Oregon Wines by Winemaker Joe Dobbes
It never gets old to hear people saying great things about our wine. After all, the whole point of what we do is to make “really good” wine.
Check out this review of Wine By Joe by Wine Julia.
Thanks to Wine Julia for enjoying the fruits of our labor! And thanks to The Vintage in Eugene for serving the best under $20 wine Oregon has to offer!
CHEERS!!!
We were so excited to see a long list of Dobbes Family Estate wines that received 90 and 91 point ratings from Burghound.
2008 Youngberg Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir 91 pts
2008 Quailhurst Vineyard Pinot Noir 91 pts
2009 Meyer Vineyard Pinot Noir 90 pts
2009 Griffin’s Cuvée Pinot Noir 90 pts
2009 Youngberg Hill Vineyard 90 pts
2009 Patricia’s Cuvée Pinot Noir 90 pts
As promised I spent the week learning about malolactic fermentation.
In a colder vintage such as 2011 there is more malic acid in the fruit. In warmer vintages the malic respires out of the fruit. Thus in colder vintages ML is a crucial step to producing nice wines, however it is a necessary step in all vintages.
The reason that ML has been what everyone in production is talking about is because it has happened late this year. Typically ML would have already been complete by this time of year, but with such a late Harvest combined with the very cold temperatures we’ve had so far this Spring ML has not kick started on its own and has been progressing very slowly. People from production have been coming in on the weekends to monitor temperatures and turn on the heaters to get the ML bacteria moving and grooving.
Although this has been a late slow year for ML to be complete in the wines it is definitely not a detriment. In fact, if it happens too fast color can be lost, so for that reason a slower ML can be positive for color retention.
Something very important that our lab does during Harvest is to pull samples of fresh wine and push it through ML very fast to see what the appropriate amount of bacteria to add to the wine is. The bacteria (I promise it isn’t a bad bacteria or we wouldn’t put it in the wine) is inoculated into the wine during fermentation and at the end of it. The lab has the ability to add greater amount to a small quantity, which produces in a short amount of time a very good idea of what the finished product will be. A key component of what they look for is the effect the ML will have on the color of the wine. They can test the pH of the wine; a lower pH is good for color stability. They also do a chromatography test, which shows if all the malic acid is successfully turned to lactic acid.
Sarah, our Lab Tech, holding a Chromotography test she completed. She can read it to determine how much of each kind of acid is in the wine tested.
Something important to us at Dobbes Family Estate and Wine By Joe is that we inoculate with enough ML bacteria to ensure it is our bacteria and not indigenous bacteria that is doing the work. We believe that to make a consistent product, where you can guarantee a wine will be true to what our goal is, it is very important to use commercial bacteria. There are winemakers out there however who use only indigenous yeast and bacteria for their winemaking. It would make an interesting blind taste test to try them side-by-side.
If we were to wait for the indigenous bacteria to kick in and take the wine through ML it would typically happen in Springtime when the weather starts warming up, so we are right on schedule for nature’s path even though we purchase our bacteria. However it is also important that the wine is through with ML by next Harvest because we need room to bring new wines in. Not all our wine is bottled before the following Harvest; our Single-Vineyard Pinot Noirs and Syrahs are held for additional time, but space is an issue and we need to have space for new fruit and new wine.
The ML bacteria that we inoculate the wine with converts the malic acid into lactic acid, but it also eats the citric acid and puts out diacetyl. This is what gives wines a buttery component that you can sometimes pick out especially in Chardonnay that has gone through ML. However it does not always give a wine buttery flavor.
An interesting fact is that margarine producers add diacetyl to give margarine its buttery flavor; otherwise it wouldn’t taste like anything at all.
Another interesting fact is that if ML is not complete in the barrel and continues in the bottle it will turn the wine sparkling and give you quite a surprise when you pop the cork and take a sip.
That wraps up what I learned about ML. I hope that you learned a thing or two along with me.
As I wander around the winery I keep hearing my co-workers in production talking about “ML”. I learned around the time I started working here that ML is winemaking jargon for malolactic fermentation, which is a very important part of the wine making process, in red wines. Some wine makers will also choose to put their white wines through ML, but Joe’s style is to not.
The only education I’ve had on this piece of the winemaking process has been through the explanation that it turns the malic acid in the wine into lactic acid. Our Assistant Winemaker Andy helped put in understandable terms for me: malic acid is what you’d taste in a green apple and lactic acid is what you’d taste in yogurt.
Can you imagine taking a sip of an Oregon Pinot Noir and having the tart, sometimes puckering acid of a green apple hit your palate? It just doesn’t seem right does it? However in white wine it can be a desirable characteristic.
That pretty much sums up what I have known thus far about ML. However, since it is such a key component to making wine I want to know more. How about you? I’ll be checking in with my friends in the lab and in the cellar next week. Stay tuned for further education…
Joe recently brought in a basketball hoop for the staff to use on breaks. Today Andy and Brad challenged each other to a game of H-O-R-S-E. Brad claims he was victorious, however I did not talk to Andy for his side of the story. It sure will be nice to move the game outside when the sunshiny days are upon us; hopefully that will be soon.
I walked through the cellar and found Josh waxing the tops of our Dundee Cuvée magnums. All our large format bottles must be bottled, labeled, corked, and waxed by hand.
