The first Pinot Noir of the season

Bam! Suddenly it's upon us. While the Syrah is always welcome, we look forward to and even yearn for the first lots of Pinot Noir. Ask and you shall receive! This past Friday we saw our first full day of the Domaine Serene 2008 Vintage, it looked phenomenal. Everything seemed to fall into place; the perfect weekend of weather, pristine fruit, and the eagerness of the entire staff.

Now, under a thick blanket of dry ice fog (to maintain adequate cold soaks), we are scurrying about helping out wherever we can. This past weekend had us primarily focusing on our Two Barns Vineyard and Guadalupe Vineyard fruit. These Dundee Hills Vineyards are not owned by Domaine Serene, but were planted by our Vineyard Manager, Joel Myers, and are tended to our strict specifications. They produce rich, lush fruit and tend to ripen faster than other sites. Both the numbers (Brix, pH, TA) and the exceptional flavors produced at these two vineyards helped us to make the decision to harvest. Believe me, with the strict attention to detail regarding fruit quality at Domaine Serene, these two vineyards alone have kept us plenty busy, working two harvest crews and double shifts around the clock. Speaking of painstaking attention to detail, today we received the fruit that will become a wonderful 2008 Coeur Blanc. As the sorting line slowed to a crawl, everyone inspected individual clusters of grapes to ensure that only the best fruit imaginable would make it through the careful selection process.

With weather that is "predicted" to stay more than nice (especially for mid-October in Oregon) we now have the luxury of collectively catching our breath as we wait for the estate vineyards to reach their prime. But don't worry! We will still tirelessly work to inspect each fermentation vessel and every vineyard sample as we anxiously await the remainder of the 2008 harvest.

For the record, even with the generous portion sizes provided by our harvest chef, Brad Powers, and Ken & Grace Evenstad (who cook meals often this time of year), and including the multiple helpings of ice cream, I have still managed to do a fair bit of running around the winery this past weekend to not see the calories take a toll. Well, at least not yet anyway. – Written by Sam Poehlman, Lab & QC Technician.