It’s a unique wine club, in that it’s really all about education. You get two 6-bottle shipments per year of wines from our Burgundy portfolio, hand-selected by me specifically for the club, and you get them at 20% off. This is a club for those eager to explore all facets of Burgundy (and get a great deal on your wines at the same time). We might not turn you into a full-blown Burgundy expert, but we are intending each selection to be an educational and informative tasting flight with a specific topic covered in each shipment. These could vary from specific appellations, vineyard horizontals, vintage verticals — It will be like getting a mini Burgundy Seminar delivered to your door. Membership also gets you a full 20% off our already stellar prices on all of your Burgundy purchases while you remain a member. The Club was sold-out soon after we announced it, but we have now been able to get enough wine to satisfy the increased demand. So – if you’d like to sign up for yourself (a membership also makes a great gift, hint-hint) – just contact Kelly Karr at kellykarr@scottpail.com or call 503 852-7300.

UPCOMING EVENTS…

Premier Cru Weekend – October 18th & 19th, 11-4 p.m. Only 10% of all wine produced in Burgundy is classified at the lofty Premier Cru level – only vineyards that have proven to be distinctively excellent over the centuries make the cut. This weekend we’ll be featuring four exciting 1er Crus from across Burgundy, as well as two of our own Scott Paul Pinots.

You’ll taste the 2006 Chablis Fourchaume from Frédéric Gueguen, René Leclerc’s 2006 Gevrey-Chambertin Les Champeaux, the 2006 Gevrey-Chambertin Bel-Air from Taupenot-Merme, and Violot-Guillemard’s rockin’ 2006 Beaune Clos des Mouches. On the Scott Paul side we’ll be showing the brand new 2007 Cuvée Martha Pirrie and the 2006 La Paulée Pinots. Tasting fee for this special flight is $10, refundable with purchase.

La Paulée de Carlton – November 1st (Let’s Party!) Our 3rd annual “La Paulée de Carlton” is set for Saturday, November 1st, and we are ready to eat and drink exceedingly well – with the hopes that you can join us! The event begins with a grnad tasting in our tasting room, 11-4 p.m and is followed by a Grand Dinner in our winery at 6:30.

The Grand Tasting willl be your first chance to taste and buy futures of our pride and joy and most sought-after wine – the 2007 Audrey Pinot Noir. Only eight barrels of this beauty were produced, and like its predecessors it is simply stunning (in our humble opinion!) The complete Scott Paul line-up will be available for tasting as well.

On the Burgundy front, we’ll be introducing our two new producers, starting with Domain Ninot – we’ll be tasting her 2007 Rully Blanc 1er Cru and 2006 Mercurey Vieilles Vignes ($25 each – what a deal!), and then the 2006 Gevrey-Chambertin from young François Leclerc (at $35 the best deal on top villages-level Burgundy on the planet.) We’ll follow that with a super rarity – the 2006 Volnay Roncerets 1er Cru from Pascal Bouley – he only makes one barrel, and only 4 cases come into the U.S.! And of course we’ll have a nice array of cheeses and charcuterie to go with. Make your plans now to be here for one of our best events of the year. FLASH – journalist Jordan Mackay – author of the forthcoming “A Passion for Pinot” will be on hand with a sneak preview of his gorgeous book.

La Paulée Grand Dinner: Join us along with some of Oregon’s top winemakers for a true bacchanalian extravaganza. In the tradition of La Paulée in Burgundy, everyone is encouraged to bring some special bottles from their cellars to share with all dinner revelers. For reservations or more information, contact Kelly at 503-319-5827 or kellykarr@scottpail.com.

Champagne & Chambolle – November 22 & 23
The weekend before Thanksgiving has become a wine-tasting tradition in its own right here in the Willamette Valley – especially for those who want to get out ahead of the holiday crowds. We’ll make it festive all weekend with new Champagnes from Marc Chauvet, and a selection of newly arrived Burgs from my favorite village of Chambolle-Musigny – including bottlings from J-J Confuron, Hervé Sigaut, and Taupenot-Merme. And our own Scott Paul goodies will be here too, of course. We’ll be open 11-4 both days – tasting fee is $10 for this event, refundable with purchase.

Thanksgiving Weekend Open House – November 28 & 29
The granddaddy of them all! Come on out for our joyous annual celebration in wine country. We’ll be open Friday & Saturday from 10-4 with a great line-up of Scott Paul Pinot and Burgs to taste, including your chance to taste and buy 2007 Audrey Futures.

Author John Winthrop Haeger will be here on Saturday, signing copies of his exciting new book “Pacific Pinot – a comprehensive winery guide for consumers and connoisseurs.” A copy of this excellent book is yours FREE with the purchase of a 6-pack of Audrey futures, or a 6-pack of 2006 La Paulée, or any mixed 12-bottle case throughout the weekend. (John will only be here on Saturday, but the free-book deal is good Friday thru Sunday.)

Your $10 admission fee is refundable with a purchase of 3 bottles or more, and includes a selection of cheeses, patés and charcuterie. We’ll also be open regular tasting room hours on Sunday the 30th from 11-4.

Burgundy Seminars

We’re excited to continue our series of Burgundy seminars next year, with classes for both beginning and advanced Burg-lovers. If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about one of the world’s finest (yet most confusing) wine regions – these seminars are for you. Classes take place every month January through June – call Kelly Karr at 503 319 5827 to book your seats and for more information. We’ll have the 2009 Schedule finalized by early December.

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

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

Spring 2008, The Awakening…

The crocus, azalea and tulip blossoms are putting on their annual show, and it is truly a wonderful thing to see the plants slowly return to the land of the living. (But of course it’s snowing as I write this!) All’s quiet in the vineyards at the moment, but sap will be stirring and bud energy moving before we know it. It is time to stretch our limbs and climb out of the cave after a long winter’s nap. (What nap? Somehow there simply isn’t any “down time” any more…)

2006 La Paulée Pinot Noir – The Official Release!

To order online, click here…

The 2006 La Paulée has been resting comfortably in bottle since August, and its’ time has come. Succulent, lush, bursting with ripe fruits, this wine has evolved nicely in bottle and is now showing complex aromatics to go along with the pretty fruit.

As always, our La Paulée cuvée is a selection of the best lots of the vintage in our cellar. The 2006 version is culled from four different vineyards and four separate AVA’s – from our blocks of Shea Vineyard in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, Ribbon Ridge Vineyard in the neighboring Ribbon Ridge AVA, Stoller Vineyard in the southern end of the Dundee Hills ApictureVA and Momtazi Vineyard (our first year working with this fruit) – a Biodynamically farmed site in the McMinnville AVA. Each of these parcels brought their own unique characteristics, but it is indeed the whole that becomes greater than the sum of the parts.

The 2006 La Paulée offers earthy red and black fruits on the nose, with a core of delicious black picture cherry and raspberry on the palate. The texture is silky on the entry, turning to velvet on the mid-palate as the expressive ripe fruit flavors fan out to the elegant and persistent finish. In keeping with the fruit-forward nature of the vintage, it is ready to enjoy right now – though it should continue to gain in complexity over the next 5-7 years.

La Paulée Release Party April 12th – Please join us!

You’re invited – please plan to join us in Carlton for our Release Party & Open House on Saturday April 12th from 11 to 4 – the new La Paulée will of course be open for tasting, along with a selection of yummy Burgundies from our Scott Paul Selections portfolio, and we’ll have some delicious cheeses and charcuterie as well. And for large-format aficionados, for the first time we have a good amount of Magnums of the ’06 La Paulée available – get ‘em before they’re gone! Click here to access your secure order form…

And she shall be called – AZANA

As we’ve been hinting around in our blog for a while, this spring we are planting our first estate vineyard – a spectacular little 10-acre parcel in the Chehalem Mountains AVA. (It’s adjacent to Adelsheim’s Bryan Creek vineyard, if you know the area or have a vyd. map.) The vineyard will be named “Azana”, after the granddaughter of our partner, dear friend and mentor Cameron Healy.

