Anne Amie Vineyards, Carlton Oregon

First Thursdays

 I'm not exactly sure how or when the tradition began but on the first Thursday of each month art galleries in Portland stay open late inviting the public to join artists and art lovers alike in exploring the amazing gallery/studio scene.  While not an artist myself, I am lucky enough to be involved in many of these Thursdays because after all, I am a dealer.  My art is wine.

Most all of the galleries encourage mingling by offering wine, refreshments and live music.  If you've yet to join in the fun, it's a must do whether you're just visiting or here year round.  Tomorrow night Anne Amie is partnering for the second time with our good friends at the Oregon College of Art & Craft for the opening reception of their faculty show.  This biennial exhibition offers an opportunity to see new work created by the OCAC degree program faculty, whose members are working studio artists exhibiting both regionally & nationally.  This group show also demonstrates the wide range of technical & conceptual concerns addressed by the instructors in all the College's media-book arts, ceramics, drawing & painting, fibers, metals, photography & wood.

I'll be pouring our Anne Amie Vineyards 2006 Estate Riesling and 2004 Winemaker's Selection Pinot Noir from 4-7pm. 

For more information, contact OCAC at 503-297-5544.

Oregon College of Art & Craft
8245 SW Barnes Road
Portland, OR 97225

I hope you'll come out to see us and support local art!

Cheers,
Kim

Anne Amie Sunrise 10/29/07

You start thinking you're spending too much time at work when you are photograping the dawn that followed the sunset you shot the night before. After all the entire world had spun completely around, but you just got a bit of sleep and you're back at work. However, the beauty of sunsets and sunrises in the Willamette Valley are worth missing a little sleep to experience. Pictured here, the sun rises over the Dundee Hills overlooking over our Anne Amie Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir. As these first rays illuminated the valley, pickers were harvesting the last of our müller thurgau, which is located in the opposite direction on the west side of our estate. The last of our own grapes are now picked and just some pinot blanc remains, which will be harvested on Wednesday.

Jordan

You've seen Jordan in many photos this harvest. Jordan joined us to be a "cellar rat" for this vintage and has been a great addition to our crew. As you might imagine, a "cellar rat" gets some of the least popular jobs in the cellar, but Jordan has taken them on with aplomb. After harvest, Jordan is off to New Zealand to continue his studies. This morning Jordan arrived at work with a slightly different hair color than you may remember. No, that's not only the sunset glowing, but also his new bright red hair, the result of weekend Halloween parties, you see in this photo.  We thank Jordan for his contributions this harvest and wish him luck as he heads of to New Zealand.

It was a glorious, perfect Oregon fall day today. No grapes arrived and we almost returned to a normal eight hour work day, as you can see from this photo where Jordan enjoys a glass of Anne Amie Pinot Noir after work as the sunset warms the sky. Tomorrow and Wednesday our last white grapes arrive. The weather forecast is for more perfect.

Anne Amie Sunset 10/27/07

Anne Amie Arrives in Colorado with The World Series

We're happy new announce our wines are now available in Colorado through a very fine distributor, The Wine Merchants of Colorado. Colorado customers can call them at 303- 526-9316 to order our wines. Owner Rick Hinman describes  his company's vision in this way, "We are dedicated to locating and providing only the finest wines, produced by artisans who follow traditional, time-honored methods so as to produce their vintages in as natural a manner as possible." Needless to say we feel fortunate to have found a company that shares our own vision so completely.

We are now officially on the fence in The World Series as we also have a tremendous distributor in Boston, Cafe Europa. However, with the Rockies down 2 games to none at this point, tonight we'll pull for the Rockies along with our new friends at The Wine Merchants of Colorado just so things stay interesting and, now that harvest is winding down, we'll actually be able to watch some games!

Anne Amie Harvest Spice Ale

As harvest draws to a close and Halloween approaches, Thomas had a treat in store for the crew: his 2007 Harvest Spice Ale. Thomas was a home brewer before he was a winemaker and we're happy to share in his hobby. The unveiling of this year's Harvest Spice Ale was an event enjoyed by all. Our anticpation was really built up as we watched Thomas craft his harvest brew in a carboy tucked among the fermenters.

As Thomas mentioned yesterday, our harvest is drawing to a close and the only block left to pick is some müller thurgau. While we are physically more than ready for harvest to conclude, there is always a bit of melancholy about that last bin of grapes to arrive. The first arrives with such excitement, but the last means that 2007 is no more until the wines bring the memory back for us. You develop such a close relationship to the vines when you live and work among them. You remember the barren cold of winter, the excitement and rebirth of spring as the buds then flowers come and go, you feel the warm green lushness of summer and the thrill of veraison, when the grapes change color. Then harvest approaches and you're glued to the weather reports and then there is that first bin and then it's suddenly the last. Fortunately we get to experience the whole wonderful cycle once again next year.

