Ayres Vineyard

On Our Way to Salmon Safe

2009-11-17T18:20:00.000-08:00

We are halfway toward our LIVE and Salmon Safe certification. What does that mean? It means you can feel good about drinking your Ayres Pinot Noir because we are a sustainable farm and we are passionate about taking care of the dirt here. Cheers!

Katherine Cole Declares November Pinot Noir Month!

2009-11-17T07:35:00.000-08:00

Our thanks to Katherine Cole, wine writer extraordinaire, for recommending our 2008 Lewis Rogers Lane in today's Oregonian. We are, of course, the primary consumers of our wine, but if you would like a more objective opinion, follow:

http://www.oregonlive.com/foodday/index.ssf/2009/11/wine_of_the_month_pinot_noir_o.html

See You Soon!

2009-11-16T11:13:00.000-08:00

Our wines will make you merry this holiday season! Come give them a try this coming weekend, November 21st and 22nd from 11 - 3 (no tasting fee) or November 27th and 28th from 10 - 4 ($10 tasting fee per person).

We will be pouring our 2008 Willamette Valley, 2008 Lewis Rogers Lane (NEW ESTATE WINE!), and 2008 Pioneer. If we have enough 2007 Piper to pour we will, but the secret is out about that wine and it has been flying out the winery doors!

See you soon!

The Bar is Open!

2009-10-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

As if we didn't have quite enough activity happening in the vineyard and the winery, we thought we would begin a construction project, too! Enter Jim and Michele O'Malley, designers and crafters extraordinaire, who granted our wishes and made a tasting bar appear as if by magic!

We are still crawling out from underneath nearly 50 tons of grapes, but call for your tasting appointment and check out our new bar!

The OH 8 Vintage!

2009-10-13T14:06:00.000-07:00

At some point between picking the first cluster and today's activities, we released the stunning new vintage of Pinot Noir. We call it the OH-8 vintage. Or the OMG-8 vintage. And it's not because we are into text lingo. It's because OH MY GOD it is really, really exciting wine! The 2008 vintage was special from the start. Fellow winemakers were buzzing this time last year, as soon as the first clusters were picked. The evolution in the barrel and into the bottle was dazzling. This wine has dance, as our friend, Chad Zimmerman, likes to say.

So welcome to Ayres' 2008 vintage! For more than one reason we are thrilled to be selling this vintage. (Let's just say that selling the 2007 vintage brings up memories of the worst financial climate since the depression. Lucky for us people didn't stop drinking during the recession.)

You will discover a brand new estate label in 2008 called Lewis Rogers Lane. If you are even a tiny bit interested act now because these bottles seem to have legs. Anyone who stops by the winery for a tasting walks out the door with at least a half dozen bottles. You will also recognize the Willamette Valley bottling as being the same outstanding quality at the same outstanding price. Truly, drop for drop this bottling always delivers in terms of quality and cost. And, of course, Pioneer completes our line-up. Again it is comprised entirely of clone 667. It's big. It's bold. It's earthy. It's Pioneer. (It's also named after my great-great grandfather, pioneer Andrew Samuel McClure, who survived the Oregon Trail by eating squirrel brains and lighting the wool fibers from his coat on fire. But I guess that really belongs in a different blog category!)

Anyway, cheers to the past, present, and future vintages!

Be the Grape

2009-10-13T13:37:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday I awoke to windy conditions. I had read the night before via a weather warning statement that an arctic blast was supposed to settle into the Valley any time. I pulled the blankets up high and pretended I was not supposed to pick the eight small rows of white grapes. Too cold. Way too cold. Besides, I knew my two-year-old son would be up any minute asking to watch PBS cartoons. Clifford the Big Red Dog sounded like better company than an arctic blast and frozen fingers.

Alas, two strong lattes and three layers of clothing later I marched out the back door and into the vineyard, ready to take on the sauvignon blanc, pinot blanc, and auxerrois. The thought of drinking an incredible glass of white wine next summer trumped the blustery weather.

The picking of our small, experimental plot of white grapes is a lesson in girl power around here. My mom and I adopted this project last year. This year my almost six-year-old daughter joined us. We enjoyed handfuls of grapes and called it snack time. Talk about eating local.

Just a few months ago we were not sure we would harvest any fruit from the above mentioned vines. Ten days of 100 degree heat was almost more than they could handle. So many leaves had fallen we thought for sure there wouldn't be enough to conduct photosynthesis and ripen the fruit. But we had all underestimated the power of the vine, the force of nature. Nature didn't just give up because of a hiccup in the middle of the growing season. In fact the vines produced twice as much fruit as last year with an even more intense flavor profile. They ripened perfectly to 24 brix. Simply amazing. It makes me want to be more like a grapevine.