We’ve been looking for nearly seven years, and are thrilled to have found this exciting piece of land. It sits high on the steep south slope of the mountain at about 750 feet – facing due south, with a commanding view of the entire valley. The soil is 100% Jory – the same volcanic soil that is found in the Dundee Hills, with fist-sized rocks mixed in throughout the topsoil. The site looks over the Dundee Hills, with views to the Amity Hills and the Eola Hills further south.

We’re planting 100% Pinot Noir – four different clones on two different rootstocks, but will be mixing the clones randomly in the field rather than planting discrete blocks of individual clones. (Many of my Burgundian friends believe this to be one of the keys, and I’m inclined to believe them.)

We’ll be farming the site Biodynamically (more on BD below) from the beginning, and have sourced all of our plant material from the Biodynamic nursery at Momtazi Vineayrd outside McMinnville. By mid-May the vines will be in the ground, and we’ll harvest our first tiny crop in 2010. It will be fascinating to see how the fruit develops and what we’re able to produce from this site. By the time the vines are truly mature, however, I’ll be retired!

2006 Burgundies – YES!!!

After the highly-touted (and truly amazing) 2005 vintage, I am excited to say that the 2006s are another big success. In fact, most of the 2006s will deliver more pleasure much sooner than the ‘05s – to which I say “hallelujah!”

Many of the ‘05s are now starting to close up and go into their shells for a number of years – and we need yummy burgs to drink while waiting for the ‘05s, ‘01s, ‘99s and ‘96s to come around, right? I’ve now tasted nearly six-hundred 2006 Burgs, red and white, and have been absolutely thrilled with the lovely fruit character, the balance, and the approachability. (I’m also happy to report that the 2007s are lovely as well, and will be another early-drinking vintage. More on these soon.)

Here’s the word on 2006 from the man with the last word on Burgundy – Allen Meadows, Burghound.com – Issue 29/January 2008:

The first of the 2006s will start to arrive in late May. The weakness of the Dollar versus the Euro makes the prices a bit higher. But as the French would say, “c’est comme ça” – or simply “that’s just the way it is”. There is, however, some silver lining in this cloud:

We are direct importers, and in most cases purchase direct from the producers. In this manner, there are no middle-men or others taking markups before we get to the wines. Our direct imports go straight from the producer’s cellar to our warehouse in McMinnville, Oregon, and then direct to you.

Another point in our favor in this dollar-darkened cloud is that our producers generally sell their wines at reasonable prices – often half of what their more “famous” neighbors charge. (Lucien Le Moine and François Lamarche are indeed pretty high – but they have such massive world-wide demand for their production that they can charge whatever they want, it seems.)

A Chambolle-Musigny from Taupenot-Merme at $46 or from J-J Confuron at $55 is a lot more interesting to me than one from de Vogüé at twice the price – especially when the wines are earning the same scores from Burghound! Same goes for a Gevrey-Chambertin from René Leclerc at $40 or Taupenot-Merme at $46 compared to similarly scoring wines from Dugat or Rousseau at nearly double the fare. You can have the prestige of the “label”, or you can have the same quality wine for a lot less. For me, it’s an easy choice…

Bubbles, anyone?

For the first time, we are expanding our portfolio outside of Burgundy, to bring in two exciting new small producers in Champagne. My two true loves in the wine world have always been Burgundy and Champagne, and as always, our portfolio follows my passion. There is more and more interest every day in the small “Grower Champagnes”, and I’m excited to have found a couple of small family operations that are producing gorgeous stuff at great prices. (Not to mention that it keeps my wife and the whole Scott Paul team very happy!)

New Additions to the Portfolio . . .

Our commitment to Organic & Biodynamic

Quite simply, we’d like to be a tiny part of the solution rather than continuing to contribute to the problem. The delicate balance of nature is, in our eyes, clearly threatened. It seems obvious that working in harmony with nature is the only informed choice we could make.

Going forward, we will not be working with any vineyards that are not organically or Biodynamically farmed. This means letting expire contracts we’ve had for many years at a number of fine vineyards. All of the vineyards we farm ourselves (Maresh, Azana) will be farmed according to Biodynamic principles. The vineyards where we purchase fruit (always on a per-acre basis, and always from our designated blocks & rows) will be Biodynamically or sustainably/organically farmed. In addition to all of the environmental & ecological reasons to do this, there’s another big plus – we feel it contributes to better quality wines!

Certainly the organic/Biodynamic principles and practices alone do not make wine inherently better. But we believe that using this approach at minimum brings the winemaker and viticulturist into closer and more regular contact with the vines, and that this attention in the vineyard can only lead to better raw materials. (Then our job in the winery is to just not screw it up!)

The goals of organic and Biodynamic practices are to return the soils to their natural and healthy state of balance, where they are teeming with life from millions of living things – the micro-organisms that toxins and chemicals used in conventional farming simply destroy.

Biodynamics is often called the original organic farming system. Named and organized in the 1920’s, it pulls together the wisdom and practices of ancient and old-fashioned agriculture, the way previous generations farmed before the advent of chemical/industrial farming.

It’s a very simple concept – treat the soils, vines and grapes holistically, as part of a self-sustaining, self-nourishing system. The practice requires that we approach our winegrowing tasks with a lot of intention, and that we continue to be students of this fascinating field.

So what does this mean in practical application? Let’s start by stating what we don’t do –

• No Herbicides
• No Fungicides
• No Pesticides
• No Insecticides
• No Chemical Fertilizers

What DO we do?

• Apply organic compost to our soils
• Apply organic sulfur sprays
• Apply homeopathic doses of Biodynamic “teas”, which are prepared from our compost and organic plants (examples include Chamomile, Stinging Nettle, and Yarrow.)
• Whenever possible, our operations in the vineyard (plowing, pruning, spraying, treatments, harvest) as well as all actions in the winery (racking, topping, blending, bottling) are timed according to the lunar calendar. The energy of different phases of the waxing or waning moon has been shown to favor certain activities on certain days.

For more information on Biodynamics visit www.demeter-usa.org.

Fall 2007 – the time is ripe

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

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

2006 Cuvée Martha Pirrie Pinot – The Official Release!

To order online, click here…

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

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

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

Release party September 22nd – be there!

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

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

The magnificent 2005 Burgundies – the 2nd Coming…

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

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

New Additions to the Portfolio…

Domaine Anne & Hervé Sigaut

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

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

Domaine des Chenevières

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

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

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

2006 La Paulée & Audrey Futures…

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

Maresh Vineyard in the Dundee Hills

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

The Green-washing of wine…

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

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

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

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

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

UPCOMING EVENTS…

2nd annual La Paulée de Carlton

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

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

SALUD!

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

http://www.saludauction.org

Thanksgiving Weekend Open House

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

Fall tasting trip Burgundy

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

Burgundy Seminars

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

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

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

Spring 2007 – Bursting Forth

Spring is definitely in the air here in Carlton (that means it’s still raining about half the time!). As the vines gather their energy to push out the new buds in the coming weeks, we too are readying quite an array of exhilarating new activity…

2005 Scott Paul Pinots – The Official Release!

To order online, click here.
The 2005 La Paulée and Audrey Pinots are now officially here and ready to fly. If you didn’t already grab some when we offered these as futures, now’s the time to get ‘em before they’re gone. Especially in the case of Audrey, where availability is down to just a handful of 6-packs due to strong demand for the futures offering.
Release party April 28th – be there!
Please plan to join us for our Release Party & Open House on Saturday April 28th from 11 to 4 – the new wines will be open for tasting, along with a selection of yummy Burgundies from our Scott Paul Selections portfolio, and we’ll have some delicious nibbles to accompany all. If you planned to pick up your futures at the winery – this would be a great time.