The wax goes into our little warmers and we heat it up from a solid to a thick liquid consistency. Then Josh (or whomever) dips the neck of the bottle into the wax at a slight angle until it covers the cork. Upon pulling the neck out of the wax Josh begins to rotate the bottle until only a thin stream of liquid wax is streaming off the tip; at this point Josh uprights the bottle in his hands, all the while rotating the bottle. The continuous rotation is crucial for the wax to evenly distribute and when it is up-righted the motion creates a smooth top. 
As soon as Josh sees the top is smooth he dunks the waxed top in a bucket of cold water to cool and harden the wax. Voila! A waxed top. 
Of course I couldn’t stand to just watch the process; I wanted to wax a bottle myself. I am proud to report the first bottle I waxed turned out perfectly! 
Maybe it was beginners luck because the second bottle I attempted to wax had a very small flaw, which Josh called a tail. But due to my imperfection I also learned from Josh how easy it is to remove the wax (especially right after application) and simply re-wax.
Thanks for the waxing lesson Josh! I had fun learning a new skill.
I wandered into our south cellar last week to see what our production staff was up to. I found them hard at work, as always. I had just missed getting to watch them hand fill bottles of 2010 ¡Salud! Cuvée.
Joe blends a small amount (a barrel or less) of wine each year to donate to the ¡Salud! Auction. ¡Salud!’s mission is to raise money to provide health care service for Oregon‘s seasonal vineyard workers and their families. Their main fundraising event each year is the auction in November. The Dobbes Family Estate ¡Salud! Cuvée was won by the highest bidder at last years auction and soon they will be receiving their wine.
Because we make such a small amount it must all be bottled, labeled, corked, and foiled by hand. Here are a few photos of the steps I was able to watch.
1. Slip the foil over the capped bottle
2. Press firmly into the foiler
3. Remove bottle and voila!
The boys hard at work
Taking precise measurements
Applying the label
Valentine’s Day is one of the busiest days of the year for restaurants, which sometimes leads to less than romantic evenings for you and your “special someone.” So how about celebrating with Dobbes the Sunday before?
We are excited to share with you that our Aphrodisiac Wine Pairing Event is BACK! And this year is going to be better than ever before.
Let me assure you we do not use the term aphrodisiac lightly. Each food pairing will artistically weave together ingredients proven to ignite your inner desires. I have a feeling the fun will continue well past our event. 
We are excited to be working with Chef Wendy Bennett for the first time. Wendy owns the newly opened Wine Country Cooking Studio in Dundee, located above the Red Hills Market. She stopped by last week to taste through the wines for the event with Charles.
Watching Wendy sniff, sip and savor our wines was quite fun. It became clear this Chef has a palate designed to further awaken flavors and aromas through food pairing. It was exciting listening to her ideas and watching a menu take shape as she tasted. The aphrodisiac ingredients she will be utilizing are arugula, pine nuts, leeks, fennel, cinnamon and chocolate. I bet you didn’t know all those foods had such powers.
Wendy has lived in many different parts of the United States. Her diverse experiences and background in fine foods have led her to develop a state of the art cooking school in the heart of Oregon Wine Country. We are thrilled to have Wendy as our neighbor and guest chef at the event.
Have a look at the menu Wendy will be serving to accentuate our wines.
2010 Grenache BlancGrilled ShrimpwithArugula Pesto and Shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano
2007 SymonetteFire-roasted Fennel, Finocchiona Salami, Idiazabal with a Fig Jam Drizzle
2007 QuailhurstWild Mushroom Risotto with Duck Confit and Crispy Leeks
2007 Sundown SyrahCinnamon Chocolate Bread Pudding with Caramel Bacon Sauce
You are sure to have a sumptuous time at this event! But, the fun doesn’t have to stop there. With every three-bottle purchase you will receive a voucher for $20 off a future cooking class at Wine Country Cooking Studio. Wendy’s classes are all extremely hands on and most importantly you get to eat a gourmet meal at the end of it. Check out her class schedule here. And to further entice you take a look at the beautiful kitchen you’ll be able to cook in. A couple lucky people may even win a cooking class compliments of Dobbes and Wendy; you’ll have to come to find out. 
Due to limited space this event requires reservations. So if you’d like to do something special for your sugar-pot-pie I highly recommend emailing Charles ASAP charles@winebyjoe.com or give him a call at 503-538-1141 ext. 157. We will be taking reservations through Tuesday, February 7th.
Dobbes Family Circle Club Members can purchase tickets for $15 (Gold Club is complimentary)
General Admittance is $20.
The event will be held in our Barrel Room. Plese check in with the tasting room to be escorted over.
The event will be come and go from 1:00 to 4:00.
We can’t wait to see you Sunday, February 12th
The 2010 Barrel Tasting was a huge success on Sunday! We were so excited to share our wines with our friends and family. There were smiles all around as many people tasted, for the first time, the 2010 vintage. Red Hills Market did a marvelous job providing delicious hors d’ouvres. And Jason Okamoto provided the perfect ambiance with his beautiful guitar music.
The event was so popular we were forced to monitor the number of people we sent over to the barrel room from the tasting room. For anyone who had not sent in an RSVP we thank you for your patience. I believe everyone who hung around the tasting room for a bit was eventually escorted to the event.
To everyone who attended, thank you for joining us. We love seeing familiar faces, as well as meeting new friends. And remember you don’t have to wait for a party to come see us, stop by the tasting room whenever you are able to say hi.
