vashonwineryjournal.com Blog

Well, I have to tell you: I just made my last payment to the former owners. I guess I now own the winery except that I now make payments to the bank rather than to the former owners.

I don’t know how it is really different, but it feels different.

It is exciting and scary the way the economy is acting up. I think it is going to work though. I think we are in for a few dark days but after that it is going to get really good; interest rates will be low and the crazy prices of the past ten years will be more in line with reality.

I am pressing our wines. Shana Anderson, who now works for me on occassion, has been helping. She is a great worker and listener, as I tell her all my stories. I have also gotten help this year from Verne Johnson and Bob Jones.

It has been an unusual year for quality and it is way too early to know what the vintage will produce. So far we have pressed Pinot Noir, Dwelley Vineyard Merlot, (I call it) Rex’s Vineyard Merlot, and just a couple of days ago, Upland Vineyard’s Cabernet Franc. I will probably press the Upland Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon next week, almost two months after crushing the grapes.

To all: I wish you a very Merry Christmas or merry whatever you may celebrate during the darkest month of the year and I really look forward to the challenges of next year.

Ron 

It is Halloween and harvest is pretty much behind us; all the grapes are in, wine is fermented and waiting to be pressed, and the last batch of apples are waiting to be crushed and pressed.

At the beginning of October I helped organize the first CiderFest on Vashon. It turned into a very full day of apples, harvest, cidermaking and cider tasting; then topped off with a cider dinner.

As part of CiderFest on Vashon, the Vashon Fruit Club had their annual fall fruit day where people can view various apple varieties, even bring some in for identification. Also the club was crushing apples for juice.

I served on a panel headed by Dr. Bob Norton on “How to Make Hard Cider” attended by about forty people which was a little short of amazing because there were gale force winds, buckets of rain and an occasional blast of sunshine. Drew Zimmerman of Red Barn Cider and Richard Anderson of Westcott Bay Orchards were on the panel also. I know that people enjoyed the seminar because there were lots of good questions.

Following the seminar we had a cider tasting in the Farmers’ Market pavillon. There were nine cideries serving 21 different ciders, from very dry (mine, Irvine’s Vintage Blend) to quite sweet (Dupont Cidre de Normandie). I think about 150 people showed up and seemed to really enjoy themselves. At about four o’clock it got really crowded but no one seemed to mind. Cideries that participated: Aspall Cider (England), Samuel Smith Organic Cider (England), Wandering Aengus Ciderworks (Salem, Oregon), Eaglemount Cider Company (Port Townsend, WA), Blue Mountain Cider Company (Milton-Freewater, Oregon), Irvine’s Vintage Cider (Vashon, WA), Dupont Cidre de Normandie (France), and Red Barn Cider (Mt. Vernon, WA).

Together this was one of the most comprehensive cider tastings ever done.

We concluded the day with a four-course cider dinner at The Hardward Store: we started with mussels cooked in cider, followed by a garden salad using Chesire cheese and cider vinaigrate, a main course of baked salmon with cider and curry. Dessert was a cider bread pudding. All matched with a variety of ciders.

At the dinner, Vashon Rotary recognized Dr. Bob Norton for his contributions to the horticulture community on Vashon and awarded him the Paul Harris Award. Then Dr. Norton announced the winner of the Cider Tasting, the Dupont Cidre de Normandie, awarded in his name.

Now to wine. All of the grapes are in and most have completed fermentation, and a secondary fermentation called malo-lactic which is a bacterial fermentation that changes the malic acid (a sharp acid found in apples) into lactic acid (an acid found in milk products and thus softer). Now I allow the grapeskins to sit in contact with the wine for about three weeks beyond fermentation. I will decide to press by taste when I feel that I have picked up some extra flavor, and when the tannins are softened (called polymerization). It calls for constant attention and tasting.

I suspect I will start pressing the skins in about three weeks, just before Thanksgiving.

And lastly, we harvested the island Pinot Noir from Monument Farm Vineyard on October 26th, a beautiful day. And it was somewhat of a miracle as we needed, and got, a glorious October full of heat and dryness. I am absolutely dumbfounded. A month ago the grapes didn’t even look right…..it was as if they were these taut little plastic purple grapes but they seemed to ripen up, turning soft and black. I mean black, not blue and without the bloom, that dusty quality on the skins.

Right now the crushed grapes are in a tank undergoing a cold-soak, soaking at a cold temperature prior to fermentation in an attempt to get a bit of tannin and color out of the skins.