The 2005 Scott Paul Pinots

For detailed info and tasting notes, click here…

The 2005 growing season here in the North Willamette Valley gave us challenges in the vineyard throughout the year, but ended up giving us beautifully balanced fruit to bring into the winery in September & October. Once again, as in 2004, mother nature gave us very little fruit to work with. We ended up averaging just 1.1 tons per acre in ’05 (up from a whopping .8 tons in ’04!), so again our production was cut nearly in half.

The good news is that this tiny crop ripened nicely, with beautiful flavors and a near-perfect fruit/acid/tannin balance – and all before the rains hit at the end of September. All of our blocks at every site except Maresh vineyard were picked by Sept. 29th. The rains then kindly stopped after a few days and allowed the old vines to finish their job, and we picked our blocks at Maresh on October 9th – which turned out to be the best fruit of the year (and perhaps the best wine we’ve ever put in the bottle – the ’05 Audrey.)

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

The magnificent 2005 Burgundies…

Amidst all the hype and horn-blowing for various vintages and wine regions throughout history and around the world – occasionally the truth actually exceeds the expectations. Such is the case with the soon-to-arrive 2005s from Burgundy. I’ll leave it to the Burgundy world’s leading expert and critic, Allen Meadows.

“Let’s cut directly to the chase while passing Go (be sure to collect your $200 as you’re going to need it) – 2005 is quite simply the best top to bottom vintage that I have ever seen, period, full stop. Yes, I understand perfectly well that is a bold and heavy duty statement but there it is in all its unequivocal nakedness. 2005 is a brilliant vintage with virtually nothing to dislike (except perhaps the prices) and here is the key point, it’s also great from top to bottom. Moreover, in terms of regional and villages wines, 2005 is so good that it blows the next closest recent contender, 1999, right out of the water.”
BURGHOUND – January 2007

I have personally tasted nearly four hundred different 2005 Burgundies, and all I can say is I concur wholeheartedly. The wines are excellent top to bottom and across the board. It’s one of those rare vintages where everyone made good wine. It’s an exciting time to be in the Burgundy business, to be sure.

We’re expecting the first container of our 2005 Burgs to arrive in late May, and the interest and demand for these wines is at a level I’ve never seen before. All of your favorite producers from last year will of course be back this time, along with four exciting new additions to the portfolio.

We will begin offering some of the 2005 Burgs on a Pre-Arrival basis on April 25th. Watch your email for the announcement, and we urge you to act quickly to secure the wines you want. (Also, if you purchased 2005 Hospices de Beaune futures from us last year, they’ll be arriving in late May – details soon…)

New Additions to the Portfolio…

Domaine J-J Confuron
The opportunity to represent this superstar domaine was a stroke of great fortune for us. One of Burgundy’s most respected top-tier producers is now in the hands of the husband & wife team of Alain & Sophie Meunier, who took over from Sophie’s father in 1988. Among their vineyard holdings are prime villages and Premier Cru holdings in Chambolle-Musigny, and a gorgeous old-vine parcel of the Grand Cru Romanée-St. Vivant (one of Allen Meadow’s “Don’t Miss Wines of the Vintage.”)

Maison Lucien Le Moine
This micro-producer is based in the jewel-box village of Beaune. The team of Mounir Saouma and Rotem Brakir (he’s Lebanese, she’s Israeli) produces over 20 different wines in miniscule quantities – generally one or two barrels of each – with nearly a dozen of the top Grand Crus including Richebourg, Romanée-St.Vivant, Clos de Beze and Bonnes Mares in their arsenal. Their wines routinely score in the hi-90s – in fact 14 out of 20 reviewed were over 94 pts. in the latest Steve Tanzer report.

Domaine Jean-Marc Millot
Jean-Marc Millot’s 17 acres of vineyard holdings are concentrated in the villages of Vosne-Romanée, Vougeot, and Flagey-Echezeaux. Jean-Marc took over the domaine in 1990, but has had most of the Grand Cru sites since only 1998 (his wife was an heir to an old domaine that’s no longer around.) His wines are the epitome of elegance, purity, and understatement, with a beautiful sense of finesse, harmony and overall balance.

Domaine Taupenot-Merme
The roots of the family estate go back to the 1700’s, and today’s superb vineyard holdings in Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-St. Denis and Chambolle-Musigny were united by the marriage of two winemaking families three generations ago. Now in the hands of 41 year-old Romain Taupenot and his sister Virginie, 36, they are the 7th generation to continue the family tradition. The wines are rich, round, well-balanced, and built to age. Romain Taupenot will be joining us in Oregon for IPNC – the International Pinot Noir Celebration – this summer. See below for more IPNC information.

Profile – Winemaker Kelley Fox

Kelley Fox joined us as our fulltime winemaker in August of 2005, after having worked with us part-time during the 2003 harvest. I first met Kelley at the Steamboat winemakers conference in southern Oregon in the summer of 2001, when I had just joined Domaine Drouhin as its new Managing Director. Kelley was making wine & the GM for Torii Mor then, and our mutual passion for great Pinot formed the basis for a friendship that continues to this day.

When we moved our operations to the Winemakers Studio for the 2003 harvest, Kelley had moved on to making wine for Hamacher – and Eric Hamacher kindly offered that Kelley might have some time to work with us if we needed (and we did – at that point Scott Paul was an army of one!) We quickly discovered that we were of one mind on all matters concerning Pinot – our palates were completely in line, our philosophies in harmony, and we each perfectly understood what it was we were trying to achieve with the wines. I knew that if we ever had the opportunity to add a fulltime member to the team, Kelley was our first and only choice.

However, we didn’t quite have the need for someone just yet, and before I knew it “Papa Pinot” – David Lett of The Eyrie Vineyard, the founding father of the Oregon Pinot industry – did have an opening, and he wisely snatched Kelley up starting in 2004. Never being one to accept defeat easily, I devised a way to create a fulltime opening for the fall of 2005, and set about to luring Kelley back into our world. Ultimately, the universe aligned itself in our favor, and we were incredibly fortunate to bring Kelley in as the first addition to the Scott Paul team.

She has a remarkable background, with degrees in Biochemistry, Bio-physics, Psychology and Biology, and is a poet-warrior-philosopher-mystic and mother. Along with her years of winemaking in Oregon she also worked the 2004 harvest in New Zealand, and is a great student of life, nature, and wine.

Kelley’s skills and talents take much better care of the wines than I could ever hope to. As the growth of Scott Paul pulls me more and more in many different directions – it is her constant efforts in the cellar and vineyards that make our wines what they are. We always taste together, make our blending decisions together, and hone in together on what it is we’re looking for and trying to achieve with the wines, and it is a wondrously successful combination. Our wines are much better off for having Kelley at the helm, and I am proud and honored that she is our winemaker.

When not in the cellar or the vines, Kelley can be found fly-fishing, mushroom hunting, wilderness hiking, or simply enjoying life in McMinnville with her two daughters and a bevy of friends.

CLASSES AND EVENTS…

Burgundy Seminars

We’re excited to continue our series of Burgundy seminars, with classes for both beginning and advanced Burg-lovers. If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about one of the world’s finest (yet most confusing) wine regions – these seminars are for you.