To anyone who was not able to make it on Sunday, but wants a sneak peek of our 2010 wines, please read the last entry of our blog for a great insider preview. And if you have any other questions give Charles a call at 503-538-1141 ext. 157.
Thanks again to everyone who was involved. We can’t wait to see you next time!
I sat down with Charles this afternoon to get a preview of what to expect at this Sunday’s 2010 Barrel Tasting Event from 1-4. I am very excited about the event myself because it will be the first time I have tasted from the barrel.
Charles estimates that 2010 will be a similar vintage to 2007. Both were cooler and wetter, than say 2009, an extremely hot year. Most wineries around the valley are currently pouring 2009s, so they may be fresh in your mind. Prepare yourself for something different from the 2010s.
For those of you with sharp memories the press was not very kind to the Oregon 2007 vintage. They described the wines as flat and uninteresting. As many of us believed back then, the press did a terrible job foretelling the future of the vintage and we hope they do not make the same mistake with the 2010s. I guess it has worked out well for those of us here who know just how magnificent 2007 wines are drinking today. If you haven’t had a bottle recently I highly recommend pulling one from your cellar and if you don’t have any left we still have some tucked away in the tasting room we’d love to share.
Sorry, back to 2010. I get carried away because I am such a fan of the cooler vintages and am thoroughly enjoying as many 2007 bottles as I can find right now. But as far at the ‘10s go Charles believes they will really start coming into their own around the middle of 2013. And then continue to get better from there for another eight years.
Per Joe’s request we will be pulling the wines from the barrels before the event and decanting them. Joe wants the wines to put their best foot forward and recognizes the importance of letting them breathe before hand, as well as bringing them up to temperature from the cool barrel rooms they’ve been living in for over a year.
The 2010s we will have available for tasting are as follows:
Quailhurst Single-Vineyard Pinot Noir. This was the very first single-vineyard designate Joe ever bottled back in 2004. The fruit is from the Chehalem Mountain AVA and the vineyard is located on Parrot Mountain. Since the beginning this wine has been a favorite of our club members. Michael selected this as his personal favorite last week when he pre-tasted the 2010’s. It is very light right now, but Charles believes it is the most Burgundian in style. When we say a wine is Burgundian we mean it is more earth driven, elegant, and very food-friendly. We’ll bottle approximately 228 cases.
Meyer Single-Vineyard Pinot Noir. This wine turned out to be Charles favorite during his pre-tasting. I also want to give Charles credit where credit is due. He blind tasted all the wines and correctly identified each one. Nice work! Meyer vineyard is in the Dundee Hills AVA and the 2010 is showing the typical Dundee red dirt character. Meyer is always one of our most unique single vineyard Pinots. Charles believes it will probably be one of the earliest to open up, but still recommends holding it until mid 2013. We’ll bottle approximately 155 cases.
Symonette Single-Vineyard Pinot Noir. We’ve seen the popularity of this single-vineyard wine grow amongst our club members. It is showing more layers than the Quailhurst or the Momtazi. And we love the age of the vines the grapes are grown on in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA. They are 29 years old, making them the oldest vines we deal with. I like to think that this wine has more of a story to tell us with each sip. Charles and Michael both agreed they picked out flavors of rhubarb and sweet tarts. Yum! Symonette is our most limited. We only have 2 barrels, which will equate to about 50 cases. This makes Sunday an even better time to purchase futures of this wine.
Momtazi Single-Vineyard Pinot Noir. We are extremely excited about the Momtazi because it is the first time we are bottling it as a single-vineyard. We’ve been buying fruit from Mo Momtazi in the McMinnville AVA for years, but have decided that this year it deserves to stand on its own. And as with most wines from the Mac AVA it has a lot of oomph behind it. As Charles would say, “it’s got grip.” We’ll barrel approximately 136 cases.
Circle Cuvée. Although we thought we may only sample single-vineyards at the event we are far too excited about the Circle Cuvée to not share it with our friends. This wine is exclusively available for club members throughout the year and is included in one of their shipments. On Sunday that same rule applies for futures purchases; however we will be letting everyone in attendance taste. I think this wine is good enough to make everyone join the club. It is showing the most fruit of any of the wines and due to the fact it is the only blend you’ll be tasting I think you will find the many layers quite appealing.
Have I talked you into coming? It will be a great chance to be educated on what wine tastes like young, before it is ready to drink. Just like Joe, you too, can know how to assess a wine out of barrel and forecast what the future will bring. And Joe will be there to answer all your questions, or hopefully most of them. Patricia, Charles, and Michael will be there too and they’d all love to see you.
All club members who attend will be admitted as our guests. We welcome anyone and everyone else to come out as well, but we will have to ask a $20 per entrance. Join us for fine wine, tasty food from the Red Hills Market, and good tunes from guitarist Jason Okamoto. Come and go at your leisure; we just hope you don’t miss out on this once a year event.
We have many barrels full of wine and still quite a bit more still to barrel. It is a pretty straight forward process, but it does take attention to detail. On this particular day Shawn was on one side of the Luxury cellar barreling Grand Assemblage Syrah, while Steve and Nathan were on the other side barreling a client’s wine.
Barrels being filled with Grand Assemblage Syrah
Once the must is pressed we learned that the wine is pumped from the press to a holding tank. When we are ready to barrel we use the same pump to move the wine from the holding tank to the barrel.