All in all, a good harvest.

Well, I am right in the middle of harvest. I am making a little less than normal: no Semillon, more Cabernet Sauvignon and a bit of Merlot and less of Cabernet Franc.

I have been busy. In August we had two concerts: Danny O’Keefe and then Vashon Winery’s first Folk Festival. Danny O’Keefe was remarkable as he sang new songs from his recent CD, On Time. The weather co-operated and the concert was held in front of the winery. Danny was personable and approachable and his songs carried up into the trees.

In late August Wally Bell masterfully directed our first Folk Festival with ten different groups playing Americana to Celtic. The festival was headlined by Larry Murante who played at 7pm. Other notables were Kat Eggleston of Vashon Island (recently returned from Chicago), the Hayburners (Jennifer and David) from beautiful Renton and a special apprearance by the Colwell Brothers. All the entertainers were fantastic and most stuck around to listen to their contemporaries.

Then September snuck up on me. At the beginning of September we had a poetry reading by Samuel Green. Green started his reading in the orchard outside reading a poem about teaching his son about killing…….and I swear I would have fainted had my usual early evening deer ambled past us. He should have been there as early Transparents plunked to the ground.

Then we went inside and Green read his and other poets’ works. He own works were sensitive and observant and he almost sang the words to us.

Samuel Green is our state’s first Poet Laureate and sitting amongst the barrels all of us felt somehow connected.

Now wine: throughout this time period I was busy blending and bottling two different batches of Tramp Harbor Red which has sold unbelievably well. The last batch used one barrel from the previous blend to which I added one barrel each of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. I think it was my best to date.

I am just running out of that one and getting ready to blend and bottle a new batch; this one with more Merlot and less Cabernet Franc, again using one barrel from the previous blend.

This is a little more complicated as I am trying to deal with handling the grapes that just came in. The Cabernet Sauvigon is from Upland Vineyards in Sunnyside, a new vineyard for me and one I am incredibly excited about. It is managed by the Newhouse family and I deal mainly with Todd Newhouse, third generation vineyard manager. I met Todd when he asked me to do some research on his property and the original owner, W.B. Bridgman.

Todd has recently opened his own tasting room, Upland Estates, located just below the Vineyards, though his wines are made in Grandview.

When I picked up the grapes his father Steve came over to help. His Grandpa, Al, waved from his truck.

I’ll make another trip over, likely next week, to pick up the Cabernet Franc, a late ripening variety.

Oh, and our island-grown Pinot Noir, grown at Monument Farm Vineyard. It is really struggling to get completely ripe and to develop enough sugars. The early spring rain really set the plants back this year but we are hoping that we will get something……I don’t worry about the sugars because I can always add sugar; it is the ripeness of the grapes that concern me. Right now the malic is strong in the grape and it is slow to change to tartaric but I think it is happening as the grapes are softening.

On Sunday after getting samples of the Pinot Noir I drove over to the Chasselas Dore vineyard and found that the raccoons had beaten me. I am really torn…….the vineyard needs so much work, it is really wild with grass as high as my head and scotch-broom and blackberries between the rows. I am just happy that I didn’t spend too much time working the vineyard.

Well, I keep heading toward December when I have to make my balloon payment to the former owners. I think it will happen, but it is really scary with the credit market the way it is. I can’t even get banks to return my calls.

I have a lot of good wines to sell, and about to go into bottle. I just started selling the Right Bank Red which is an equal blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc that emulates the wines of St. Emilion in Bordeaux. I also hope to bottle a new Cabernet Sauvignon and a new Reserve Red.

I know that I am not the only one that feels like time is flying by, well maybe not flying by, but definitely on the move.

I watch the apples in my tree off of my kitchen window as they grow seemingly each day. They are like an hourglass with sand flowing down.

I’m not sure where I am going with this. I think I am already starting to get a bit nervous about harvest coming up. I am trying to decide whether to purchase a trailer that I can haul behind my Jeep and that all depends on how much wine I intend to make.

I know that I am not going to make Semillon this year as I still have two vintages in barrels. It’s odd that it is my best seller at the winery when visitors to the winery get to taste it, but on the shelf it just sits there. So that is two tons of grapes I won’t be buying.

I am excited that I am going to be using a new vineyard this year. It is called the Upland Estate in Sunnyside. Most of the vineyard is located on the east end of Snipes Mountain which is a east-west running hill that is about eight miles long in the middle of the Yakima Valley. It was originally planted to grapes in 1912 and a few of those vines are still alive. They are massive, about the size of Shaq O’Neill’s thighs. 

