April showers…
While the rest of the northern hemisphere enjoys spring, we’re still in the depths of a soggy and chilly prolonged winter here in Oregon. A mild winter, to be sure, but it seems like an exceptionally long one this time around. We get those rare occasional glimpses of the sun, followed by several more days of incessant rain…
Not that I’m complaining. I knew what we signed up for when we moved here 11 years ago. Once, however, just once, couldn’t we get an early start to the season? Could we possibly get through bud-break and flowering before July? Is that too much to ask?
Buds are out in Pommard!
Climate-change has removed any regularity to weather patterns. Not just here, but seemingly world-wide. Or wherever Pinot Noir is grown, at the very least. Once again they had full-on bud-break in March in Burgundy this year – meaning that they could be headed for another August harvest over there. That would be the 4th time in the last 10 years. It has only happened six times in the last 300 years!
Moving on, as there’s no use stewing on matters beyond our control – I am looking forward to a very busy “spring”, with a bunch of great events scheduled at the winery and our new Portland space, as well as a quick trip to New York, and then running the Eugene Marathon on April 29th. (As I write this I’m nursing sore quads from the Race for the Roses Half-Marathon last Sunday. I beat my previous best time by 15 minutes, but the body is letting me know it feels slightly abused!)
We’ll be kicking off the month with our continuing series of First Friday Happy Hours in Portland from 5-7p on Friday, with a great flight and a SPLURGE pour of some ’08 Mugnier! If you haven’t checked our new Portland event space yet – please come on by on Friday – we’re at 2537 “A” NW Upshur, Portland 97210.
Saturday the 14th in Carlton we are putting Chambolle-Musigny on sale! All of the remaining ’08 and ’09 Chambolle 1er Crus from Anne & Hervé Sigaut will open for tasting and on sale at 33% off – the best prices you will ever see on these hand-crafted beauties. Come early before we run out – we’ll be open 12n-5p that day…
And then, it’s the official debut of our 2010 Audrey Pinot Noir, with a special release party and futures pick-up event in Carlton on Saturday April 21st. We held on to a small stash of this one, so if you didn’t order futures last fall you can still get your hands on some. The ’10 model may be right up there with the ’08 as the best Audrey yet, so be sure and join us and taste, as this is probably the only time it will be open for tasting this year… 
Plenty more on the way on top of all that – details soon…