Pump, pump, pump it up!
Getting near the end of the tank. The pump directs the wine through the hose, in view, to the barrel.
At the other end of the hose is the racking cane, which is inserted into the bung hole to fill the barrel. On the racking cane is an on/off nob to start and stop the flow of wine when the cane is moved from one barrel to the next. Whomever is responsible for filling the barrel will check it periodically to see how full it is to prevent it from over filling. This is where attention to detail comes in because overflowing the barrel would make a mess and waste great wine, but at the same time the barrel has to be completely full so all wine is touching a surface of the barrel and there is not excess oxygen laying on top of the wine.
Steve is inserting the racking cane into an empty barrel ready to be filled with wine.
Steve is checking the level of the wine as the barrel fills to know when to remove the cane.
Shawn also showed me how to handle the froth that can form around the bung hole while the barrel is near full. He had a spray bottle full of the same wine that he would spray into the bung to make that froth subside. Then he would have a pouring pitcher for topping the wine to the very, very top of the barrel to make sure it was completely full before inserting the bung to seal the barrel. And the last thing to be done once the bung was in place was to spray it down with a sanitizing solution to sterilize everything around the opening to ensure there isn’t anything uninvited that finds it’s way into the barrel.
Shawn spraying the froth to make is subside. Those little bubbles are full of oxygen and it is crucial that there is no oxygen in the barrel.
Shawn is removing the racking cane from the full barrel. He will insert it into and empty barrel to start filling it and then return to this barrel and top it with the wine is the pitcher you see to the left.
Voila! Barreling Complete!
Things in the cellar have slowed way down. All the fruit has been in for a couple weeks and our sorting line has been cleaned and put away until next year. But we still have very important things to do. There is still fermenting fruit to be pressed, but you and I know all about that already. And then comes the next step… barreling! However there is one other necessity before we barrel and that is cleaning the barrels.
A few months ago, before Harvest took off, all the barrels were sanitized with Sulfur Dioxide (SO2). Then we stored them empty in our barrel room until now. At this point, we are starting to pull out barrels that will be filled with wine soon and giving them a good hot water rinse.
The barrel is on it’s side, obviously, with the bung hole facing down. Then you simply place this piece of equipment, the gamajet, inside it. Turn on the pump and hot water shoots ferociusly into the barrel for 2 minutes.
Waste not thy hour! Shawn, our intern, makes himself busy even during the two minute intervals the gamajat is running.
Shawn is sanitizing bungs (the stoppers that go in the hole in the barrel). He has a bucket of PeroxyClean, a powerful base, that the bungs all start it. Then he scrubs them off and dunks them in his water bucket. He dips it next in his third bucket of citric acid, which neutralizes the base. And then back in the water bucket one last time for a rinse. Then the bungs are ready to go in a clean barrel.
Time to change the gamajet to the next barrel…
But then something unexpected happened…
Can you see the color of the water coming out? It is purple and it was supposed to be clear. Shawn was not sure the story with this barrel, but clearly it hadn’t been cleaned previously. This is far from the end of the world though. It simply will take an extra step after the gamajet, which actually gives me one more interesting thing to teach about today.
This machine will clean the barrel above with Ozonated water. Ozonated water is simply tap water that has been impregnated with extra oxygen. The air we breath is O2 and the oxygen cleaning and sanitizing the barrels is O3. The ozonated water is a non chemical base cleaner with an extremely short half life. This means the reactivity diminishes extremely quickly and nothing harmful enters the watershed. YAY! We are very pleased to use such environmentally friendly cleaning techniques.
When the barrels have previously been sanitized with SO2 there is no need to use the device above, all that is necessary is the hot water rinse with the gamajet. It is only in the case of the surprise dirty barrel that an extra step of sanitizing is necessary. The cleanliness of a barrel, when new wine fills it, is crucial to the overall barrel fermentation stage of winemaking and we take this process very seriously.
As promised I have another post from my half day stint tagging along with our lab crew. The first post was what I learned following Brad around. That was a lot. But then I left Brad alone to follow Eric and I learned even more.
Every single day the lab takes samples from every container of fermenting fruit. Brad was in charge of quickly gathering data from the fruit that was nearing time to press. The rest of the crew: Eric, Niki and Brandyn took samples from bins and tanks that need to be recorded, but were still days away from pressing. Data collection is very important and you can see Eric keeping records below.
So, you may ask, what is he recording? Eric was taking samples from each of our 1.5 ton fermenters that Brad had not already sampled. He measured temperature and Brix. Temperature was taken with one of the largest thermometers I bet you’ve ever seen.
Now I realize this is not a great example of how large the thermometer is, but I assure you the probe was stuck way down in the center of the bin and is much larger than anything you’d find at the pharmacy. Eric taught me that we use a refractometer to measure Brix before fermentation begins. I like the tools in the lab. I think they are fun. Here you can see me using the refractometer.
I not only enjoy them as toys, however I truly think it is incredible they can provide us with such valuable information. It might look like I’m using a kalidescope and to be honest it reminds me of one. I look through the eye piece toward a light and I am able to see a line across the lense that lines up with a numbered line on the side. And whatever the number is we record as the Brix. See below how Eric pours the juice on the refractometer before I stare through the eye piece.
The screen near Eric’s finger closes over the lense to catch the juice. Then all you have to do is look through it toward a light.