I walked the vineyard with Todd Newhouse, three generations of which operate the farm, including the orchards and vineyards; Todd is the youngest, then his dad, Steve, then Todd’s grandfather, Al. Last year when I was picking up some Cabernet Franc I met all three at the loading dock.

I am thinking that I will just get a small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. I’m thinking about getting some Gewurztraminer also but I am going to try to get some west-side, Puget Sound, white grapes like Siegerrebe and hope for a good harvest of Chasselas Dore.

I also hope to get some Pinot Noir from Monument Farm Vineyard on Vashon Island.

Oh well, I am getting ahead of myself. This weekend, Danny O’Keefe will be in concert at the winery. Three weeks later, on August 23rd, there will be a flat-out folk festival under the apple trees, eight hours of straight music with as many as ten bands playing, organized by Wally Bell.

And finally, Samuel Green will be reading poetry at the winery to finish off our concert series.

Time might be moving, but I have a lot of things to do in the meantime.

Hi,

I have officially sold out of the 2006 Pinot Noir except for a few bottles in the smaller, 375ml size. Sales have been brisk, especially after our local newspaper, The Beachcomber, did a feature story on the wine. You can read the story at http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/vashon/vib/lifestyle/19295354.html. The story is well written and captures the excitement of producing this wine from locally grown grapes.

I have been very busy selling the Tramp Harbor Red (THR) and just the other day blended up a new batch, similar but different. This THR(2) is made of four barrels: one of ’06 Cabernet Franc, one each of ‘05 Merlot and ‘05 Cabernet Sauvignon and finally a barrel of the previous blend; kind of like the solera system used to blend different vintages in the production of Sherry.

The cool weather is a concern for this year’s harvest as everything is late, though I think it all depends on what happens in the warmer, dryer months coming up. 

The cooler weather has been good for new vines planted recently….lots of vegetative growth. About three weeks ago, Beth and Henry, and my wife, Ginny, and I planted a new vineyard at Beth and Henry’s home on 216th, off of Monument Road, about a thousand feet from the Pinot Noir Vineyard.

Some other goings on: Michael Meade gave a very interesting lecture/concert. We had almost 40 people seaed in the winery while Michael sat in front of the cooler. He lectured, he led us in song, he played his drum and he read poetry by Rumi and Hafiz, 14th Century Muslims who often included wine and its symbolism in their poems. He titled his talk, “The Soul of Wine”.

I have a new blended wine of half Merlot and half Cabernet Franc that I hope to bottle and release it in August. I plan to call it Right Bank red as it emulates the wines grown in the St. Emilion district of France. The wine is beautifully blanced with good acidity and good fruit. It is not rich but rather pretty showing the complementary nature of these two grapes; the Cabernet Franc is more linear and gives the wine length of flavor and a wonderful herbal, leaf character. The Merlot gives the wine wine great fruitiness and weight with flavors of plum and cherry.

And lastly, we are about to bottle our new 2006 Chasselas Dore, Vashon Island-grown.

That’s all….I’ve got to go…pick up some more bottles and get all of this exciting wine into bottle.

The Tramp Harbor Red is now in bottle. I brought together my bottling crew of John and George and we bottled the THR and the 2006 Pinot Noir.

I am out in the marketplace selling the wine now and it is going well. Now I have to worry about running out and what am I going to do for an encore, another THR.

This wine is really good. The Malbec is forceful and rich backed by some other pedigree grapes. Though I couldn’t seem to use the Malbec in my normal Reserve blend it does well with the THR blend as it is the dominant grape. The wine is beautifully structured with a rich fruity character and a long taste profile. It is decidely fruit flavored with hints of blackberry and raspberry. The tannins are just right and the acid seems perfect.

The Pinot Noir is being Pinot Noir, finicky and transient; every experience with the wine is different. One thing for sure: it isn’t done changing yet. For that reason I have decided to release it on May 1 rather than April 1. I think it will still be young but it should be closer to what we will see later.

I am working with a family on Vashon Island who is planting grapes to sell to the winery. The initial vineyard is quite small…..though try telling that to the person responsible for upkeep of the vineyard such as pruning, shaping, trellising, weeding, spraying. We are planting four grape varieties: two clones of Pinot Noir (777 and Precoce), Chasslas Dore, and Siegerrebe. With more room it might have been of interest planting Pinot Gris as well.

