It never ceases to amaze me how much the quality of a vintage gets discussed – before one grape has even been picked! I kindly ask you to ignore everything you read (except this missive, of course) about the upcoming 2011 harvest in the Willamette Valley. Until the grapes are in, the fermentations are done, and the wines have been in barrel for a year or more – anything that’s said about the quality and character of the vintage is simply premature.

What nature brings us in the way of weather over the next few weeks will surely determine the final cards we are dealt. At this point we have the potential for anything from a great year to a disaster, and only time will tell. We’ve done what we can in the vineyards. The next step that is not controlled by nature is deciding when to pick, which is always the single most important decision in all of winemaking. In a year that is running late like this (and may well turn out to be our latest ever), the picking decisions become more crucial than ever. Pick too early and you may miss the best flavors and balance the vintage has to give. Wait too long and you could lose the crop entirely, at worst, or be working with material of significantly lesser quality than if you’d picked the day before. Not for the faint of heart, this winemaking thing…

It is interesting now to see many wine writers and critics back-pedaling on the 2007 Oregon Pinots, which they had declared a “bad vintage” just as the first wines were being released. As many have discovered, it was actually a vintage that produced a lot of superb wines, though it was not indeed as uniformly excellent as 2008. Many recent vintages in Burgundy have also fooled a lot of folks. The 2008s changed dramatically in barrel, to become excellent examples of classic, elegant, terroir-driven Burgundy. Right after harvest they were written off as an unsuccessful vintage, due to the challenging growing season and poor weather at harvest.

The one and only thing to be learned from all of this? The one great lesson to be learned from wine – Patience. In our rush-to-judgement, 15-second sound-bite, instant-gratification world, it is the grapevine and a humble bottle of wine that teaches us the virtues of patience. For that, I am very thankful. Hang in there, baby…

I finished the Portland Marathon about 48 hours ago, which my thighs, calves and hips are reminding me of quite clearly every time I attempt to stand up, sit down, or move. Other than that it feels great. I have learned a new term this morning – DOMS -  Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. It hurts so much more than after the 22-mile training run three weeks ago. There’s something about those extra 4.2 miles that really put the hurt on. Nonetheless, it was totally worth it. All of the early morning runs, all of the miles, and even the pain and soreness now.

If you had told me two years ago that I would ever run a marathon, I would have thought you were quite insane. I was inspired to start running by being woefully out of shape, and by the announcement that the Oregon Wine Country Half-Marathon would have its finish line right next to our tasting room here in Carlton. I quickly proclaimed to the world that I was going to run it, and registered. I truly had little idea what I was signing up for. I literally struggled to run for two minutes at a stretch in the beginning. Thanks to an app on iTunes called “Couch to 10K”, I worked my way up to comfortable six-mile runs, and then on my own up through 13.1 and finally 26.2.

Your intrepid vintner, minutes after finishing the Portland Marathon, and discovering the '08 La Paulée on the cover of the new issue of Food & Wine

It was a voyage of self-discovery, to be sure. You find out a lot about yourself on those lonely, rainy, 6am runs. A lot about motivation, commitment, and stamina. Most surprisingly, I learned that I really love to run, much to my amazement. Which is really helpful, because I still love to eat Foie Gras and drink Pinot and Champagne on a regular basis (though certainly moderated since pre-running sloth days.)

I also learned that a marathon is more than twice as hard as a half-marathon. Throughout the race I never had any moments of doubt about finishing, but somewhere around mile 21 I knew I was going to be in for a fair amount of pain when all was said and done. “It only hurts when you stop” is another truth I’ve discovered. Maybe that explains why I’ve been looking into doing an ultra-marathon (anything longer than 26.2 miles) next year, thinking that if it’s going to hurt this much anyway, I may as well go a little farther and postpone the pain a little longer…

I’m only two days removed from the race and already planning the next one – I’m the type of person that needs that next big goal in front of him. Although I think it might be kind of like childbirth (not that I have any first-hand experience with that), in that you need enough time between them – enough time so you conveniently forget what you went through the last time. So, at least six months until the next one, I promise.