Except, this does not work if the juice is heavily fermented. This is because fermenting juice has CO2 gas in it,which will make a blur on the lense of the refracotmeter that will not provide a clear Brix reading. So this is when the Paar comes out, which we learned about in the last lab post.
And back to our great record keepers in the lab. Eric records the temperature and the Brix on each bin after his tests are complete. 
We have a highly technical system of duct tape strips on the side of the bin. Every sample taken is recorded with the date, the temp, and the Brix recorded either with a ‘R’ for refractometer reading or a ‘P’ for Paar reading.
While Eric is working on the bins Niki and Brandyn were pulling samples and running identical tests from the tanks. Although it doesn’t take the same tools to pull juice from the tank because they have fancy nozzles to collect juice from. As well as internal temperature probes, which provide constant temperature readings on a box you can see below just under Niki’s head.
Niki pulling a tank sample
This juice was actual from Merlot grapes. Why is it white? It had only been in the tank for about a day, so it hadn't been in contact with the skins long enough to turn the juice red. Interesting, eh?
Another necessary step of cleaning the nozzle with a spray of water to ensure the nozzle doens't clog with sticky juice.
Dobbes the turkey
In celebration of Thanksgiving I want to share what our team members are thankful for this Thanksgiving season.
Joe is thankful for his family, his beautiful wife, for this “hail Mary vintage,” for snow in the mountains and looking forward to having time to enjoy it, for having a prospering business despite hard economic times, and for having a great team of employees surrounding him.
Patricia is thankful for her family, for her friends, for her great husband, to be alive, and for having a husband that makes such good wine.
Amelia (Joe’s daughter) is thankful for her family and that they are all in town for Thanksgiving, especially her Aunt who she has not seen in awhile.
Griffin (Joe’s son) is thankful for family, friends, food and snow… in that order!
Nicci is thankful for having the entire day of Thanksgiving to cook, hangout and drink wine with her family. Thanksgiving is Nicci’s favorite Holiday so she is very much looking forward to tomorrow.
Derek is always thankful for his wife Pam and all of his family.
Branden is thankful for his job.
Brad is thankful for his good health.
Andy is thankful to have Thanksgiving off and to be able to spend it with his family.
*Side note: Everyone in production has seen very few to no days off throughout Harvest and talking to them it was universal time off and being with family was something they were very thankful to have in the near future.
Hailey is thankful for her Mom’s cooking.
Michelle is thankful for sunshine when it comes out, for her family and friends, and for good wine.
Gretchen is thankful for her family and their good health, for the time she is able to spend with her family over the holiday, and for having a job she loves.
Louise is thankful for her husband and her puppy.
Josh is thankful for his wife, for his family, for his friends, for his dog and his cats, and for Harvest going so well this year.
Rich is thankful for his family and having a roof over their heads, for the weather during October and finally having a Harvest.
Griffin is thankful for having a great team of interns this year and that Harvest is over and his mind can start looking forward to bottling.
Nati is thankful for having Thanksgiving day off and being able to spend it with family.
Charles is thankful for his pups Pepsi and Cognac.
Michael is thankful for his New Fedor, Bella, who makes him get up and walk every morning.
Scott is thankful for David Lett for taking a chance on the Willamette Valley.
And after bugging everyone else to find out what they are thankful for it is time for me to reflect as well. What am I thankful for? My heart goes out to those going through hard times who struggle to see find things to be thankful for at this time of year. I am thankful to feel like I have endless things to be thankful for. I am blessed to have an incredible family and fantastic friends. I am so thankful to be engaged to the greatest man I could ever imagine and that he loves me for all my good and all my bad. I am extremely thankful for loving my job at Dobbes Family Estate/ Wine By Joe. I am thankful for all my co-workers being such a great team and for all of our awesome customers and supporters. I am thankful for my freedom and all the opportunity I have because of the country I live in. I am thankful for good food and great wine, especially Quailhurst Vineyard 2007 at this moment, which I may have mentioned in a previous post. But seriously, I am thankful that Joe is such a phenomenal winemaker. It makes my job much easier to believe 100% in the product I am selling. I am thankful to go home each day to a warm house with a roof over my head. I’m thankful to live with wonderful friends who are a great support and lots of fun. I’m thankful to have Thanksgiving day off to relax, eat and drink and that I’ll be spending the day with wonderful people, especially the ones I do not often get to see.
Happy Thanksgiving from the Dobbes Family Estate Winery Team!
Wine literally breathed life into Dobbes the turkey
One afternoon I walked into our enology lab with pen, paper, and camera ready to learn about the roll they play in harvest. After nearly an hour it was clear that to truly understand what their job entailed I needed to walk in their shoes, which they invited me to do the next morning at 6am.
The following morning I came bundled up and ready to learn. I think everyone was a bit shocked that I actually showed up, since it was 2 1/2 hours before I normally arrive. But I have a strong desire to know as much as I can about what is happening this harvest and an equal desire to share that with you.
So first thing the team does when they arrive (Brad actually gets in at 5:30 to prepare for the interns to arrive) is look through the record books to find which ferments look closest to pressing. If there is any chance Joe will want to press them it is crucial to pull samples first thing so Joe has all necessary data to make his decisions.
