May 6, 2008
So much to catch up on, but let’s begin with the most important action – the planting of our new vineyard. As previously announced, our litte 10-acre site on the south slope of Chehalem Mountain has been named “Azana” (after the granddaughter of our partner Cameron Healy), and preparations for planting are now just about complete. If all goes according to schedule, we will plant the week of May 12th, at the rate of an acre or so per day, and hope to be finished by the 19th. Following the biodynamic principles and the lunar calendar, the specific days chosen for planting are very important, and we’re fortunate that there are a string of excellent days just when we need them.
We’ve chosen to plant four different clones on two different rootstocks. The rootstocks will be matched to the elevations and soil depths, but the clones themselves will be scattered randomly throughout the blocks. This is not very common here, but is more the norm in Burgundy. The modern U.S. model has been to plant entire blocks of individual clones, but we’ve decided to follow more of the european tradition and mix it up in the field. We believe, as do many of our Burgundian counterparts, that a multiplicity of clonal material may be one of the keys in getting the fullest and most complex expression of an individual site. Ask me in about 20-30 years and I’ll let know how it worked…
Our daughter Pirrie’s spring break was a couple of weeks back, and we spent it in L.A. visiting old friends and new restaurants. I worked the market for a couple of days with our distributor, and it was great to see the enthusiastic support for our wines at so many fine restaurant and retail accounts. Huge thanks to everybody at Lucques, AOC, and Campanile for their continued loyal support. I’m still recovering from eating way too much great food (Comme Ça three times, Campanile twice, two great dinners at Border Grill, a great lunch at Lucques), not to mention our tour of Bakeries and dessert joints. I then promptly pigged-out at Le Pigeon upon our return to Portland, where I think I literally O-D’d on rich food. Please remind me that having foie gras for the appetizer AND dessert may not be such a great idea. My doctor will kill me if she reads this…
Also in L.A., I was able to coordinate a visit with my esteemed friend and colleague Allen Meadows (Mr. Burghound himself), who graciously invited us into his home to share a lovely bottle of ’95 Arnoux Suchots as I interviewed him for nearly two hours. The interview will be produced and published as the first program of our new series of podcasts – which we will launch here on the website in the near future. Stay tuned for further details…