Burgundy 101
Saturday, May 12th 6-8 p.m. Cost: $40

Burgundy, one of the world’s legendary wine regions, is home to the world’s finest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines. (Yes, all red Burgundy is made from the Pinot Noir grape, and all white Burgundy is made from the Chardonnay grape – you now know more than 99% of the population!) Scott will explain a little history, different village characteristics, as well as how to decipher a Burgundian wine label. You’ll learn a lot about hedonistic pleasure and romance and will emerge armed with more Burgundy knowledge than anyone you know (unless they’re a confirmed Burgundy geek, that is.)

Burgundy: The Graduate Course
Saturday, June 9th 6 -8 p.m. Cost: $55
Scott, a self-professed Burgundy Geek, is looking for other experienced Burgundy-philes to indulge his love of the region. We’ll delve deeply into the nuances of various terroirs, producers, and vintages – and pull the corks on some stellar Premier and Grand Crus. Explore the characteristics of famous vineyards in the hands of different producers, look into different production techniques, and discuss all sorts of minutia that makes Burgundy endlessly fascinating.

For all seminars we’ll provide a light meal of French cheese & charcuterie from Steve’s Cheese and bread from Pearl Bakery to accompany the six or so featured Burgundies. A special 25% case discount on all Scott Paul Selections Burgundies will be offered the evening of the class as well. Seminars are limited to 30 people and held at the tasting room in Carlton. Please contact Kelly Karr at kellykarr@scottpaul.com or 503-319-5827 to sign up.

Memorial Day Weekend Open House
The first one in our new facilities! Join us for the annual rite of spring – we’ll be open 10-4 (come early to beat the traffic and crowds) on Saturday & Sunday, May 26th & 27th. Your $5 tasting fee includes an array of cheeses and charcuterie, and of course a killer line-up of Scott Paul Oregon Pinots and a selection of Burgundies. (It is possible that the 2005 Burgundies will have arrived by then – if so you’ll be in for a very special treat.) We’ll be open regular tasting room hours 11-4 on Monday the 28th, without all the Open House hoopla…

Our 1st Anniversary party – June 16th
Last year we threw open our doors for the first time on our converted creamery/granary/tasting room in Carlton. Saturday June 16th will mark our 365th day in our new home – and that’s as good an excuse as any for a party! We’re still working on the details, but it seems as of this writing that a barbecue is in the works. Save the date and watch your email for all the details…

IPNC – The International Pinot Noir Celebration – July 27th – 29th
Now in its 21st year – IPNC has truly become the best of all wine events in the U.S. every year. It’s a gathering of 60 of the top Pinot Noir producers from around the world with a few hundred of the top Pinot Noir lovers from across America – for three days of pure unadulterated joy. Seminars, vineyard visits, luncheons, tastings, dinners under the stars, and more fabulous Pinot Noir in one place than one could imagine!

We are honored to have been chosen as one of the featured wineries for IPNC this year, and even more exciting is the news that we’ll have three of our Burgundian producers coming across the ocean to participate this summer. Romain Taupenot, of Domaine Taupenot-Merme in Morey-St. Denis, Thierry & Estelle Violot of Domaine Violot-Guillemard in Pommard, and Aleth Girardin from Pommard will also be featured wineries this year – and of course their wines will be showcased in the Scott Paul tasting room in July…

As of this writing tickets to IPNC are still available – go to http://www.ipnc.org for more information.

Family Vacation to Burgundy!
I’ll be pretty hard to get a hold of the last week of June and the first half of July – I’ll be eating escargot, jambon persillée and gigot d’agneau at Ma Cuisine in Beaune, as Martha, Pirrie and I enjoy a working vacation in Burgundy. We’ll be tasting the 2006s in barrel, working in the vineyards as the 2007 crop develops, and generally hanging out with all our producers and their families up and down the Côte d’Or. Many of our producers have children Pirrie’s age, and Domaine Violot-Guillemard has a new swimming pool – how bad can it be?!

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

Martha & Scott Wright

Winter 2007 – A Season of Great Expectations

As the vines sleep quietly in their winter dormancy, the portent of wonderful things to come is already in the air. Listen closely to the silence, and within you can hear the gathering energy of buds that will bring fruitfulness in the coming year…

2005 Scott Paul Pinots – An Update

We will officially release the 2005 La Paulée and 2005 Audrey Pinots on Monday, April 2 nd. Watch your email for the release offering at that time. Futures orders were especially strong this year, so there will be a miniscule amount of the Audrey available for sale upon release. There will be a bit more La Paulée available, but as always we recommend that you act quickly to be sure to get what you want. More on the 2005 vintage in Oregon in our next report, but for now let me say that I am happier with these wines than any we’ve produced in our first eight years…

On-line ordering has returned to scottpaul.com!
Click here to access your secure order form…

Scott Paul Selections Burgundies Producer Profile
Domaine Huber-Verdereau, Volnay

Beginning with Domaine Huber-Verdereau, each month we will

profile a producer from our Scott Paul Selections Burgundy portfolio,
and explain a little bit about their village, their approach, etc. – in an effort
to continue on our mission to help you understand and explore the fascinating
region of Burgundy. We’ll also offer discounted pricing on a selection of their
wines so you can explore with glass in hand.

Enjoy!

The 30-ish, dynamic and charismatic Thiébault Huber is at the forefront of the new generation’s quality revolution in Burgundy. Thiébault was born in Alsace, studied hotel & restaurant management in college, and was trained as a sommelier – in which capacity he served at a famous Michelin-starred restaurant on France’s Mediterranean coast for a number of years. As a boy he spent his summers at his grandparents’ Burgundian summer home in Volnay.

His family’s 7 acre vineyard estate in Volnay had been leased out to others for nearly 50 years, but the opportunity arose for Thiébault to take over and bring the domaine back under family control in 1994. His wines began attracting attention in France immediately, with his first releases from that 1994 vintage. Over these past few years he has been able to gain control of a few more prime vineyard parcels, and the estate now measures 14 acres.

The holdings include prime pieces of Volnay, Volnay Robardelles, Volnay Fremiets 1er Cru, Pommard, Pommard Bertins 1er Cru, and Puligny-Montrachet.

Volnay is a tiny Burgundian village of about 350 inhabitants, surrounded on all sides by steeply sloping vineyards. Volnay sits directly next to the village of Pommard, though the wines from these two areas could not be more different. Volnay is known for wines that are gently perfumed, with intoxicating floral aromas and lively red-berry flavors wrapped up in a silky, elegant, feminine package (as opposed to the wines from neighboring Pommard, which are generally bigger, bolder, more tannic and earthy, with black fruit flavors – wines that can be more rustic than refined).

Thiébault believes strongly that the quality of the wine is determined in the vineyard, and that the healthiest, naturally-farmed vineyards produce the highest quality. He began farming his parcels of wines organically from the outset, and converted the entire estate to the Biodynamic system of farming in 2005. Biodynamics was founded in 1924 by Austrian scientist and philosopher Rudolph Steiner (also creator of the Waldorf system of education). Though known under the name of Biodynamics for less than a hundred years, it is actually a modern organization of an ancient system of agriculture – the earth has been farmed in this fashion for centuries.

The basic tenets of the system involve farming the vines in complete harmony with the forces of nature, and using no chemical additions of any kind. The vines are treated holistically, with only homeopathic doses of organic sprays (which are derived from decomposed cow manure) allowed on the plants and soils. All actions in the vineyard and winery follow the timing of the lunar calendar. The goal is to awaken the vines and soils to the energies of the universe, and to give the plants the opportunity to build up their immune systems, so they can combat pressure from pests and disease on their own, rather than through harmful chemical treatments.

When tasting biodynamically produced wines, it is often said that they taste more “alive” than conventionally farmed wines. There is an honesty and a purity to these wines, and they are probably the most transparent expression of the terroir in which they were grown.

The wines of Domaine Huber-Verdereau are very alive indeed. Complex aromas and flavors emerge from the glass, and you get the impression that you’re drinking something of the earth, not a beverage concocted in a lab.