Brad getting tubes labeled for taking samples
Here I was pulling my first samplePouring into the sample tube
Dumping one of the sample tubes just as Brad did
After the sample tubes are spun out two tests are done with the wine. A parr is used to get a reading on the Brix. A parr is a device that is used after the Brix go negative. It sucks up a bit of wine from the tube and calculates the Brix with it’s little computer brain.
The parr is the yellow device in the center. I'll discuss it more later.
The other test the lab conducts after the wine is spun out is a pill test. Half a milliliter of wine is placed in a test tube and a sodium hydroxide pill is dropped in. As soon as the pill hits the wine a reaction occurs; the wine begins to bubble and boil, you can feel the heat on the end of the tube and the color of the wine changes color. Once the reaction is complete Brad compares the color of the wine to a chart he has. This test is for residual sugar. It is a rudimentary way to test residual sugar, but it gives an idea of where things are at. This provides additional information to help Joe decide when he wants the fruit pressed. The residual sugar is usually around .2-.3% when it is time to press.
As soon as the pill hits the wine the color changes to pink
Brad is waiting for the wine to stop bubbling to see the final color
Comparing color to the chart to get an idea of R.S.
However one of the biggest deciding factors for Joe is his taste tests of the wine. With his experience and expertice he can have a very good idea of when to press based on how the wine tastes out of the fermenter. Isn’t that incredible? Winemaking is clearly not a job for ammateurs.
Well, my friends, I have so much more exciting knowledge to share with you in regard to the amazing things our lab is in charge of. However I feel this is enough to soak in for today. Stay tuned for more at a later date.
Pressing has begun in our Luxury cellar. Josh, one of full time cellar assistants, was very kind to take me under his wing and teach me everything I need to know about how to use our bladder press.
We own and operate two types of presses: the bladder press, above, and the basket press, below. I’ve been told we are the only winery in Oregon that owns a basket press. The basket press is definitely a much more labor intensive way of extracting juice, but it is also gentler. If the fruit is showing itself to be extremely tannic before pressing we may implement the basket press. Pressing extracts tannins. With each pressing the tannins increase, so if our winemaking team feels it would benefit the end product to have less tannins extracted during pressing and to go through the gentler process of the basket press we use our “Vintage 23.”
Meet our basket press
My personal favorite Dobbes Family Estate wine is our Quailhurst Vineyard Pinot Noir. I don’t want to tie myself to only one wine for the rest of time, but at this point, and since I began working here, I have been extremely fond of our Quailhurst. So when Josh was preparing to press our 2011 Quailhurst fruit I said, “this is the time for me to learn the process of pressing.”
When Joe declares the fermenting fruit ready to press it is promptly pressed that day. If the fruit is in a ½ ton fermentation bin the entire contents are poured directly into the press. The free run juice is allowed to drain through the bladder and then the pressing begins.
If the fruit is in a larger fermentation tank we try to drain as much “free run” juice as we can out of the tank before dumping in the entire contents. When the “free run” stops running a lucky cellar rat gets to climb into the tank and “dig it out.” It is definitely a dirty job, but I’ve heard a number of our interns say they actually enjoy it. The solids that are dug out go directly into the press to get as much good juice out of as we can.
The door of the ferment tank is open just a crack to let the free run juice drain.
The free run trickles out of the bladder into the trough
hose and pump taking juice out of press trough
When you look into the press from the top, or bottom, you see a flabby black “bladder.” The fruit goes on the outside of the bladder and metal grates create a compartment to enclose the fruit inside the press.
Josh setting the grate to close the press. I helped and found each piece to be quite heavy.
Close up of the grate. If you have ever used a juicer at home the small slats are similar.
To press the fruit, after the grates have been secured, Josh pushes a button on the press to spin it and tumble the fruit to break it up. After going around once or twice Josh opens an air valve to fill the bladder with air, which presses the fruit against the grates and extracts the juice. He can read a gauge on the press to see how full the bladder is getting, but his primary gauge his looking to see when the juice starts pouring out the bottom of the press into the trough below. At that point he stops filling the bladder with air and allows as much juice to fall as possible. Doing this once is the 1st pressing.
Josh opening the air valve1st pressed juice
Josh and I tasted the free run juice before starting to press and then each pressing there after. It was interesting to taste. I could see that we had created wine, yet it wasn’t to the point where I desired to have a glass. Barrel aging is clearly a necessary step. There are still lees (yeast and other particles that precipitate in the wine) at this point. The lees will settle out in the barrel and the fined wine will be racked to new barrels. (We’ll hopefully learn about racking in the months to come)
After the wine is only trickling out of the press it is time to press again. Josh decides whether or not it is necessary to spin the press before pressing, he spins when he thinks it is necessary to break things up inside. Then he fills the bladder with air and waits again to see when the juice starts pouring out.
With each pressing the juice becomes more and more tannic. It is up to Josh and Joe to taste the juice to decide when enough is enough. After the first press Josh stops the pump from moving the juice from the trough, so that it can be tasted to determine if it is worthy of going to barrel. Tasting is an important part of the pressing process because even when more juice could technically be taken from the fruit it could cause the end product to be far to tannic. We never know for sure how many pressings we will get. It could as few a one or possibly we could press three or four times. I leave that decision to the experts in the cellar.
Clean up is an ongoing project around here too. The pumice, as the pressed fruit rubbage is referred to, does not remove itself from the press. Macro bins are moved under the press, the grates are removed from the top, and the press is rotated to spill out its contents.
