A Blooming Hill Vineyard

Open: Year-round

VINEYARD NOTES - Our vineyard is on a southeast-facing slope in the last hills of the Chehalem Mountain range. Each vine is nestled in windblown, volcanic soil anchored to this basalt range with depths of six to twelve feet. This rich soil produces grapes lavish in the tastes of the earth and its surrounding micro- climate. Each vine is coaxed by hand to produce full, compact clusters.

In this unusual microclimate, the 480 foot elevation is protected by higher hills on three sides from any coastal storms or harsh weather changes. The sun warms the grapes throughout the day producing the sugars and flavors into the peak of the afternoon. The grapes are then cooled by the late afternoon and evening ocean breezes that fan down the Columbia River, skirting the coastal range into this, the northern Willamette Valley. This daily cycle is repeated throughout the fall until the grapes are picked at their peak of ripeness.The vines, trained to a Henry trellis, achieve a critical balance of vine growth to berry growth. The bunches ripen in their time - slowly - to achieve the utmost flavors this unusual microclimate can create.

PRODUCTION NOTES - Jim tends each vine by hand from first pruning in January. Each grape cluster is scrutinized and selected in the vineyard from veraison through the hand picking process. Only the best clusters are destined for the fermenting tanks and, for the red wine, their week to ten-day cold-soak sojourn.

Once cold soaking achieves maximum color extraction, fermentation is started to transform the sugars into alcohol. When complete, less than a week later, the juices are moved into oak barrels to begin a secondary fermentation and aging process. We use 30% new Oak barrels to achieve an understated balance of oak to fruit taste that gives us our complex and superb fruit-forward taste. Over the next year, the wine is monitored, naturally fined, the barrels are topped weekly and the wine is racked off the lees and finings. The Pinot Noir is then cold stabilized and left to rest and age.

With the white wines, each variety is pressed in whole bunches and the juice transferred into separate stainless tanks on the same day that the grapes are picked. The fermentation process begins immediately, and through use of a slow yeast and in a cold fermenting room, the grape juices ferment slowly to maximize the extraction of the fruit flavors. Each wine is left on the lees for a differing amount of time depending upon the settling process. Each wine is then racked, fined, filtered and cold stabilized prior to bottling in late spring/early summer.