Great wines also often reflect the personality of the winemaker in addition to the place they were grown. Thiébault’s wines are indeed very Thiébault – exuberant, fun, lively and honest.

Thiébault, his wife Marielle and their four children live in the Burgundian village of Pommard, a two- minute commute from the winery in Volnay.

We’re proud to bring Thiébault’s wines to the U.S. – wines that were hailed by leading Burgundy critic Allen Meadows as “far and away my most exciting discovery” in 2006.

Thiébault is in the US next week to participate in World of Pinot Noir event – March 2 nd & 3 rd at the Cliff’s Resort at Shell Beach, and there are tastings and dinners with Thiébault planned in California and Oregon as well. See Events Section below and watch our Blog for the latest details…

Special Offer

Now through March 16th, all of Thiébault’s wines from the Volnay appellations are featured at special prices:

2004 Volnay

An extremely pretty nose featuring an elegant mix of berry fruit aromas and violet notes leading to delicious, rich and round flavors that possess a firmly tannic spine yet the tannins are ripe and well-integrated. This is built to age with better phenolic ripeness than many ‘04s from Volnay. Recommended – One of the Best Values of the vintage.

2004 Volnay Robardelles

A step up in overall elegance with an almost completely violet-infused nose and rich, full and completely serious flavors that are underpinned by slightly finer tannins and better overall depth. A terrific effort at this level and highly recommended.

2004 Volnay Fremiets 1er Cru $38 (Regularly $44)

Notably ripe, dark pinot fruit aromas and rich, mouth coating and textured middle weight flavors that are unusually well-concentrated in the context of the vintage with excellent complexity and ample amounts of the hallmark minerality of a classic Frémiets. A really lovely effort and recommended.

Also, we now have a secure online order form!
Click here to easily place your order now.

EVENTS

Burgundy Seminars
We’re excited to announce our first series of Burgundy seminars, with classes for both beginning and advanced Burg-lovers. If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about one of the world’s finest (yet most confusing) wine regions – these seminars are for you. The first three events in February, March, and April are already sold-out, but we’ll be announcing classes for May and June shortly – watch your e-mail…

World of Pinot Noir
If you’re planning a trip to central California for the annual World of Pinot Noir event in March – look for us pouring a sneak-preview of the new 2005 La Paulée, and Domaine Huber-Verdereau’s Thiébault Huber pouring his gorgeous wines from Volnay & Pommard. Details at http://www.worldofpinotnoir.com

Scott Paul 2005 Release Party
Saturday April 28th from 10-4 may be the only opportunity you’ll have to try the 2005 Audrey Pinot Noir before it’s all gone! We’ll also pour the 2005 La Paulée and a selection of Burgundies. If you bought futures, we’d love for you to come get them! More details to come…

Memorial Day Weekend Open House
We look forward to seeing you here for our first Memorial Day Weekend Open House in our new facilities on May 26 th & 27 th.

1st Anniversary Celebration
June 16th and 17th. Not sure what we’ll do to celebrate at this point, but we’ll do something special to recognize a busy and successful year in our new home in Carlton. Any excuse for a party!

Family Vacation to Burgundy!
I’ll be pretty hard to get a hold of the last week of June and the first half of July – I’ll be eating escargot, jambon persillée and gigot d’agneau at Ma Cuisine in Beaune, as Martha, Pirrie and I enjoy a working vacation in Burgundy. We’ll be tasting the 2006s in barrel, working in the vineyards as the 2007 crop develops, and generally hanging out with all our producers and their families up and down the Côte d’Or. Many of our producers have children Pirrie’s age, and Domaine Violot-Guillemard has a new swimming pool – how bad can it be?!

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

Martha & Scott Wright

Fall 2006 -

Our new winery, New Releases, Futures, and a new annual event – “La Pauleé de Carlton”…

Another gorgeous Oregon summer has blended gracefully into fall and a healthy crop of beautiful Pinot fruit is coming into the winery and beginning its magical transformation into that divine liquid we call pure Oregon Pinot Noir…

Home at last!

After having made our wine in shared facilities since we started, it is amazing to finally be in our own new space. Our brand-spanking new winery was sort of “ready” as harvest began on September 22 nd – well, at least ready enough that we could start the winemaking process while construction continued above and around us as we worked. (There seems to be some unwritten law that wineries are not actually allowed to be completed in time for harvest – no matter when you start construction.)

Over the years we’ve made our wines at eight different facilities – (Flowers, Scherrer, Selby, Laird Family Estate, Tandem, Domaine Drouhin Oregon and the Carlton Winemakers Studion – but who’s counting!) It’s been a wonderful experience every step of the way, but nothing beats having a winery and all the equipment all to yourself. Please come visit – our tasting room is open 11-4 Wednesday-Sunday, and we’d be happy to tour you through the facilities and taste you through the wines. Come and check out the 2005 Cuvée Martha Pirrie while it lasts…

The 2005 Wines

Those who’ve been around the winemaking business a long time will tell you that there are no two vintages alike. In our seven harvests so far we’ve certainly seen that to be true, each one having its own distinct character and personality. 2005 in Oregon gave us two harvests – one before the rain, and one after. An endless string of perfect sunny, warm days and cool nights (with an average diurnal fluctuation of 30 degrees) continued through Sept. 29th – and then we got whacked with a bunch of rain for five solid days. Wonderfully for us, everything at Shea, Stoller, and Ribbon Ridge was ripe and ready and picked by the 29th (We picked on the 23rd, 24th, & 29th.)

All we had remaining on the vine when the rains came was our 2.5 acres of Maresh vineyard – the old vines at the top of the Dundee Hills planted in 1970. This also played into our favor, as old vines tend to be rather impervious to the weather, and a few days of rain didn’t affect these hearty old plants at all. If anything, it may have helped a bit, giving a drink of water to some stressed plants in what is always a late-ripening site. We waited until October 9 th to bring in the Maresh fruit, and as you’ll see further on, it turned out to be the single best lot of the vintage for us…

To download our current order form, click here.

The new Cuvée Martha Pirrie is here…

Last year this wine sold out in the blink of an eye, and this year we have only a few more cases to sell than last time, unfortunately. Yields were down again in 2005, but not as sharply as 2004. Still, we have a scant 125 cases of this bottling available. I love everything about it – I just wish there was more…

2005 Cuvée Martha Pirrie Pinot Noir – $24
125 cases available

From our blocks of three of Oregon’s most prestigious vineyards comes the 2005 version of our value-priced Cuvée Martha Pirrie. (Named after our daughter, Martha Pirrie Wright – she goes by “Pirrie”.)

Shea Vineyard – Great structure, ripe black fruits and earthy aromas from the old-vine Pommard clone in Block 21 and younger Dijon clones 777 & 828

Stoller Vineyard – Pretty aromatics and juicy raspberries from “Goat Block” and blocks 21 & 32Ribbon Ridge Vineyard – Lush, hedonistic fruit, a sweet, juicy mid-palate, and rich textures from this special spot in one of Oregon’s hottest new appellations.

All fruit was picked on September 23, 24 & 29. The wine was aged for 10 months in French oak – 20% new – and was bottled un-fined and un-filtered on August 21, 2006.

Scott’s Tasting Notes
Put them all together and you get a rich, mouth-filling wine that is fruit-forward, sexy, and long. Blackberries and black raspberries dominate the nose, with a lush mid-palate and black-fruit flavors that keep flowing though the long and elegant finish. Drink now and over the next 3-5 years.

To download our current order form, click here.

