I have lived in Oregon for 20 years and sadly never been wine tasting in the Willamette Valley. So Sunday my wife and i packed the kids up and headed North. In an effort to keep the family peace we spent yesterday at the Evergreen Wings and Waves Waterpark. That waz super cool, for the kids. Shooting a 338lm without plugs would be about the same decibels. Wow it is loud in there.

On the way home we hit our first winery. I had high expectations and was looking forward to buying a nice bottle of Pinot for.dinner. The serving staff at this well established winery was very nice. The location was.beautiful but the wines were a.letdown. My main interests are in the Pinots and Chardonnay from the valley. Unfortunately these Pinots both had obvious brettanomyces. This is a flaw that is associated with cleanliness, or lack of it, in fermentation equipment and transfer equipment. If you ever smell band aid on a wine that is it. I am guessing some people either don't mind it or don't know what it is because people were buying the wine. I am not spending $70 on a bottle of flawed wine.

Today we are going to the Evergreen Air Museum for the day. I will hopefully i will be posting some good news.about thegood wine i find today.

Sorry it was a let down.  Hopefully it gets better.

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It got much better today. We hit Left Coast Cellars before going to the museum. I will say they were exceptional in all aspects. Their wines were balanced and perfectly centered for each varietal. Our favorite was their white Pinot. They press the Pinot grapes prior to fermentation. The results are excellent. The staff was friendly and knowledgeable. The grounds were the nicest I have ever visited. The cs manager had just returned from mountain bike Oregon where they were pouring and riding. I have guided MBO in years past so we had a lot to talk about. This winery is a must visit when tasting in the valley.

After visiting the museum, an amazing place, we drove into McMinnville for more tasting and dinner. I have seen Naked Winery wines but never tried them. We went into the tasting room no enjoyed tasting through their wines. Most of their wines are actually from the Columbia Valley AVA. They were all very good for a large production winery.

Because I am industry I make sure I buy wine any time I do a tasting. Today I was happy to come home with some great wines. Tomorrow is the big day for tasting. We will hit Domaine Serene, Colleen Clemons and Purple Hands. I am really looking forward to these three!

Today was a great day tasting. The first winery we hit was Purple Hands Winery in Dundee. Cody Wright the wine maker is the son of famed winemaker Ken Wright. He has been making wine since his childhood and is now out on his own. He is running a one man show in the winery with his wife and one other employee working in the tasting room. I have drank a lot of good Pinot and I have to say Cody is doing it right. Each of his Pinots reflects perfectly how terroir affects the flavor of Pinot. Because he is a one man show he has ultimate control over the wine. Having worked in the cellar I am impressed that he can do it all without help. Do yourself a favor and buy some Purple Hands wine while it is still priced at a reasonable $50. I am going to cellar some for future special events.

After eating some very good pizza at Red Hills Market we drove out to Domaine Serene to taste. The grounds at this winery are quite a sight. The tasting room is gigantic! Our server was a very nice girl who had grown up locally. She was very knowledgeable and fun to talk with. The wines were excellent across the board. I feel as though the Pinots could use a couple years to settle down and then they are going to be fantastic. One of my favorite Pinots is the 2012 Domaine Serene Evenstad Reserve. The '14 will be just as good in 3 more years.

Tomorrow it is Coleen Clemens and???

@speyrod

Willamette has alot to offer, but I have been saddened by what I see alot of pinot producers doing, which is chasing that big, flabby, high alcohol cali model.

It's 50/50 between central coast and OR for my pinot purchases, and I almost always buy the lowest alcohol one. This usually delivers the higher acidity, more delicate Pinots that I prefer.

----> that being said one of the best pinots I've ever had came from Bryse estate in Traverse City Michigan. Their winemaker is a genius.

For Oregon, I am currently enjoying Willamette Valley Vineyards whole cluster, King estate 2015, and Anne Amie. My cousin knows Cody very well, but I haven't tasted his stuff yet. I'll try to get my hands on some.

Accordingly, those higher acidity pinots usually mean a lower pH, and as such, a lower pH increases the effectiveness of SO2 (anti microbial and anti oxidative preservative). The lower pH also somewhat inhibits the growth of Brett and other spoilage microorganisms. So it's a win win

I'm very sensitive to Brett, and usually don't prefer it. So, if you are to, you might try to select wines with lower alcohols.

We could talk about the volatile phenol production (the compounds responsible for negative "brett" character) at various pH's, because yeasts (to include brett) have different aromatic production at different pH's.... but that's some wizard level discussion and there's not alot of good data out there on it.

@ziarifleman

@Kitties-with-sigs

Yes I’ve been a commercial large scale Winemaker for 13 vintages. Still do a little bit but now I’m in technical sales and consulting in support of all things that bubble. Basically travel the country and drink

Supplex, when you come through Southern Oregon look me up. We started our first sparkling project last year. : )

I'm not sure a bandaid like flavor is brettanomyces. Wouldn't that be phenolic compounds? I usually associate phenolics with fermentation defects. Could have fermented too warm, or stressed the yeast too much. Or as you said, could have some less than perfectly sanitary tanks and transfer equipment.