I would like to thank everyone that made this incredible journey possible. The crew at Fit Right NW has hooked me up with the right shoes and gear throughout my training, and they are incredibly knowledgeable and helpful – a tremendous resource. Dr. Steve Hanson and the team at Back In Motion sports injuries clinic really helped me through an early hip problem and hamstring tear and helped me learn to train and run injury-free – my sincere gratitude. Huge thanks to you, the Scott Paul customers and fans, for your enthusiastic interest and support. Most of all, gigantic thanks and deep appreciation for the patience, love, understanding and support of my family, without whom I never would have made it through. Martha, Pirrie, Kevin, Ally & Lindsay – I love you dearly.

Yes, there is nothing about wine in this post. It is cold and drizzly and the grapes are not ripe yet, so there’s not much to say. Our latest harvest ever will start sometime in the next 2-3 weeks. Just remember – it’s a marathon, not a sprint…

It’s not the adversity, it’s how you deal with it. It looks like nature is dealing us a pretty weak hand this year. Of course that could all change and we’ll get a beautiful string of warm sunny days for the next three weeks and it’s happiness all around – but I am not holding my breath. Every extended forecast I look at shows it getting cooler and cooler and wetter and wetter. Under the best conditions we still need 3 weeks to get the fruit ripe enough to make wine. I just don’t see where the light and the heat are going to be coming from. Please join me in hoping that all the forecasts are very wrong.

Hang on in there, babies...

I’ve only been doing this since 1999, and have never faced a truly difficult vintage. 1997 was the most recent tough one (weeks of endless rain prior to harvest), but since then we in Oregon have been blessed with an uninterrupted string of relatively good conditions and easy going. I remember being pretty worried about 2008, but that was at the beginning of September, before we got seven straight weeks of sunny & 80 and ended up with probably our best vintage ever. This time we’re getting deep into October, our needs are greater, and the window is getting shorter. So now what?

We’ve dropped crop to one cluster per shoot or less everywhere, to give what’s left the best shot at ripening. We’ve been vigilant with our spray program, and have the vines and fruit in the best shape possible. The rest is really out of our hands. If the sun never really returns, at some point we’ll just have to pick what we’ve got and make the best of it. Thankfully, we’re not a winery looking for “ultra-ripeness”. We don’t want or need grapes that will make 14%+ alcohol. I’d be happy to get close to 13%. The reality this year may be that we’ll more likely be in the neighborhood of 12% or so, in which case we can do just fine, with a little bit of luck and the ancient Burgundian practice of Chaptalisation – adding a little sugar to the fermenting must to bring the alcohol level and body of the wine up to an acceptable level. Done correctly, with adjustments that don’t increase the alcohol by more than a quarter to a half of a degree, the resulting wines can be quite nice indeed. Fortunately, we have the resources of all of our Burgundian producers to lean on for experienced advice – something tells me we’ll need it this year.

On the sorting table with Michel Lafarge - Burgundy Harvest 2010 Photo - Andrea Johnson

In the meantime, I’m just finishing up making arrangements for a quick trip to Burgundy in mid-November. (Hopefully we’re finished with harvest here by then!) I’ll be making my annual trek to the Hospices de Beaune auction and the Paulée, as well as visiting most of our growers and checking in on the 2010s in barrel. Having worked harvest over there last year, it will be especially interesting to see how the wines have come along. Of course I’ll be reporting in from the Côte with tasting notes, news and photos as always. I’ll also be doing a final round of research for my forthcoming book on the history of the Paulée, which I hope to have fully written by the end of the year, and released by October 2012.

As for now, let’s shake off the cold and damp with our great series of October tastings here at the winery in Carlton – every Saturday for the rest of the month, starting with a great Grower Champagne tasting and sales event this Saturday. Cheers!