La Paulée & Audrey Futures…

Mother Nature was kind enough to give us more La Paulée in 2005. (Audrey is, of course, its usual micro-production of a whopping six barrels.) We’re excited to offer these wines as futures – they’ll be ready for release in April, but you can purchase them now at significant savings over the release prices. Futures are sold in 6-bottle increments only. You’re welcome to come taste the 2005 futures with us over Thanksgiving weekend (see details below…)

2005 La Paulée Pinot Noir - Futures Price – $30
(will be $40 on release)
1,892 6-packs produced

La Paulée – our most complete and complex wine of the vintage. We individually selected 40 barrels in our cellar for this cuvée, from three different vineyards and eight separate blocks:

Shea Vineyard – 19 barrels (47.5%), from our old-vine Pommard clones in Block 21, and Dijon Clones 777 & 828 from Blocks 10, 18 & 19

Ribbon Ridge Vineyard – 13 barrels (32.5%), from our blocks of Pommard and Dijon clone 777

Stoller Vineyard – 8 barrels (20%), from blocks 32 & “Goat block”

All fruit was harvested on September 23, 24, & 29. The wine was raised for 10 months in French Oak – 20% new – and was bottled un-fined and un-filtered on August 23 & 24, 2006.

Scott’s Tasting Notes
Each of these lots on their own was very nice, but the combination truly brought out the best in all of them. This is a succulent and seductive Pinot, scents of crushed Oregon raspberries and heady aromas, leading into pure, round flavors of black cherries, raspberries and wild strawberries. This wine should flesh-out in the bottle over the next six months, and should be at its peak 2008-2011.

To download our current order form, click here.

2005 Audrey Pinot Noir - Futures Price – $40
(will be $55 on release)
261 6-packs produced

Once again a scant six barrels were selected this year to proudly wear the title of Audrey. For this special bottling we select our purest, most elegant, most intoxicatingly delicate wine of the vintage. (Audrey is named after and inspired by the timeless icon of natural beauty, elegance, and grace – Ms. Hepburn.)

The 2005 Audrey is comprised entirely of fruit from our blocks of Maresh Vineyard, situated high atop the steep Dundee Hills. This makes it a “single vineyard” wine – a rarity for us, as we’ve often stated we generally prefer to blend from our different sites to create more complete and complex wines. However, when a single vineyard produces wine like this – there is no reason to add fruit from anywhere else. Any addition could have only diminished the purity, the lacy elegance, the captivating aromas, and the special “sense of place” this wine conveys.

Maresh vineyard was planted by Jim Maresh in 1970, making it one of the true grand-daddies of Oregon vineyards (in fact only four Oregon sites are older.) The plant material is believed to be some form of the Swiss Wadenswil clone, planted on its own roots, and is of course a wide-spaced (6×10), non-irrigated planting.

Picking date was October 9th. The wine was in French oak for 10 months – two of the six barrels were new – and it was bottled un-fined and un-filtered on August 23rd, 2006.

Scott’s Tasting Notes
This wine is aptly named. Delicate and graceful yet stunningly beautiful, light on its feet but with deceptive power, floral and wild berry aromas flow seamlessly into ripe sweet mid-palate red fruits, and the purity carries on and on through the long, seductive finish. Let this wine develop to full complexity over the next 5-7 years.

To download our current order form, click here.

EVENTS

La Paulée de Carlton – Saturday November 4th!

One of the great traditions in all the wine world is Burgundy’s “La Paulée”. This French term is the name of the harvest celebrations that began in Burgundy centuries ago, originally as a small feast the winegrowers would host for their pickers and winery crews on the final day of harvest at the estate. Over time this mutated into the now famous “La Paulée de Meursault”, where hundreds of winegrowers from all across Burgundy get together for a 10-hour lunch in the cellars of the Chateau de Meursault on the 4 th Monday of November, and each guest brings several prized bottles from their cellars to freely share with all. (If you ever get a coveted invitation to this event – re-arrange your life to be able to go – it is truly amazing.)

I’ll be attending once again this fall – the Paulée is part of a three day weekend celebration in Burgundy called “Les Trois Glorieuses” – which includes the famous Hospices de Beaune auction. As last year, I’ll be looking to purchase a barrel or two at the auction – watch this space to see if we’re successful…

In recent years, enterprising Burgundy lovers around the world have created their own “La Paulée” celebrations – there is one every couple of years in New York, and occasionally in San Francisco as well. That said, the time has come for the soon-to-be-famous “La Paulée de Carlton”.

Beginning Saturday, November 4th, and all first-Saturdays in November to come, we will proudly host the Oregon version of this bacchanalian feast here at the new Scott Paul winery and tasting room in Carlton. Watch your mailbox for your invitation.

Ours will be a two-pronged Paulée. To begin we’ll have an open-house from 11-4 in the tasting room – and we’ll open up a bunch of great wines from our cellars to taste throughout the day. Then, we’ll have a reservation-only dinner in our cellars that night, with seating limited to 50 Pinot lovers – who will all be asked to bring a few bottles share in the traditional spirit of La Paulée. Places at the dinner are $100 per person, and may be reserved by calling Kelly Karr at (503) 319-5827 or email kellykarr@scottpaul.com. We look forward to celebrating the harvest with you!

We’re proud to be participating for the first time this year in…
SALUD – the Oregon Pinot Noir Auction

Scheduled for November 11th & 12th, this outstanding event brings together 42 of Oregon’s top producers and hundreds of Pinot lovers over two days for a tasting, barrel auction and gala dinner to support medical care and services for the vineyard workers throughout Oregon. It’s a tremendous cause, and the wines up for auction are not available anywhere else – these are exclusive cuvées bottled expressly for SALUD. We’ve selected a single-barrel from our old-vine block of Maresh Vineyard in the Dundee Hills for our 2005 SALUD bottling, and it is truly a special wine. See www.saludauction.org for more details…

Thanksgiving Open House

Then on November 24 th & 25 th, it’s our first ever Thanksgiving Weekend Open House in our new facilities. Join us for your opportunity to sample the 2005 Audrey and La Paulée futures, and snap up the 2005 Cuvée Martha Pirrie while it lasts. As always, the futures will be offered at significant savings, and we’ll also have a few Burgundy surprises available for tasting and purchase.

Come early to beat the crowds – we’re opening at 10am each day – hours are 10-4 Friday & Saturday November 24 th & 25 th. Admission is $5 per person, which includes all tastings and yummy delectables. (Our tasting room will be open our regular hours 11-4 on Sunday November 26 th, minus the Open House food goodies & crowds!)

And the best of Burgundy too…

Earlier this year, we started up our new import division – Scott Paul Selections – focusing exclusively on the great wines of Burgundy. Our portfolio includes over 40 different wines from eight of Burgundy’s finest small family domaines, many of which are not available anywhere else in the U.S. We take great pride in representing the following fine Burgundian producers:

Domaine René Leclerc – Gevrey-Chambertin
Domaine François Lamarche – Vosne-Romanée
Domaine Thierry Violot-Guillemard – Pommard
Domaine Aleth Girardin – Pommard
Domaine Huber-Verdereau – Volnay
Domaine Réyane & Pascal Bouley – Volnay
Domaine Buisson-Charles – Meursault
Domaine Philippe Chavy – Puligny-Montrachet

To download our complete portolio, including tasting notes and reviews by esteemed Burgundy critic Allen Meadows/Burghound.com – click here.

To download our current order form, click here.

Producer profile – Domaine Buisson-Charles

The village of Meursault is known throughout the world for its spectacular vineyards, home to some of the finest Chardonnay this planet has to offer. Michel Buisson is the 4 th-generation vigneron to run his family’s tiny 5 hectare (12.5 acre) estate, with holdings in Meursault’s finest 1er Cru and village level vineyards. He is assisted by his daughter Catherine and son-in-law Patrick Essa, representing the 5 th generation to tend these spectacular old vines.

