The leaves are finally letting go of their final, tenuous hold of things. With each drop of rain or wisp of wind the last soldiers of the branch let go. Winter’s rains have finally come and quench the Valley and our little plot of land. Our hill is mostly quiet now that harvest is over. Instead of the hustling of our crew and the sound of the John Deere running through the vineyard, we have frequent visits now from the resident fox, racoons, bobcats and turkeys, with close air cover provided by formations of Canadian geese and gliding redtails with the night watch being held by barn and barred owls .
Soon, like the falling leaves, we’ll be letting go of 2020. It’s hard to really process all that’s gone on in this last 12 month span; pandemic, fires, political chaos etc… It will take time to gain some perspective on things but we’re grateful to be looking forward to a new year and hopeful that it will offer all of us good fortune and good health in 2021.
The vineyard has gone to sleep now after gifting us with another season’s harvest in September. We brought the fruit in with great relief just two weeks after the horrendous fires that ravaged the Valley floor just below us. We were evacuated but spared while so many in our community were not. So much needs to be done to help our neighbours and community here in the Rogue Valley. There are lots or organizations pooling resources and assisting folks who have been impacted. If you are so inclined we’d encourage you to help through one of the many organizations involved in the relief and recovery efforts, as we have.
We were really gratified that our initial release, the 2016 Syrah, was recognized with a Silver Medal at the 2019 Oregon Wine Experience. As we have continued to monitor the progress of that vintage we concluded that our wines could benefit from additional cellar time. So we have held our 2017 a year longer. We’re now pleased to release our 2017 vintage Syrah with the initial bottles being a featured wine offering at Cellar 503 (cellar503.com) , Carrie Wynkoop’s wonderful wine club that features unique wines from every nook and cranny of Oregon. We still have some 2016 Syrah which continues to improve with age to go along with our release of the ’17.
Since we are just a tiny vineyard, we are able focus our attention pretty closely on the vines and fruit in an effort to coax the best from the 20 yr old vines. This year’s harvest was lower volume but more concentrated in flavor. We’re excited to have something really good come from 2020 that we can share with all of you in the future. In the meantime, stay safe, stay positive and we’ll be looking forward to a bud break this Spring in the hope that we can bring a ’21 vintage to you without the fire, pandemic and and other burdens we’ve all faced this past year. Slainte.