2008 Growing Season ~
Saturday, November 1st ~
We're still trying to catch our breath and count our blessings after concluding our latest harvest to date on Oct. 21st. Our Estate vineyard's various blocks completed veraison in early September and fortunately, mother-nature cooperated with warm days and cool nights over the ensuing month and a half! The first three weeks in October were dry and the extra hang-time allowed for optimal ripening and flavor development - virtually unheard of in Oregon! We're excited about the prospects for a quality 2008 vintage, yet must mention that yields were 25% less than our prior vintages to date (~ averaging 1.85 tons/acre). This was primarily a result of our rigorous thinning practices following a delay in bloom early in the growing season due to persistent cold weather this past Spring.

We're putting the last of our compost tea sprays on the defoliating leaves in preparation for next years Spring awakening!

Friday, August 22nd ~
Veraison is off and running. Approximately 5% of our clusters are now showing a change in color. We've just completed dropping approx. 40% of our fruit (including wings & shoulders) to allow the vines to focus all their energy toward ripening the remaining one cluster per shoot. On average, we're at 17 clusters per vine and expect our yields will be amongst the lowest in our brief history (beginning with our first harvest in 2001). We are projecting between 1.5 to 1.75 tons/acre. It appears from last year's timing of veraison, that we're about 8 days behind. We're keeping our fingers crossed that September leads to nice, even-keeled days of warm days and cool evenings.

It appears this year's harvest at our Estate vineyard will be delayed to the end of Sept into mid-October.

June/July ~
We've experienced cooler weather than the last many vintages since 2002. There have been intermittent rains over the last several months (not unlike Burgundy) that have kept the soils lively and allowed the organic compost that we folded into our rows upon discing to build healthy biomass. The challenges have been: we've made more in-row cultivating passes with our new Pellenc Tournesol in-row cultivator through the vineyard rows followed by hand-hoeing to remove competing weeds due to the rains; we've had to manage our canopy (hedging and thinning) multiple times - again due to the excessive vigor, and have disced every row (removing our  desired alternating with cover crops so as to promote biodiversity) in order to force the root systems away from the surface. The good news is that our vines look healthier than ever and we had a very good bloom & set. The berries are on average small/medium with tight cluster formation.   

Friday, May 9th ~
Another growing season is upon us., though it's off to a mighty slow start. We finished pruning back in February expecting bud swell and bud break to occur in early April. With rains-a-plenty and snow to boot through late April, we still have yet to realize bud-break. Though there are no official records, many folks can't recall ever having such a late kickoff to the season ~ nearly 2+ weeks beyond last year's and not nearly completed as of May 9th. The additional rains have resulted in thick cover crops which should ultimately provide nice biomass and nitrogen content once worked back into the vineyard rows. We haven't really experienced any significant disease pressure to date. At this time, we're hopeful for a nice, sustained cool-warm weather pattern through bloom and are quite comfortable knowing our young vines from last year's Fall planting (2 acres of Pinot Noir + 1/2 acre of Chardonnay) are reaping the benefit of ample water supply. Though bud break is late, we very well could experience a rapid progression toward bloom in early June which would place harvest beginning (~ 100 days out) sometime in mid-late September.

As part of our ongoing commitment to sustainable farming with underlying biodynamic principles, we've just purchased our own brewing machine and will brew our own teas for natural pest / disease resistance in lieu of synthetic products. We've a dedicated Honda that we use for spraying these tea/kelp brews.  

2007 Growing Season ~
After a soggy and snow-filled winter, bud break in our Estate vineyard began in earnest, come late April. Through late May, we've completed multiple sprays applications, "suckering" and culitvation of every other row throughout the vineyard... thus introducing natural nitrogen and other biomass while encouraging the vines to develop deeper root systems.

This year, we will continue to incorporate more organic & biodynamic principles at our Estate vineyard by such activities as ~ applying foliar teas & kelp sprays, purchasing a Braun in-row cultivator, spreading compost in the vine rows for more bio-mass, ... Our intent is solely focused on giving back to the vineyard (rather than only taking from) and ultimately enhancing the quality of fruit through healthier soils and vines!

Immediately following harvest, we planted another 2 acres of Pinot Noir (115, 777 & Waidenswil clones), plus 1/2 acre of Chardonnay (76 and 95 clones).

2007 Harvest ~
Harvest began on Friday, September 28th & 29th and concluded on October 13th & 14th - our latest harvest at LV Estate vintage since our first in 2001. The vintage will undoubtedly be touted as average due to rains; yet we feel we've got a winner in the cellar with nearly all lots/barrels showing good color, revealing great flavors with balanced acids and tannins.

The first of the rains hit on Thurs, Sept. 27th with nearly 1" falling overnight. We brought out the sprayer the next morning and blew air throughout the blocks. Multiple passes were made down those blocks & even rows we would decide to harvest later that afternoon along with the following day -  before the next rains arrived. This was our first go-around with the "nail biting" that any long-time farmer had certainly experienced and become more confident as a result. Nevertheless, we put our faith in our rigorous vitucultural practices over the past summer's growing season and decided to wait for flavors to develop in the remaining older blocks we'd not yet harvested (including Pommard, Upper Middle's Dijon block and clone 828 in the West Block). Our patience was  rewarded with flavor and physiological developement (browning of stems & seeds). Mother nature blessed us with extremely cool days and evenings during those two weeks of on-and-off rains which assisted in preventing botrytis while our well-drained, sandy, silty loam soils allowed our Estate vineyard's vines to focus on ripening. 

We harvested approximately 68.5 tons of fruit in 2007 ~ 
- 41 tons of estate Pinot Noir for our Estate and Cuvee Giselle Pinot Noirs
- 8.5 tons of estate Pinot Noir for the 'S' Pinot Noir
- 15 tons Pinot Gris from multiple vineyards in OR (Del Rio, Guadalupe, Croft, Quail Run, Ankeney, Ana)
- 4 tons Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cab Franc from the Boushey, PepperBridge, Canoe Ridge, Seven Springs, Cold Creek, Minnick, Forgotten Hills, Dwelley and Old Stones vineyards in Walla Walla, WA.