Enobytes Wine Blog

Worry is a negative emotion and there was a lot of it going around here in Oregon right before the ’08 harvest. Fortunately, the generosity of the juice the grapes are producing this season is now overshadowing reasons for concern, which means less gray hair among the growers who still have some!

I have to admit that until recently, I was a bit nervous for Oregon wine growers. Many of the grapes were lagging in ripeness and maturity as cool temperatures and rain blanketed the Willamette Valley region.

Early in the season I predicted an October 22nd harvest date and until recently I was pretty sure I was going to loose a bet I made with a couple of colleagues. It wasn’t but a month ago that grapes were barely changing color. And recently, I thought to myself, here we are, almost half way through the month, and many of the grapes have not reached their potential, and now we are getting hit by cooler temperatures and rain. It definitely felt like a catastrophe looming in the distance.

But it’s amazing what a difference a couple of Read the rest of this entry »

For wine writers in western Oregon, this has been a very busy week; a very enlightening week that brought vast amounts of knowledge not previously experienced by this particular writer. The Dundee Hills Winegrowers Association (DHWA) invited us to a media event on May 9th. We were flattered and excited to be among the few journalists who received an invitation.

The timing could not have been more convenient because we had already been invited to a trade tasting of the Yamhill-Carlton District AVA on Monday, May 12. That event was held at Ten 01. If you have not had the pleasure of experiencing the awesome cuisine Jack Yoss and his crew prepares, get on in there – those folks can cook. I would even go on to say it’s some of the best food I’ve tasted in Portland in a long time. But let’s get back to the wine and highlighting the gracious hosting capabilities of both organizations.

Dundee Hills Satellite Photo

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