The 1er Cru holdings total just 1 hectare (roughly 2.5 acres) – split between tiny parcels of Charmes, Goutte d’Or, Bouches-Chères, and Les Cras. Each of these parcels may produce only 3-4 barrels each vintage. The village level holdings are well situated and very old – average vine-age nears 60 years.

Leading Burgundy authority & critic Allen Meadows writes “For those who enjoy very pure, elegant, and intense white burgundies, Buisson-Charles should be on your list.” (For Allen’s tasting notes and scores on the Buisson-Charles wines, please see our complete portfolio here.)

The wines are fermented in the traditional 228-liter French Oak barrels, of which about 25% are new each year. Wines are aged in the barrel for 12 months, and are racked only once prior to bottling. The vinification is very traditional, very hands-off, and the resulting wines are pure and extremely true representations of their terroir – these are classic Meursaults in every sense of the word. The Buisson-Charles wines are approachable in their youth, but shine their brightest with many years of bottle age – 10, 15, 20 years or more in the best vintages. The Buisson-Charles wines will be featured in our tasting room throughout the fall…

Don’t forget to click the “BLOG” button on our website –
where we post frequently with the latest updates.

As always, we thank you for your continued support!

Cheers,

Martha & Scott Wright

Summer 2006

The Burgs arrive, our new home, and being green…

The magnificence that is summertime in Oregon is in full swing. The vines are soaking up the sunshine, we’ve had a perfect growing season so far, and life is good!

Come see us in our New Home…

Thanks to you, our grand opening in June was a huge success, and we are now very happily ensconced in our new Tasting Room and offices. We’ve renovated and converted two 1915-era granary buildings just off of Main St. in Carlton, OR. One is still under construction, and will become our new winery – we’ll start making the wines there this fall. The second is our tasting room, kitchen, lab & office, and we’ll be happy to show you around the whole place when you visit this summer – we’re open Wednesdays thru Sundays 11-4. Our tasting room always features a tasting flight of at least 4 wines – including some of our exciting new Burgundies!

The Burgundian Invasion has begun…

As if the winery project wasn’t enough, we’ve also started up our new import division this summer – Scott Paul Selections – focusing exclusively on the great wines of Burgundy. Our debut portfolio includes 43 different wines from eight of Burgundy’s finest small family domaines, many of which are not available anywhere else in the U.S.

Oregon and Burgundy are considered the two premiere places on the planet for growing and producing world-class Pinot Noir, and we’re excited to be able to offer all of these amazing wines under one roof.

We take great pride in representing the following fine Burgundian producers:

Domaine René Leclerc – Gevrey-Chambertin
Domaine François Lamarche – Vosne-Romanée
Domaine François Gay – Chorey-Les-Beaune
Domaine Thierry Violot-Guillemard – Pommard
Domaine Aleth Girardin – Pommard
Domaine Huber-Verdereau – Volnay
Domaine Réyane & Pascal Bouley – Volnay
Domaine Buisson-Charles – Meursault
Domaine Philippe Chavy – Puligny-Montrachet

For this initial release, we are offering a one-time 15% case discount for all wines , including our Scott Paul Oregon Pinot Noirs. The Burgundies are very limited with about 8-10 cases of each wine available for purchase. Secure your orders now and we will either hold them for pickup or for shipment in the fall when the weather cools. To order, please call 503-852-7300 or fax our online order form to 503-852-7305.

To download our complete portolio, including tasting notes and reviews by esteemed Burgundy critic Allen Meadows/Burghound.com – click here.

To download our current order form, click here.

Upcoming events and action…

This marks the third year of “Carlton’s a Walk in the Park” – held this year on August 5 th & 6 th – featuring a top line-up of food & wine purveyors, and a juried art show that draws over 3,000 people each day. We’ll be on hand with wines available by the glass, bottle & case – www.carltonswalkinthepark.com for more…

On August 19 th, join us for a winemaker dinner at Portland’s Heathman restaurant, with James Beard award-winning chef Philippe Boulot – we’ll be featuring the Scott Paul Pinots as well as some gorgeous Burgs. Check in with Erica Landon at the Heathman for all the details – 503 241 4100.

We are also proud to be participating for the first time this year in SALUD – the Oregon Pinot Noir Auction. Scheduled for November 11 th & 12 th this year, this outstanding event brings together 40 of Oregon’s top producers and hundreds of Pinot lovers for a tasting and barrel auction to support medical care and services for the vineyard workers throughout Oregon. It’s a tremendous cause, and the wines up for auction are not available anywhere else – these are exclusive cuvées bottled expressly for SALUD. www.saludauction.org for more…

On being Green…

Our obsession with authenticity and quality goes hand in hand with our dedication to environmental responsibility. From our beautiful dark red Pinot Noir grapes we produce “green” wines. Some important things to know -

Stoller , Ribbon Ridge and Maresh vineyards are certified L.I.V.E.
and Salmon-Safe.

Three Sisters vineyard has been farmed organically
since its inception in 1988.

Shea vineyard has been awarded
top industry honors for sustainability.

Momtazi vineyard is farmed biodynamically,
the purest and oldest system of natural farming.

The Scott Paul company fleet (one Beetle strong!)
runs on bio-diesel fuel – largely comprised of safflower and
cornflower oils recycled from Kettle Chips in Salem.

Our new winery and tasting room buildings – both renovated 1915-era structures – have been rehabbed with loving care using mostly green and recycled materials. Salvaged metal siding from the former granary, sections of local railroad track, lumber and timbers from the original structures have all found their way into our new home. “New” materials used include salvaged cedar logs, formaldehyde-free plywood, and sustainably harvested products. Wind-powered electricity runs both the winery and tasting room buildings.

The 2004 Oregon wines…

As you probably know, the 2004 vintage was very small in Oregon, but extremely nice in quality. We unfortunately were able to produce just barely half of our normal quantity. Future sales for both the La Paulée and Audrey bottlings were very strong last fall, so there is not a lot of wine left. We suggest acting quickly to make sure you get what you want…

To download an order form now, click here.

2004 La Paulée Pinot Noir – $38
832 6-packs produced

For La Paulée, we always look to create the blend that has the most potential for complexity, the wine that will be the most complete in the long run, a wine that is seductive in its youth but will also reward patient cellaring. Wine was selected barrel by barrel for this bottling, sourcing nine different lots from four separate vineyards. The final breakdown is 52% Shea (Block 21 and young vines), 28% Stoller (Blocks 21 and 32), 10% Three Sisters, and 10% Ribbon Ridge.

The wine is exceedingly well balanced – bright clear dark-ruby red with aromas of fresh raspberries and black cherries, lushly-textured ripe black raspberries on the palate, and a mouth-filling finish that lingers on longer than you suspect it might. The wine was aged for ten months in 10% new French Oak, 40% once-used and 50% twice-used French Oak, and was bottled on August 30 th, 2005.

2004 Audrey Pinot Noir

- $50
264 6-packs produced

Six barrels were selected this year to proudly wear the title of Audrey – the silkiest, most seductive, purest representation of elegance and finesse of the vintage. Three barrels from Three Sisters Vineyard (own-rooted Pommard & Wadenswil clones planted in 1988), Two barrels from Stoller Vineyard Block 21 (1997 plantings of Pommard clone on 3309 rootstock) and one barrel of Shea Block 21 (own-rooted Pommard from 1989.)

The wine is sheer elegance – Grace Kelly in a slim velvet gown, set off by exquisite, understated diamonds of the finest quality. The perfume is seductive and intoxicating, the flavors are delineated and intense. Two of the six barrels were new. The wine was raised in our cellars for 10 months, and bottled on August 31 st, 2005.

To download an order form now, click here.

Don’t forget to click the “BLOG” button on our website –
where we post frequently with the latest updates.