“So tired, tired of waiting, tired of waiting for you…” As the Kinks sang in 1965, we’ve had enough waiting. We’re chomping at the bit to get going with harvest, as we’d normally be deep into it by now. But no, kemosabe. Looks like we’ve got about four more weeks to go before anything is reasonably ripe, and we could be heading for Oregon’s latest harvest ever. May the weather gods be kind and bring us some sun on a regular basis. Daughter Pirrie is studying ancient Egyptian religion in her 6th grade social studies class this year – I’ve asked her to ask Sun-Ra for some assistance…

Nothing is remotely close to ripe yet, In fact none of our vineyards have many clusters that have fully colored-up yet. Yikes. That said, we’ve been known to get some glorious October-November days here, so we could be alright. Or we could get handed a pretty rough deal. There’s really nothing we can do about it at this point. As Paul McCartney sang in 1970 – “Let it Be…”

Maresh Vyd. Block 12 - Sept. 29, 2011

Speaking of waiting, a year’s worth of training and preparation are about to come to a head with my attempt at the Portland Marathon on October 9th. I’m in the “taper” phase of training, running a lot less mileage the final two weeks before the race, but I’m ready to go. Sometimes I wish the race was tomorrow – I just want to line up and go. I just finished reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, and found it very inspiring. I know I’m never going to be a Scott Jurek or a Tarahumara Indian, but hopefully I can run with their sheer joy and buoyant spirit (and remember to go easy, smooth, and light – and upright!) Wish me luck – I will try to document my 1st marathon experience here in these pages after I’ve recovered from it all…

Scott Jurek & Arnulfo Quimare - rockstar ultra-marathoners

We’ve got an experienced international crew with us for crush this year – whenever we actually get to it. Kelly & I will be joined in the cellar this year by Arabella Hall, who worked crush for us three years ago  – and we’re thrilled to have her back. New this year will be the globetrotting Anna Ward, who makes wine in New Zealand as well as at Domaine Lucie & August Lignier in Burgundy. This will be her 3rd  harvest in 2011, as she’s just wrapping up in Burgundy now. The final piece to the puzzle will be the arrival of Jean-Charles from Beaune – he’s Benjamin Leroux’s right-hand man and runs Ben’s facility in Beaune, and we’re honored to have him with us for vintage 2011 (assuming we actually pick in 2011. Who knows, maybe we’ll pick in January?…)

Wow – these last few days have been a whirlwind of activity, with a series of great dinners, tastings and releases -  all combining to make me a very happy and very well-fed vintner. We started off at Bluehour in Portland for lunch Tursday, with new chef Thomas Boyce (from Spago) putting out a yummy spread for 15 of the top sommeliers and retail buyers in the market. Peter Wasserman from Burgundy was in town, and we were pouring the newly arrived ’09 Burgs from Lafarge, Comte Armand, Pavelot, Leroux, and some of our new Grower Champagnes as well.

We followed that up with a flight of new Champagnes from Jacques Picard, Vincent Carré and Guy de Chassey at Oregon Wines on Broadway, with a great crowd on hand all night. Then it was off to Le Pigeon for chef Gabe Rucker’s hedonistic cuisine – the rabbit & salami risotto is absolutely off the hook…

Superstars of Burgundy

The next day, lunch was at Le Pigeon’s sister bistro Little Bird. Marrow bones with apricot chutney. Fresh sweet corn with Pimente d’Espelette. OMG. Then back to Bluehour for a dinner for 30 customers and 7 new wines. Uni and Oyster Chowder, brown-butter poached lobster with crispy sweetbreads. OMG again. And you wonder why I run marathons…

Saturday in Carlton was one of our biggest and most festive events ever, with the release of our one barrel of Scott Paul ’09 Chambolle-Musigny, a flight of 5 wines from Chambolle, and another flight of ’09 Burgs from Mugnier, Lafarge, Pavelot, Armand & Leroux. We were rockin’ all day – the wines were all showing well, and I was just blown away by all of your love and support.

Chambolle-Musigny x5

After that it was dinner with a bunch of customer-friends at Jory at the Allison. Chef Sunny Jin did it up in the private dining room for us, with a pork belly and peaches dish and some Wagyu strip loin that rocked my world. I brought some Gobillard Brut, Savès Rosé, Lafarge Clos du Chateau des Ducs, Armand Fremiets, and Confuron Romanée-St. Vivant to wrap up a three day tour of totally decadent delights. Wow.