I am also working with others as well. This is all very exciting and with the cold spring, a little unnerving. Luckily we don’t have anything in the ground yet.

Hope to see you soon at the winery.

I have been busy the last three or four weeks. I have been getting my wines ready for blending. I have chosen a range of wines from three vintages to combine into a blend, Cuvee Rouge or Tramp Harbor Red.

I did an egg-white fining on about fourteen barrels, then did a very light filtration through loose cellulose filter sheets. The egg-white attracts the opposite electrical charged proteins in the wine and settles out of the wine at the bottom of the barrel. This helps to soften some of the harsher tannins. Then the filtration removes the egg-white and sediment from the wine and “cleans up” the wine. The resulting wine is smoother and brighter (or polished).

Then I put the wines back into barrel, ready to be bottled. I have already blended the ‘03 Reserve Red, the ‘04 Reserve Red, the ‘04 Cabernet Sauvignon and a new blend of half Cabernet Franc and half Merlot from the ‘04 vintage. Each of those wines is exciting but the new Tramp Harbor Red is even more exciting. Into this blend went a bit of each of the fore-mentioned wines plus some ‘05 Cabernet Sauvignon and ‘05 Merlot. Also I added to barrels of Malbec, one each from the ‘03 and the ‘04 vintage. The Tramp Harbor Red (THR) is concentrated and elegant, and a terrific deal.

It will be selling in the stores in about a week at an incredible price of around $16.99. I hope to sell it out. I need to sell it out to help pay off my loan that I used to purchase the winery.

I will pay off the loan. And I will do it in whatever manner it takes. I have a lot of inventory, not too much mind you, but enough that I am willing to sell it a bit cheaper to pay off the loan.

That is my mantra in ‘08: sell lots of wine!

I was invited to taste some of Vashon Winery’s wines from our cellar. I chose six different Cabernet Sauvignons, plus two Semillons. The Cabs that we tried were the ‘90, ‘92, ‘93 (Reserve), ‘96, ‘98 and ‘02. The Semillons were the ‘05 and the ‘93.

This tasting was suggested by my friend Nina Milligan for her Ladies Only tasting group. They are a group of lovely women that all have been in the industry, and most still are.

We started with the ‘05 Semillon. It was rich with great fruit, almost buttery.

Then we served each wine one at a time but saved enough in our glasses to go back and taste again. The ‘90 Cab was remarkable; the color only barely hinted at its age with just a tinge of orange. It smelled of crushed leaves and wilted rose petals. The ‘92 was beautiful with a great fruit, hinting at raspberry. The ‘93 was our reserve with the special label, The Wine Project. It was still muscular and rich and just starting to open up. Then the ‘96 that I thought had a wonderful direct fruit character and I nice linear character. Then the ‘98 was just beautiful, simpler, but younger. Then finally the ‘02 Cab which drank great with nice rich flavors but without the qualities of the older wines.

All were impressive. I was most impressed by the ‘90, ‘96 and ‘02.

The ‘90 and ‘96 were cooler vintages. And the quality that they had were higher acids…the key to aging the wine.

We finished with the ‘93 Semillon which was interesting. The fruit character that I thought would be richer had dried out, and the wine seemed sharp and a bit acid. It was a good wine and would have gone well with either a white fish dish or maybe pork.

This is a poem I wrote that expresses my discovery of European cider. Malus, by the way, is the genus that apple belongs to. 

On that London Park Bench

 
Alone, on that London Park Bench

She sat down next to me

In her splendid red coat, with green lapels

Streaked with yellow.

She said she saw me from her bakery

And I noticed flour on her apron.

 
I looked into her dark languid eyes.

Mirrors of antiquity.

Her voice soft and familiar,

Echoed from distant lands.

 
Behind us

An ancient apple tree

Stretched up to catch the sky.

A lone apple hung

And dewdrops sparkled in the autumn sun

Like tiny chandeliers.

While at our feet

A carpet of leaves

Rustled in the wind.

 
She inched closer

And whispered her name, Malus,

As she reached up and kissed me.

I tasted her parting lips, crisp

Tart fruit;

a softness in the middle of the tongue.

Saliva warmed a gentle fire,

A taste of pure desire.

 
My eyes closed,

A delicate mist

Of green perfume

Lingered over me.

And Malus stayed with me all my life

Though I don’t know where she went.

 
                                                                        Ronald Irvine

                                                                        February 7, 2008