Anyway, glad you finally found some wines you liked.

the band aid like flavor is 4-vinylphenol, and is indeed Brettanomyces related. In the right concentrations it is indeed exactly like Ban-Aids and quite objectionable. 4-VP is the intermediary step on the way to the classic 4-ethylphenol, which is classic Brett; in fact, measuring 4-EP is one of the ways we monitor Brettanomyces populations.

While phenol is in the name of this compound, "phenolics" perseae are a completely different thing in the classical sense.

Most of the time, IMO, Brett infections happen in the barrel and are due to unchecked exposure to oxygen and the subsequent depletion of Free SO2, the main "preservative" in winemaking. When SO2 plummet in the septic environment of the barrel, and especially so in high pH wines (most reds are these days), Brettanomyces takes off. I like to call this "Barrel Shock" and yes, I'm coining this phrase.

Very interesting. You clearly know way way more about wine than I do. I am kind of disillusioned with some of the trends going on in the wine world. With some wineries doctoring their wines (with mega purple and other additives) for higher ratings, and this flavored wine shit my wife recently bought... ugh.

(stella rosa peach!).  
Ingredients:
Grapes, sugar, natural flavor.  5% alcohol.  WTF.

More wineries need to put how much (or how little) residual sugar they have, especially on their whites.

Well, I should, because I now help professional winemakers make their wine

As far as some of the trends, I agree, there’s some crazy stuff going on, but people are buying it, so producers are making it. The industry as a whole is so fractured from a messaging standpoint, yet at the same time so monopolized. The number (by volume) of wines made by large conglomerates is saddening, however some of them are making VERY good wine.

@ziarifleman I tend to agree, and likely, that’s coming thanks to the FDA who will co-regulating our industry alongside the TTB. However, the presence (or lack thereof) does by no means indicate balance. Wines with really high acid or huge tannin structures are often much more palatable with a small amount of RS. And I’ve surprised many “dry drinkers” with “sweet wines” that they’ve very much enjoyed.

I would say that MOST “dry” wines contain some RS

You've said that before, but for me anything much above 7-8g/l is not pleasant, IMO.

This is one I had recently that I thought was sweeter than it should have been.

The point about the acid is strong, as I have had some low PH higher RS wines that were much more enjoyable than I thought they'd be.

I'm not kidding when I say I like dry wines.

Champenoise encapsulated or riddled, Ancestral?

Because I am the bean counter and in the cellar and on the crush pad during Crush I will have to log into the system to answer that question.

But, knowing our wine maker we will be doing method champenoise with riddling this especially since we don’t have a pressure tank. I don’t recall any discussion of encapsulated yeast. As far as I know the plan is to riddle, freeze, disgorge, dosage and cork this wine. But I haven’t seen an invoice for a riddling board yet, I am sure I will.

We did an educational sparkling tasting for our employees a couple months ago. We always invite an industry sme and this one was a good maker of sparkling wines. We learned a lot about picking grapes at the right brix to nail the acid. I suspect our picking decision will be made much earlier this year.

I served at a rehearsal dinner our owner was hoasting. Too many people came up to me and asked for “sweet wine.”. I gave them our Rose, 3 g/l rs. “ Boy, this is good!” “Yes sir, it’s our sweetest wine.”

I like dry wines but I have had some Ice wines that rocked. Huge rs balanced by huge acid, it works sometimes.

Iirc by definition a “dry” wine it 2 g/l or less rs. That would definitely support your statement.

Iirc 2, a little rs can fill out the mid palette helping a lot of “dry” wines be more enjoyable.

How do you determine the residual sugars in g/L?
Is it something so simple as a gravity reading or is move complex testing required?

In theory an sg of 1.003 coincides with 3g/L ... sort of.

I suspect even if you knew the residual sugar of every wine, the perception may vary a bit depending on serving temp, acidity, alcohol content, etc.
The average consumer wouldn't know how to interpret the data, so it's easier to just provide one of those subjective sweetness scales on the back of the bottle perhaps.

I guess I'm not average, because I really prefer residual sugar, pH, and alcohol content.

I like data.

We have a very well equipped lab and a lab rat. That’s how I determine rs.

Honestly, when I am tasting or drinking wine I don’t worry about it. I am looking for an experience that makes me want more. The truth is that can change daily so I don’t worry too much about it. I am fortunate to be surrounded by some talented winemakers so I am rarely disappointed.

I knew less than nothing about the winemaking process when I started. I work very hard, take direction very well and don’t bitch about things. I volunteered for three days and they hired me. They then sent me to school to learn more.

Honestly, the criteria to get hired on as an intern is desire. If you really want it and like working hard you can get hired. The biggest deal killer is if you are not local. We can’t afford to relocate and house people.

It is a very cool industry to work in if you have realistic expectations. Give it a shot sometime, you may end up like me, addicted to it!