With Thomas' Harvest Ale we drink a toast to vintage 2007.

Here is Thomas' recipe :

Anne Amie Harvest Spice Ale

6 lb dark liquid malt extract

2 lb dry light malt extract

2 lb clover honey

½ lb crystal malt

½ lb chocolate malt

½ lb black patent malt

2 oz Cascade hops (boil)

1 oz Willamette hops (finish)

1 oz Willamette hops (dry hop)

12 bags Celestial Seasons Roastaroma tea

 

Bring 1 ½ gallons to a boil in a large kettle. Meanwhile, add 3 gallons cold tap water to a 5 gallon glass carboy or plastic bucket. When the water comes to a rapid boil, combine all the malt, honey and malt extract in the kettle, stirring to prevent scorching.  Add the boiling hops.  When the water returns to a boil, turn the heat down to a simmer and cover the kettle.  Boil for forty-five minutes stirring occasionally.  At the forty-five minute mark add the tea bags. At fifty-five minutes into the boil, add 1 oz Willamette hops.  At 60 minutes remove the kettle from the stovetop and pour the liquid through a strainer and funnel into the container containing 3 gallons of cold water.  This is extremely hot liquid.  Be very careful!

Put a fermentation lock in the carboy or cover bucket with cheese cloth.  Allow liquid to cool to room temperature before adding beer yeast and the last ounce of Willamette.  Ferment in a cool, dark place.  A week later you are ready to siphon off the sediment, put the beer into the keg, add carbonation and enjoy!

Harvest Moon

According to NASA tonight's harvest moon was exceptionally large and bright.  So much so, that as I walked through the vineyards tonight with Looksha, my Shar-pei,  we cast our own shadows.  The harvest moon rose pregnantly above the Dundee Hills this evening as we were processing the last of our Pinot noir of the season, from the Rainbow Ridge Vineyard just west of us.  The moon reminded me  of cycles and how today we happened to be pressing the Hawks View 777 Pinot noir that we harvested almost a month ago.  Today, our winery is heavy and swollen with wine harvested in the past month, much like the harvest moon that graces us tonight.  A month from now a very different moon will rise above a quiet winery as we press off the wine we harvested this week.  And, that cycle will continue as we blend our white wines and barrel age our reds, each moon cycle marking different activity in the winery. But, tonight I am thankful for the harvest moon and the end of a very tense, but successful harvest. 

Cheers to you all from the Anne Amie crew,

Thomas

Happy Anniversary

Today it is one month since we harvested our first grapes and gathered for the celebratory toast pictured above. The sunny weather and optimism of that first day of harvest has been replaced by cool rainy days, bumps and bruises, colds and the tired only a month of working every day can bring. It seems impossible to us as we look at this photo to think it could have possibly have been taken only a month ago as it almost seems like the distant past. The ski season will open on Mt. Hood this weekend as we harvest our last grapes. Indeed, it has been a long harvest.

The simple optimism of that first day has now been replaced by a quiet, albeit tired, confidence that we have created some special wines even though Mother Nature has not made it easy.

The Good, The Beautiful and the Ugly

We harvested a significant amount of pinot noir today. In both vineyards we were the last to harvest our grapes. Just by looking at the photo above you can see we were right; that's some good lookin' pinot noir from the Zena Crown Vineyard in the Eola Hills. The other vineyard harvested was La Colina in the Dundee Hills. Conventional wisdom said to pick earlier, but we hung on for flavor and got it. That's the good.

The ugly side of this year is the amount of grapes bunches infected with various types of rot, most notably botrytis. Botrytis is famed as noble rot for the great dessert wines made in Sauternes and Germany. However, most of the time this rot is not noble at all and is just plain gray rot. That's the issue we have to deal with to a certain degree in all vintages, but damp harvests like this bring more of this blight. This is why we have invested so much time and money in sorting equipment that allows us to remove infected bunches before they reach the fermenter, where they would cause all sorts of off flavors and winemaking problems. As long as you throw away all of these bunches you can make great wine. As you can see from these bunches taken off the line today, you can easily tell what needs to be discarded.

The beautiful is pictured below as the sunset illuminated the Dundee Hills just as the moon rose over the horizon. This was the view we had from the sorting line tonight as we worked through today's harvest.

Dawn at Anne Amie 10/22/07

Looking northwest towards the Coast Range and Carlton

Looking southwest towards McMinnville

Looking east over our Anne Amie Estate Pinot Noir vineyard towards the Dundee Hills

The beautiful dawn was an inspiring way to start another day of harvest. The morning fog will burn off soon and we're starting to pick again today under excellent conditions to finish the harvest. We're glad we took the risk to let these last grapes hang a bit longer in spite of the weather as now they have better flavors than just a week ago. Today the last of our pinot gris arrives and grapes should be arriving every day until next Saturday.