I recovered with a nice 8-mile run this morning, and am feeling good about the Portland Marathon two weeks from today. Thanks for all of your overwhelming support – I am hugely appreciative and honored. I am loving life – thanks for everything!

I pulled a bottle of each the vintages of our La Paulée out of the cellar this week, from 2002-2009. Mostly to see which ones we wanted to feature on our special flight this weekend for our 10th anniversary party and the release of the ’09 Dix, and also so see how they were all developing in bottle over the years.

The most fascinating thing to me was the realization of how incredibly young they all were. Most have not evolved much at all from their early primary stages, and just a couple were showing signs of significant secondary flavor and aroma development. My intention has always been to give the wines the capacity to age well, but also to be enjoyable on release – and that’s a fine line to walk. Every vintage was “younger” than I expected to find it at this stage, and most have several years of upside ahead of them.

The 2002 was beautifully balanced, and just starting to fold into that secondary mushrooms & truffles stage that I love. The 2003 seemed like it hadn’t budged much since bottling – a big, intense wine that is still all about primary fruit. The ’04 was gorgeous, and maybe my favorite of the flight – interesting in light of the fact that this was the most difficult wine in the cellar during its élévage and had what I would call a “troubled youth”. The ’05 was another stunner – with the aromas very forward and floral and developed, and a texture of pure silk. The 2006 I would have guessed blind as a young 2008, all vibrant and ripe fruit and youthful exuberance. ’07 is one of my favorite wines we’ve made, with the much-maligned vintage producing some really lovely wines, having put on weight and texture to go with the elegance it had from day one. 2008 remains the best-balanced La Paulée we’ve ever bottled, and is surely only at the beginning of a 15-20 year life of improvement in the bottle. ’09 is still a long way from release, but like most from this vintage is full of rich and succulent fruit and a wine of hedonistic pleasure.

We’ve decided to pour the ’05, ’07 & ’08 this Saturday, along with the ’09 Audrey and the debut of the ’09 Dix – so please plan to join us for this special tasting flight and event to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our first vintage. It all happens here in Carlton 12-5p…

Then,  next Saturday, the 24th, it’s what may be the tasting of the year, here or anywhere. We were already planning a special event for the release of our 2009 Chambolle-Musigny, and a special flight of five wines from my favourite Burgundian village. And then we got some good news and added a very special surprise.

There would not be any great Burgundy available in the US without Becky Wasserman. Becky began importing estate-bottled Burgundy to America in the 1970s, and was the first to do it on a large scale. Over the decades her business has grown to represent the crème-de-la-crème of top estates in Burgundy and Champagne. Her company, Le Serbet, is based in Beaune and acts as the export agent for over 100 producers, a number of which we are proud to work with here at Scott Paul. Becky’s son Peter joined the business and covers the US as the ambassador for all of their fabulous wines, and he’s joining us here in Carlton for an unprecedented tasting of some of the best Burgundy has to offer.

Peter will be pouring new releases from five of Burgundy’s genuine superstars – Frédéric Mugnier, Michel Lafarge, Comte Armand, Domaine Pavelot, and Benjamin Leroux. These are wines that are rarely if ever open for tasting, and this is Burgundy’s highly lauded 2009 vintage. In other words, this may be the tasting opportunity of a lifetime. (And we’re pouring all those killer Chambolle-Musigny wines too!) DO NOT MISS THIS ONE! I look forward to seeing you here…

Et Voilà – the 2010s are in bottle! It’s always a great feeling to have a vintage completely put to bed, with the bottles now safely resting in their cool and dark cocoons for the next 18 months or so. Between cool spring rains and relentless fall bird attacks there was hardly any fruit left to pick on the vines in 2010, but what was there made some really nice wines at the end of it all. Very precise and pure, yummy bright red-fruit flavors, excellent acidity – sort of a cross between 2008 & 2007, but of course uniquely 2010 all on its own.

