A short thought about 2017

Winemaking is important, but site selection is importanter.

…meaning, good site selection makes the bestest wine. Right?

Depends on the selectioner too, I supposer.

Terroirer > Producer ?

you can’t fool (aka f*ck with) mother nature

This thread would be more betterer in Iambic Pentameter! :slight_smile:

You are all correctish.

One thing unique about the 2017s: You’d be well advised to stick with producers with good reputations, or taste widely before purchasing…

2017 is all over the board in Oregon and site is crazy importanter than ever. Some wineries adding water, some adding nothing, some adding sugar, some doing all three. We had harvested brix from 20.3 to 26.5. There was also so much fruit I am sort of only marginally aware of what the barreled wines are like.

What Jim said. Sections of the vineyard that typically ripen lastest, ripened firstest. Clones that typically impart darker wines, have yielded wines that are lighter. I feel like I’m in the upside down.

I haven’t done this much whole cluster since the 12ers.

Are you sure this isn’t a plagiarized Stuart Smalley quote? neener

Sounds like an awful lot of important winemaking decisions being made on what the importanter sites were yielding. Nothing like a challenging vintage to raise the stakes.

RT

It’s so on this year Richard. Fun as hell. Dropping the first fermenter into the presserer today.

Exciting to hear Todd. Looking forward to the wines. I think it holds true in most cases (not just winemaking) that people perform at their best and do their best work when challenged.

I’m really excited. Both Todd and Marcus have compared the vintage to 2010.

[wow.gif] [highfive.gif]

This has been an unusual vintage, so far.

My first stuck fermentation in 18 years.

Just coming out of that, we had the fires and evacuation.

Just coming out of THAT, I was at the winery today and had a good first taste of post-barreling 2017.

Nice fruit, barrels in various stages of exiting malo.

Will decide later where to put on some new oak. Not surprisingly, my favorite barrel today was a twice used barrel (new for 2013 vintage) by Marchive.

So much to do, so much to learn.

I did hear (anecdotally, of course) that some Howell Mountain fruit that hung later might have some smoke taint and will not make that winery’s vintage cut. You cannot walk down the street, sit in a dentist’s chair, go to the Dr., or do anything else here where there is not a fair awareness of wine. I always tell people that when I sit in the eye Dr’s chair in September, he asks me, “Did you harvest yet?”

Wine is the heartbeat here. You grow it, make it, sell it, or provide services to someone who does. Very, very few citizens here are not involved I some way.

Todd,

When you say site selection are you noticing the difference in the AVA’s or is it more micro and really about the individual vineyards? If it can be “mostly” generalized with the AVA’s then would you mind sharing which AVA’s came in more ripe (2014-2016) and which were cooler (2010 & 2011)?

Individual vineyard sites in particular. I wasn’t a big fan of carving up the valley into AVA’s years ago because, with the exception of Dundee Hills, there isn’t enough typicity to really say look here’s how they taste. Just a marketing gimmick IMO.

So, to answer the question of what is importanter. The individual vineyard is always importanter. And this year in particular you really wanted your vineyard manager to swoon you.