Oregon lands five Pinots on Spectator's 2015 best 100 list, and guess what?

Here is Spectator's list. The five Oregon wines are:

#3 - Evening Land 2012 Seven Springs Pinot Noir

#11 - Big Table Farm 2012 Pinot Noir

#14 - Bergstrom 2013 Ribbon Ridge Pinot Noir

#38 - Solena 2012 Grande Cuvee Pinot Noir

#45 - Colene Clemens 2012 Margo Pinot Noir

What we see, first, is that all the wines are Pinot Noirs. I think it's unfortunate that Oregon is best known for that grape, to the exclusion of some wonderful Chardonnays, Rieslings, Pinot Gris, and even (in the southern part of the state, and up near the Gorge and near Walla Walla) Syrahs, Merlots, etc.

The next point is that of that list, only one is what most folks would think of as a prominent, long-standing Pinot label, such as Beaux Freres or Domaine Drouhin, or Dom. Serene, or Ken Wright. Only Bergstrom is that. I barely know Evening Land and Solena, and I don't know Big Table Farm or Colene Clemens, even after 16 years of visiting wineries in the area. Congrats to the lesser-known wineries.

Next up for consideration is the vintage year: Of course some 2012 Oregon Pinots will prevail; it was a magnificent year. But look at Bergstrom's 2013 at #14 on the list! 2013 was a wet, disappointing year, and at Bergstrom they made the tough decision to harvest early, and ended up with this result. Kudos to Oregonian winemakers, who can create great results from mediocre weather. All Pinot enthusiasts need to applaud that kind of risk-taking and skill.

Finally, it must be said that:

a. All wines change, over time, in the bottle. I just finished my last 2009 Tamarack Syrah, which got 94 points Spectator, and it was spent, with no nose, hardly any fruit noticeable, and just not a pleasure to drink. And yet, just four short years ago it was a thing of magic. If Spectator re-sampled its Top 100 list today, I bet more than half of the honored wines would be replaced by something else.

b. Rest assured there are plenty of GREAT Oregon wines in the market, which didn't make this list. Any Top 100 list is going to create catastrophic sins of omission.  But we all love lists, so there you go.

Animals that eat grapes

This article addresses five animals around the world that eat grapes. A lot of grapes. In fact, they can decimate entire crops. The deer I knew about, and in Tuscany we learned why wild boar is on every menu, but baboons?

Pity the poor grape, or, more, the poor grape grower. Around here, it's the deer and birds that cause th
e most trouble. Fighting them is a full-time occupation.

Sparkling wines from England? No--GREAT sparkling wines from England

Read this:

The Romans made wine in southern England, and then it got too cold for winegrapes there, for the past 2000 years. But with climate change, the south of England is warming again, and winegrape growers have moved in with enthusiasm. Even some French Champagne houses are buying land there--is Norway far behind?

Pennsylvania gets part of it right and part of it wrong, in arresting a wine collection's owner

Read this , and then let's talk.

1. Yes, it is illegal in every U.S. state to sell wine to various members of the public, without a license from the applicable state liquor control commission.
2. Yes, it seems that this gentleman knew it was wrong to sell his own wines, and to buy and resell other wines, to many members of the public, without a license.

However,
3. Many owners of fine wine collections will sell or trade bottles amongst themselves, or they will use various auction houses to sell their wines. The law seems to turn a blind eye towards that. I think the problem here was that this gentleman would sell wine to anyone who contacted him--operating more like a wine shop than an occasional seller of personal wine--and this was made worse by his offering to obtain other wines for customers to purchase. But admittedly there is not a lot of distinction between those examples, and it should either all be legal or all be illegal.

4. State liquor laws are insanely antiquated. The three-tier distribution system (maker sells to distributor; distributor sells to retailer; retailers sells to consumer) involves price markups at each sale, and is insanely inefficient. The only reason it exists is the immense lobbying power of the distributors. Also, the law views wine as immoral and sinful, a view I cannot share.

5. Destroying a fine wine collection is nuts.

Why growing vinifera (the classic winegrapes) is wrong:

Check this out:

France uses noxious inorganic chemicals to kill fungal diseases in its famous vineyards. Most non-organic grapegrowers in the US do, also. These chemical sprays kill beneficial insects, worms, etc, and sterilize the soil. Such sprays should be illegal due to the harm they cause to the earth. And now, we see that they injure vineyard workers as well (and in France, many vineyard workers have to wear hazmat suits when they spray the vineyards).

We humans caused this problem: We prevented the classic winegrapes (Vitis vinifera) from evolving over the past five or six millennia. Here's what the grapes want to do: They want to make tasty grapes that are eaten by animals who then move somewhere else and poop out the seeds, which grow into slightly different "children" of the parent grape (just as human kids are different from their parents). The next generation might be better or might be worse. If it's better, then the grape is more likely to succeed. That, in short, is evolution.

But we like the taste of, say, Cab Sauv, so we take cuttings of the vine and root them and plant an identical copy of the parent somewhere else. We don't let the grape continue to evolve defenses against its predators such as fungal diseases. Meanwhile, the fungi continue to evolve, and by now the poor vinifera grapes cannot protect themselves from the fungal attack, and the grapes either die out or the fruit quality suffers.

There are at least a couple of solutions:
1. Make growers use ORGANIC sprays. These are more expensive. But the vineyard owner still has to pay for tractor fuel and labor to apply the spray.

2. Grow modern varieties of grapes (ta-da!). These are crosses of vinifera grapes with other grape species which have wonderful defenses against fungi, so good that in my vineyard in SW Washington, I never have to apply any spray and the grapes are super healthy. If the crossing is done right, you get a vinifera-like flavor that wine lovers want and expect, but you also get disease resistance, earlier ripening, and more cold tolerance. This is the "green" solution; this is the direction we should all head.

(The photo is of a Jupiter grape leafing out at Epona Vineyard in Woodland WA.)

Spring! (early, but we'll take it)

I always try to remember to post a photo of one of my grapes emerging from winter's slumber. This is Jupiter, a superb seedless, oval, purple grape bred by the University of Arkansas. It grows well in the PacNW. It is emerging about 3 weeks early this year, but I think we won't have a late freeze (and it was a very mild winter), so the grape leaves/flowers should be OK.

It does mean we may have an early harvest, though.

More great Spanish Garnachas by Bodega Borsao!

Garnacha is called Grenache in France, and in France it's a common part of the "GSM blend" -  Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre in a Rhone blend wine. In Spain, Garnacha finds a special and perfect combination, where high altitude vineyards enjoy bright sun and cool nights, and the vineyards there are often old vines (a hundred years or more), and as a result the wines are remarkable.

Bodega Borsao is located northwest of Zaragoza (Spain's fifth-largest city), in northern Spain. They make several wonderful Garnachas. I have sold a lot of their Tres Picos Garnacha (in the $12-14 range), but lately I discovered their midpriced Monte Oton Garnacha (which I'm selling for just $8; it is "grown on the windswept slopes of the extinct Moncayo volcano"), and they have a lower-end Garnacha which is sold out here in Oregon presently. All these wines show great purple fruits and are round and smooth, with just enough structure to support a wonderful meal (which should include a red meat, if you eat that way).

We get to visit Bodega Borsao in just a few weeks; can't wait!