We added a new vineyard to the mix in 2010, with a few acres of mature vines at Nysa Vineyard in the Dundee Hills, right next to my old stomping grounds at Domaine Drouhin. It turned out so well that we bottled a few barrels of it separately in a wine we’re calling “Les Gourmandises” – watch for the release sometime in 2013, most likely…

Meanwhile, harvest has just wrapped up in Burgundy! For the 3rd time in the last 10 years, they started harvest in late August. An August harvest has only happened in Burgundy six times in the last 300 years – with 2003, 2007 and 2010 the recent precocious ones. Happily, it looks like a very good year there, with harvest unfolding under bright sunshine, and the early reports on quality are solid up and down the Côte. Burgundy had a what turned out to be a fairly “normal” growing season, it was just 3-4 weeks earlier than usual. Here at home we are also having a “normal”-looking season, but ours is about 3-4 weeks later than average. Go figure. At any rate, my guess is we’ll be picking the week of October 24th, give or take a few days. The crop looks healthy, and the heatwave we’re having is mostly a good thing – we need all the sun and heat we can get between now and October. Bring it on!

It’s a marathon, not a sprint. I have come to really understand the meaning of that well-worn cliché over the course of my marathon training (I’m getting ready for the Portland Marathon on October 9th). On those long training runs I’ve also been able to see clearly how the saying so directly applies to just about everything in the wine business. From building our little brand, to planting our new vineyard four years ago, to building our national import company – it’s all about the long-term picture. In this era of instant gratification and immediate results – wine remains one of the few things that simply takes time. Lots of it. As I slog out the miles on Leif Erikson trail in Portland’s Forest Park, it is abundantly clear that “slow and steady” is the way to go. Which is fine with me, as I’ve never been one for bursts of speed anyway…

We’re excited to join 100 of the Willamette Valley’s finest producers for a great tasting event called Pinot in the City – Saturday & Sunday Sept. 10th & 11th in Portland’s Pearl District. We’re bringing wine country to the city and taking over an entire city block. There may not be a better tasting of Oregon Pinot anywhere this year! (We are pouring on Saturday only, FYI…)

Over the next few weeks we’ve got a stellar line-up of events on the way here in Carlton. First up on Saturday Sept. 17th  from 12n-5p is our 10th anniversary party and release of our special bottling of the 2009 “Dix” Pinot Noir, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of our first vintage. We’ll focus exclusively on our own Scott Paul wines in the tasting room that day – with the ’09 Dix, ’08 La Paulée, and a multi-vintage vertical of older La Paulée bottlings on the flight. I’ll be going though the library to pick out several older vintages for this one – one of the tougher parts of the gig, to be sure… (The ’09 Dix is scheduled for release online September 8th – watch your email, or sign-up if you’re not already on our list…)

We’ll follow that up one week later on Saturday Sept. 24th with the release of our 2009 Chambolle-Musigny! In conjunction with our friends Anne & Hervé Sigaut, we produced one barrel of juicy, succulent and decadently delicious Chambolle-Musigny. This is a landmark release and event for us – do not miss the chance to taste this beauty. Plan to join us in Carlton from 12-5 for a flight of great wines from my favorite Burgundian village, including bottlings from J-J Confuron, Sigaut, and Taupenot-Merme. (The Scott Paul Chambolle-Musigny is scheduled for release online September 14th…)

Quick harvest update – the crop is looking very healthy and the sun is cooperating wonderfully. Now all we need is ten more weeks of perfect weather! So far, so good. In Burgundy, they are getting ready to start in the next few days – I’ll have pics and reports as it happens…

Wow – summer, what a concept! Summer arrived here in Oregon about two weeks ago, and we’ve had ideal Pinot weather every day since. Sunny and warm in the mid-80s all day, cooling to the mid-50s every night. The vines seem very happy. It feels very much like a typical growing season, just four weeks delayed from a calendar standpoint. The long-term forecasts indicate we have a good shot at a nice and dry September-October, which we’ll need every bit of to pull this one off. We did it in 2008, so we’re rooting for Mother Nature to put on a great fall show once again. In the meantime, it looks like a pretty healthy crop out there, and we’ll be dropping fruit at a few sites to give us a decent shot of ripening what remains. The potential is there for a good 1.75-2 tons per acre in all of our mature blocks, Clusters overall seem on the larger side, but with a lot of millerandage (hens & chicks) which is very encouraging. And so, we wait…