Emptying the press
I was very excited to learn that the pumice is recycled. Sometimes we will use what we can as fertilizer for Larkins Estate Vineyard and whatever we do not use goes to Newberg Recycling to be turned into compost. It is fantastic all the ways we are sustainable and I highly respect all the uses we find for things before using the garbage as a last resort.
A ball of pumice soon to be part of a compost pile.
Although I have lots and lots to share with everyone, about what I’ve been learning this week about winemaking, I am going to take a moment to share other exciting news.
A permanent Dobbes Family Estate sign has been in the works for some time now. We felt the need to replace the banner that had previously hung on the side of our cellar. Today, we are happy to report, our new sign was hung!
It took a number of strong individuals, a crane, a fork lift, and a lot of hard work. Have a look at the process of getting it up there. And if you are in the area stop by soon to see it for yourself.
I ran out to snap a couple of pictures of the sign completely up and found that the diligent sign hangers are still hard at work. They started working around noon and it is creeping up on 5:30. It looks like they are just making final adjustments and securing everything. We truly appreciate their efforts. It looks great!
We started harvesting our Larkins Estate Vineyard at the beginning of this week. As soon as I heard this news I knew it was time for a blog post from the vineyard and I cannot begin to express how incredible my trip to Larkins was yesterday afternoon.Not everyone may be aware that we do have our own vineyard since it is not visible from our tasting room. In fact, it is not even in the close vicinity of our Dundee, OR tasting room and winery. Larkins Vineyard is in Dallas, OR about 40 minutes southwest of Dundee, in Polk County.
In February of 2006, Wine By Joe, LLC purchased the 214-acre piece of land making us one of the largest vineyard holders in the state of Oregon. The vineyard was planted in 1987 with the Pinot Noir clones 113, 777, Pommard and Wadenwille. In 1999, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, and additional Pinot Noir were planted. The most recent planting took place in 2004 and 2005 to bring the total planted acres to 189. There are 116 acres of Pinot Noir, 68 of Pinot Gris and 5 of Pinot Blanc.
Joe loves the location of the vineyard due to the cool coastal influences. Late afternoon and summertime breezes blow through the Van Duzer Corridor from the Pacific Ocean to the west. During the warmest parts of the summer (despite all of our comments and complaints of not having a summer, we should remember and be thankful, we did have a week or two of really nice weather) the cool breezes affect the ripening by allowing for longer hang time in the vineyard. This provides full maturity of flavors, fruitiness and overall complexity (aka “Really Good” wine). The vineyard encompasses both eastern facing elevations from 203 to 328 feet and western facing elevations from 208 to 320 feet. 
So, you might be saying, tell me what is going on during harvest. This is the “harvest blog” anyway. Well I’m excited to introduce you to our vineyard team because they are ROCK STARS! Chris, our vineyard foreman 2nd from right, is working at Larkins year round. He has 10-15 people who work with him through the year and then as many as 40 workers to help at harvest. The photo above is only a few of the hard works in the vineyard yesterday, but everybody else was busy down the rows picking grapes.
Our 189-acres of planted vines equate to 700 tons of fruit. Chris has a goal to bring in 100 tons per day, which translates to harvest lasting 7 days. In reality it usually takes 7-10 days due to conditions that cause under 100 tons to be brought in.
Think in terms of number of bins. The white macro-bins hold 1/2 ton of fruit. Chris and his team bring in about 20 tons per hour. Do the simple math, that is 40 bins in an hour. Each tractor pulls 3 bins, so that is 14 trips to the barn to unload and pick up empty bins. These guys are moving like maniacs.
Dropping buckets along the row to be filled
Some people harness their buckets around themselves
Heavy load headed for the tractor
I thought while I was there I’d see what their job was like first hand. So I borrowed a pair of pruners from someone driving a tractor, grabbed a few buckets, and headed down a row. I had already observed the lightning fast speed the crew could fill their buckets, but as hard as I tried I seemed to only move at one pace, slow. The people sharing my row were literally running circles around me by filling their buckets, dumping them at the tractor and coming back with new buckets, all while I was just starting to fill my second bucket. Clearly working in the vineyard is not my calling, however I did have a very good time and everyone was very nice… I think they found my pace somewhat amusing.
Clearly an amateur, but I really was trying
Then they switched to harvesting Pinot Noir, for the first time this harvest. Pinot Blanc has yet to be picked.
They were harvest Pinot Gris when I first arrived
When fruit is farmed at lower yields they drop more fruit clusters during the growing process to allow more sun exposure to what is left hanging and help the grapes fully develop. Also, the tighter the clusters are to one another increases the chance of bacteria and mold growth. 
If you are wondering if that means Larkins fruit is underdeveloped and prone to bacteria and mold I will answer your thought with the following. In regard to the fruit being underdeveloped, it is not. Remember that I said Joe loves his vineyard due to the coastal breezes, which allow a longer hang time. The longer hang time allows for our fruit to reach full maturity and have the overall complexity we desire. Many lower yielding vineyards started their harvest several weeks ago, whereas we have kept the fruit on the vine until this week. In regard to bacteria and mold growth we do see some, but I guarantee that every single vineyard, no matter how they farm, sees a certain amount. The reason I know those bad grapes never end up in a bottle of Wine By Joe is because the sorting process starts in the vineyard. The crew is highly trained to drop anything during Harvest that does not meet our high quality standards. I believe our value wine to be better than our competitions because although we are growing at a higher yield per acre we still set very high standards for the quality of grapes that end up in Wine By Joe. Having seen the fruit at Larkins myself yesterday I can report to you that the fruit looked incredible! It tasted incredible too and good tasting grapes translate to good tasting wine! 