Eat This Now...Drink This Now

2009-10-06T10:12:00.000-07:00

Still eating our way through harvest here at Ayres. A birthday celebration offered a perfect reason to plan festive menu:

Puffed pastry filled with a wild mushroom ragout, topped with cave-aged Gruyere cheese
Caesar salad with handmade croutons

Simple? Yes. Delicious? Beyond.

The wine offerings included our 2007 Poetica and a 2006 Pioneer. If anyone reading is lucky enough to still have any '06 Pioneer, get thee to the market to prepare the above menu, pop the cork on the Pioneer, and, voila, instant opportunity to savor perfectly matched flavors. The 2006 is velvet in a bottle - supremely balanced, earthy, strong-yet-mellow dark fruit, leather. Pinot Noir and wild mushrooms just love to hold hands.

Wishing you many happy harvest meals!

Fermentation Begins

2009-10-02T09:23:00.001-07:00

It has been a week since we picked the first clusters from the estate vineyard. Brad reported that at 4:30 this morning he saw the first signs of fermentation. That's how we do it here...ever so slowly we allow the different lots to wake up according to their own inner alarm clock. Fermentations are slow, steady, and spontaneous in our cellar. Round-the-clock punchdowns will keep us busy through the fermentation. Though it extracts a physical toll it is Brad's favorite part of wine making. He loves opening the winery at 4 in the morning, his stainless steel punchdown tool in hand, and observing the different lots as he rhythmically mixes the juice. It's a total sensory experience. By 7 am he is covered in Pinot Noir, having smelled, tasted, watched, listened to, and touched each and every fermentor.

Last Estate Grape Picked

2009-09-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

The final cluster entered the destemmer early Sunday evening. Pinot Noir clone 667 completed the picking relay in a typical winning fashion. We all have a fondness for the 3 acres of clone 667, planted in 2001. You see, the Winter of 2000 found all of us - and any visitors that happened to visit - tredging through the muddy soil gathering sticks and roots leftover from the filbert orchard. Back and forth and back and forth with an industrial wheelbarrow we would go, collecting the wood and promising to make furniture out of it one day (that was before we discovered how busy we would be making Pinot Noir, much less furniture crafted from salvaged hazelnut branches). So we bonded with those 3 acres. Those 3 acres marked the beginning of this multi-generational vineyard and winery adventure.

Last night after we crushed the last 667 cluster we celebrated. We discussed the tonnage from the estate (approximately 35), our fantastic work crew (thank you, Matt and Dan!), and a new theory about potassium uptake in Pinot Noir berries. All I could think about was the amazing plum pie we had on the first day of crush.

Happy Harvest to all and to all a good night! (and a good piece of plum pie)

Harvest Meals

2009-09-25T13:44:00.000-07:00

Food. Wine. Family. The ultimate grouping during Harvest. Food and wine are dandy together, but they can't rise to the level of magic unless you can share the experience with a special someone or two or ten. Yesterday Gwenn from New Seasons in Raleigh Hills graced us with her culinary expertise. She generously and lovingly prepared the most spectacular Harvest lunch we have ever experienced: lamb kebabs with rosemary, grilled pita, grilled veggie & cheese sandwiches, bulgar & corn salad with cilantro-lime pesto, roasted veggie salad, almond cookies, pear cake, and plum pie. Throw a few vintages of Ayres on the table and get ready for a siesta!

Each year we feel deep gratitude for those who appear for Harvest work. This year it is family from Seattle and friends from Portland. If you are a friend at the beginning of Harvest, you are family by the end. Once you have experienced a Harvest it remains with you for the rest of your days. Our friends - now family - from New York helped us during Harvest in 2004, but we still feel them here each and every turn of the season.

Today marks day 2 of picking our vineyard, clone 777. Day 2 of great food. Day 2 of sharing the whole experience with family and friends feeling like family. Cheers!

Pick Day

2009-09-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

It's official. Harvest is upon us. The day started with a light fog rolling into the valley, almost on cue. It looked and felt pretty dreamy until the hum of the tractor demanded everyone's attention to the task at hand: pick the grapes!

The 115 plot rolled in first - beautiful clusters, delicious flavors, and ideal sugars. The "baby grapes" as we call them are next. They are our survivors. The youngest grapes who endured the hottest temperatures on record this past summer. No water. Just a lot of TLC. Can't wait to try that juice.

'Twas the day before harvest...

2009-09-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

The buzz is back - and it's not the buzz from the pesky yellow jackets or mosquitoes. It's the energetic buzz that surfaces before the season's first pick day. We have been watching the weather all week, tasting grapes morning, noon, and night, looking for Brad's approving nod which means, "it's time." And, tomorrow, September 25, will mark the beginning of Crush 2009. It will also mark the first time that we chronicle the Ayres crush experience online; follow along and you can be a virtual wine maker!

The energy is high right now. We are well rested and really organized. Celebration and anticipation reign. I'm already wondering, though, how these posts will read 6 - 8 weeks from now, after we extract ourselves from 50 tons of crushed grapes! Let the games begin!