Azana Vyd. on Chehalem Mountain

Not much waiting to do in Burgundy or Champagne however, as they are headed for another early one. Some sites in the Côte de Beaune will start as soon as August 29th, with the Côte de Nuits and Champagne another week or so behind. Seeing the early date leads some to believe it was a hot year there like 2003, but that’s not the case at all. It was rather an unusual phenomenon of a very early and extended spring, starting in late February. Temps in the 70s continued on through June, and then it cooled off in July, slowing things down a bit. At one point they thought they were looking at an August 22-25 start, but the cool July has pushed it back a week-10 days or so. Showers in late July have also raised botrytis issues in some sites, but otherwise it seems they are headed for a good one. More as it happens…

I’m looking forward to our special White Burgundy & Cheese tasting event on Saturday here in Carlton – with five of our killer whites paired with artisan cheeses selected by cheese guru Steve Jones of Portland’s Cheese Bar – it’s happening Noon to 5 on Saturday, and I hope to see you here!

Another IPNC is in the books, and it was a special one, to be sure. The 25th anniversary of the International Pinot Noir Celebration brought many of the Pinot world’s brightest stars to Oregon for four days of serious fun and celebration, and perhaps a bottle or two of good wine along the way !

Martha, Dianne, Suzy, Benjamin Leroux and Cameron at our IPNC dinner

It was a great pleasure to have Burgundy’s rockstar winemaker Benjamin Leroux with us, for dinner in our cellars on Thursday night and throughout the weekend. We were also honored to have Über-sommelier Rajat Parr from the Michael Mina Group (RN74 San Francisco & Seattle + a dozen more great restos) with us.

In Azana Vyd. with Pirrie & Benjamin Leroux

Huge thanks to John Sundstrom, Kelly Ronand and Michelle Madigow of Lark restaurant in Seattle, and Chris DiMinno and Nate Tilden from Portland’s Clyde Common for our most excellent dinner – major yum all around!

Lark Chef John Sundstrom

Chris, Nate & the Clyde Common crew

The grilled Squab

A plethora of fine bottles made their way across the table over the course of the weekend. Among my personal favorites: Mugnier 2001 Musigny, and 2001 Amoureuses – both were drop-dead stunning, pure silk and grace and liquid sex. Wow indeed. The ’07 Mugnier Musigny was also amazing for such a young Grand Cru. As always, Freddy rules. Other stunners included the ’02 Confuron Romanée St. Vivant, ’01 Drouhin Montrachet, ’02 Marc Chauvet Special Club (god, what a GREAT Champagne), ’93 Comte Armand Clos des Epeneaux, ’93 Ponzi Reserve, ’90 Eyrie South Block Reserve, and our ’07 Audrey was really doing a lovely dance Saturday night! Oh yeah, and the Henri Jayer ’85 Echezeaux. I am deeply moved by Henri’s ‘85s – the absolute essence of purity and elegance…

NYC somm queens Laura Maniec & Pascaline Lepeltier with Musigny & Amoureuses

I somehow survived that onslaught of seriously great wines Saturday night and managed to get up and run 11 miles Sunday morning, as my training for this fall’s Portland Marathon continues. My thoughts always tend to wander off to some rather bizarre places during longer runs, but on this one I just kept alternately praising and cursing Freddy Mugnier for all that gorgeous Musigny the night before…

Another magical night under the stars at IPNC

The fun continues with a string of great events coming up over the next few weeks, starting with our White Burgundy & Cheese tasting on Saturday August 13th here in Carlton from 12n-5pm. I’ve selected 5 gorgeous ’08 whites from 5 different producers in 5 different appellations, and our friends at Portland’s Cheese Bar are picking out some great cheese selections to match with each. I love cheese with white Burgs, even more than with reds. I’ve noticed in recent years that more and more the Burgundians are serving whites with the cheese course, and it’s a move I’m a big fan of. Come check it out for yourself here in Carlton…