Being uneducated, until yesterday, about vineyard management I thought maybe Chris got a nice chunk of downtime after harvest is over. This is not the case. Pruning begins in January, they’ll be tying around March and April, sukering (removing new, unwanted growth) is in May and June, and then starts canopy management: tucking in shoots, wiring, removing leaves and fruit thinning. Chris is a busy man and he does a fantastic job! He is definitely giving over 100% effort to provide us with really high quality fruit for our Wine By Joe. I hate to think were we would be without him.
THANK YOU Chris for all you and your crew do!
So we may not have expansive hilltop vineyard views from our tasting room, but I would not trade Larkins for anything. Even the drive out was absolutely gorgeous. There is just something special about Larkins. The vineyard is surrounded by farmland, each way you turn there is complete serenity.
The view from the edge of our property
When I left Dundee there was a heavy fog and I was prepared for less than pristine vineyard views. Although, at first I felt disappointed by this, I realized it would be a wonderful opportunity to show that our vineyard crew works in all the elements to harvest fruit for the wine we love. Of course it would end up working out that on my drive south the clouds parted, the sun came out, there was a soft inviting haze over the horizon and the vineyard sparkled in all their glory. So the photos turned out spectacular, but you’ll have to trust that the crew does endure many different types of weather, especially the cold this year.
In regard to weather, we are fortunate to have a barn on the south side of our vineyard. There is a gravel road that separates our property in two. If/when it does rain during harvest we are able to stack the bins inside to keep the freshly picked fruit out of the wet until they are loaded on trucks and covered with tarps to be transported to our winery. It also provides a home for our tractors and other equipment throughout the year.
I just don’t even know how to express what a great experience I had at the vineyard. The length of this post might give some indication. I was raised visiting and working, in the hay fields, on my Grandparent’s farm in Skagit County, WA. So driving down country roads, getting a little dirty, and working with the land just felt right. Even though I wasn’t a very fast picker.
Here are a few photos I snapped on the drive. I couldn’t help, but pull over for these fun shots. And now I can’t help but share them with you. I came back with nearly 400 photos I had to sort through for this post. Everything seemed photo worthy yesterday.
An endless field of pumpkins just before the turn to Larkins
Sheep and birds enjoying a lovely Autumn day together
If you have made it to the end end of this post, congratulations! And if you are interested in viewing more photos of my trip to the vineyard visit our Facebook page. While you are there be sure to like us.
Punch downs look like a fun part of the wine making process to me. Although, I am speaking from the perspective of an observer only. Hopefully before Harvest 2011 comes to a close I will be able to find out for myself just how fun, or not fun, punch downs are. I should probably hit the gym to start building some arm muscles before taking on that task.
If you are a new follower of the Dobbes Harvest 2011 blog jump back a couple posts to see the process of sorting and de-stemming the fruit in the Luxury Cellar. After the fruit comes off the line, our highly trained fork lift operators move the fruit into the fermentation tank.
Can you see the layer of frost on the outside of the tank being filled? The first step after the fruit goes into the fermenter is to undergo a cold soak. During the cold soak the fruit is punched down one time per day to keep everything mixed up. Once the fruit has been inoculated with our yeast it receives two punch downs per day. And once the yeast is actively fermenting the fruit receives three punch downs per day. So what in the world does a punch down look like? Have a look…
Nathan punching down fully fermenting fruit
Gretchen breaking the cap by hand
Gretchen was showing the depth of the cap, which was roughly 12-18 inches in this bin. The cap is comprised of the skins and seeds, which rise to the top of the fermenting juice. It was also really interesting that when I put my hand just above the cap I could feel heat radiating off of it. That is another key way to know things are really starting to happen down below.
Bubbling fermenting juice
In the process of forming the cap
I peaked under our protective plastic to see fruit that is still in the process of forming it’s cap. I could tell it was working towards it, but still was more soupy than solid as I could see the liquid the skins were suspended in across the surface. This fruit was in the stage of being inoculated with yeast, but the yeast had not fully kicked into gear. At this stage the bin was being punched down two times per day just to make sure everything was stirred up and evenly distributed.
So now you and I have learned when we punch down, how often we punch down, and how we hand punch down, but there is one other form of punching down we use here at Dobbes Family Estate. The alternative method is called a “pulse air system.” Check out the photo below.
Pulse Air System
I apologize if this picture is hard to see. Feel free to blow it up for a bigger view. Inside the fermenter are four air tubes, two of which are visible in the photo. We have many sizes of fermenters here, many of which are far too big for it to be safe for someone to stand over the open tank and do a hand punch down. I’m affraid our crew would be much smaller at the end of Harvest and I’d hate to think of all the wine that would be ruined each time someone fell in. So, for our tanks that hold 14 tons and above, we use the pulse air system that is already installed in the tanks. We hook up air pumps to ports on the outside of the tank and shoot very strong blasts of air up through the fermenting must, which provides the same outcome as a hand punch down. The contents of the tank are still thoroughly mixed and we never have to lose one of our Harvest soldiers.