As always, we thank you for your continued support!

Cheers,

Martha & Scott Wright

Grand Opening, Pre-Releases, New Arrival Burgundy, and new vineyards too…

Spring has sprung here in Oregon, the new wines are ready for release,
and good things are happening all around!

The 2004 Futures are Ready – Time to Party!

Construction is moving along nicely at our new winery & tasting room site in
Carlton – watch your snail-mail box and your email for your invitation to our
Grand Opening weekend, scheduled for June 17 th & 18th.

If you ordered 2004 Futures from us and planned to pick them up
at the winery they will be available for pick-up
at our Grand Opening event.
(If you ordered 2004 Futures to be shipped to you
the wines will ship the week of May 1 st.)

Come see us in our New Home (soon!)

We’re in the process of renovating and converting two 1915-era granary buildings just off of Main St. in Carlton, OR. One will become our winery, and we’ll start making the wines there this fall. The second will be our tasting room, kitchen, lab & office, and we’ll be happy to show you around the whole place when you visit this summer – either for the grand opening, or anytime you can make it out – we’ll be open Wednesdays thru Sundays this summer, 11-4. More on the winery, green building, recycled materials, and the joys of renovating old buildings in our next newsletter …

The Burgundian Invasion begins…

As if the winery project wasn’t enough, we’ve also started up our new import division – Scott Paul Selections – focusing exclusively on the great wines of Burgundy. We’re importing about a dozen of Burgundy’s most exciting small family producers, and will have these wines available for you in our tasting room, as well as on our website, starting in June. The first wines available from Burgundy are a Futures offering of two 2005 wines we purchased in barrel at the famous Hospices de Beaune auction last fall. These are one-of-a-kind bottlings that will not be available anywhere else, and the quantities are, as is the case with all great Burgundies, miniscule.

I’ve been going to the auction for a few years now, and was excited to find the prices for the outstanding 2005 vintage very reasonable. The Hospices event is the oldest wine auction in the world, where each year on the 3 rd Sunday in November new wines in barrel are auctioned off to raise money for Beaune’s charity hospital, which dates to the mid-1400’s. Over the centuries many vineyard parcels have been donated to the Hospices, and they are now in fact the largest vineyard owner in all of Burgundy. The wines from each of these parcels are vinified at the Hospice’s new modern winery in Beaune, and then the purchaser of each barrel of wine can decide which of Beaune’s fine negociant houses will do the élévage and bottling for them. I, of course, chose to work with my old friends at Maison Joseph Drouhin, and am happy that our auction purchases are now in their cellars (the 12 th-Century cellars of the Kings of France, no less) for safe handling as they mature…

The 2004 Oregon wines…

For fans of true Oregon Pinot Noir, you’ll love the 2004 wines.

As you probably know, the 2004 vintage was very small in Oregon, but extremely nice in quality. We unfortunately were able to produce just barely half of our normal quantity. Future sales for both the La Paulée and Audrey bottlings were very strong last fall, so there is not a lot of wine left for the actual release. We suggest acting quickly to make sure you get what you want…To download an order form now, click here.

2004 La Paulée Pinot Noir – $38
832 6-packs produced

For La Paulée, we always look to create the blend that has the most potential for complexity, the wine that will be the most complete in the long run, a wine that is seductive in its youth but will also reward patient cellaring. Wine was selected barrel by barrel for this bottling, sourcing nine different lots from four separate vineyards. The final breakdown is 52% Shea (Block 21 and young vines), 28% Stoller (Blocks 21 and 32), 10% Three Sisters, and 10% Ribbon Ridge.

The wine is exceedingly well balanced – bright clear dark-ruby red with aromas of fresh raspberries and black cherries, lushly-textured ripe black raspberries on the palate, and a mouth-filling finish that lingers on longer than you suspect it might. The wine was aged for ten months in 10% new French Oak, 40% once-used and 50% twice-used French Oak, and was bottled on August 30 th, 2005.

2004 Audrey Pinot Noir - $50
264 6-packs produced

Six barrels were selected this year to proudly wear the title of Audrey – the silkiest, most seductive, purest representation of elegance and finesse of the vintage. Three barrels from Three Sisters Vineyard (own-rooted Pommard & Wadenswil clones planted in 1988), Two barrels from Stoller Vineyard Block 21 (1997 plantings of Pommard clone on 3309 rootstock) and one barrel of Shea Block 21 (own-rooted Pommard from 1989.)

The wine is sheer elegance – Grace Kelly in a slim velvet gown, set off by exquisite, understated diamonds of the finest quality. The perfume is seductive and intoxicating, the flavors are delineated and intense. Two of the six barrels were new. The wine was raised in our cellars for 10 months, and bottled on August 31 st, 2005.

To download an order form now, click here

2005 Hospices de Beaune – Burgundy Futures
Beaune 1er Cru – Cuvée Maurice Drouhin 25 cases available

Average vine age is 27 years in the parcels of Beaune vineyards donated to the Hospices by Maurice Drouhin. The grapes were in perfect condition for harvest 2005, and it will certainly be a great vintage, perhaps one of the finest of our lifetime. The wine has rich fruit flavors, heady aromas, and excellent structure. Expected maturity 2012-2020. Our barrel currently rests in the cellars of Maison Joseph Drouhin in Beaune, awaiting bottling in the first half of 2007. Buy as a Future for significant savings – $25/btl now – will be $35 on release.

Meursault – Charmes – Cuvée Bahèzre de Lanlay 25 cases available
From 4-tenths of an acre of 59 year-old vines comes this stunning example of one of the greatest chardonnay vineyards on the planet. Everything is there in perfect harmony in 2005 – the classic Meursault richness, the minerality and acidity, and a bouquet of stone fruits and flowers. Our barrel is in the Drouhin cellars, and will be bottled for us in early 2007. Buy as a Future for significant savings – $55/btl now – will be $65 upon release.

To download an order form now, click here.

Welcome Kelly Karr!

To ensure you get the best customer service possible, we are happy to announce the hiring of Kelly Karr as our Direct Sales & Marketing Director. Feel free to contact her directly with any questions at kellykarr@scottpaul.com. Kelly joins us after a nine-year stint with Chehalem, and is one of the top professionals in the business. (You don’t have to be named Kelly or Kelley to work for us, but it apparently helps!)

New Vineyards in the mix…

We’ve added two new vineyards to our array since the last newsletter. Starting this fall with the 2006 vintage, we’re adding five acres of the well-respected Momtazi Vineyard, which is just south of McMinnville. We’re honored to work with Mo and Flora Momtazi, René, Todd Hamina and their entire team. Momtazi is biodynamically farmed – the only agricultural system that doesn’t deplete or take anything away from the soils, and the oldest natural farming system in existence. Everything is done in harmony with the moon and stars, and only homeopathic amounts of biodynamic teas are applied to the vines – no chemicals, period. (Click here for more information)

Many top winegrowers around the world are now using biodynamic methods with great results. We’re excited to have the opportunity to work for the first time with biodynamically-grown fruit. We’ve already begun following biodynamic practices in the winery – timing any wine movements, bottling, etc. in conjunction with the biodynamic calendar. More on all of this in our next newsletter…

Starting with the 2007 harvest, we’ll be adding just under four acres of the Belle Provenance Vineyard in the Eola Hills. Beautifully situated between Cristom and Bethel Heights, Belle Provenance (formerly the O’Connor vineyard) has been the source of some of Oregon’s best wines since 1982. New owners Tim and Kari Ramey are adding value to an already excellent site. (www.belleprovenance.com)

Don’t forget to check out our “BLOG” – where we
post frequently with the latest updates.

As always, we thank you for your continued support!

Cheers,

Martha & Scott Wright