Crossflow

The technology is not entirely new. In fact, crossflow filtration has been used in food processing since the 1960′s. It wasn’t until the 80′s when the wine world opened up to the idea, but early machinery was deemed to hard on delicate wines, stripping them of their personality.

Over the last several years, however, crossflow filtration has undergone a renaissance. Better design and improved technology have made this type of filtration much more popular in cellars. Many see it as the most efficient way to filter a wine, requiring less energy, time, and wine loss than the plate filters of old.

An extreme example: Filtrate on the left, filtered Rose on the right.

In essence, the machine works by pumping wine through a series of hollow tubes (picture a giant column full of what looks like pasta). The wine circulates through the many conduits, ridding itself of tiny unwanted solids on the lining of the tubes en route. Instead of pushing the wine through a membrane like in traditional filtration, crossflow circulates the wine continuously, preventing sediment clogging in the membranes. Many winemakers believe this type of filtration actually improves the aromatics and flavor of their wine.

The machinery (courtesy of Willamette Cross Flow)

We witnessed a significant change in our Pinot Gris Rose. Not only did the flavor and color improve, but the nose took on a cleaner, fruitier persona. Wines that spend a fair amount of time on the lees, like this one, really benefit from this type of soft and steady filtration. On top of clarity, microbial stability is at stake and crossflow filtration achieved both.

Stay tuned for our first 2011′s, the Pinot Gris, and Roses of Gris and Pinot Noir. We begin bottling these wines this week.

2011 Rose of Pinot Noir

With a bottling date just weeks away, we’re growing justifiably excited about a wine we’ve never made before. Our 2011 Pinot Noir Rose is something of an experiment, the product of some extra fruit last harvest. Presently, the wine is showing well, with a memorable coral color and strong melon and tropical fruit flavors.

The 2011 Rose: So new it doesn’t even have a label, yet.

By late Spring or early Summer, we’ll have some fifty cases of this wine. Stylistically, it’s done quite dry, much like the lauded Roses of Provence. Try it on a warm afternoon or pair it with grilled veggies and halibut. Just don’t over chill it, you’ll rob the Rose of its wonderful aromatics and lightly tannic structure.

Interest is already piling up. If you’d like to join our Rose waiting list, please email us at info@vistahillsvineyard.com and you’ll be the first to know when it’s available for purchase.

Hand Bottling

Fifty cases doesn’t sound like much. But that’s 600 bottles, or approximately 120 gallons of wine. A five-hour bottling project when you’re working with small-scale equipment. A borrowed six-bottle filler, manual corker, and our dear friend gravity helped us see the Chemeketa through from barrel to bottle.

This magical contraption fills a half-case of bottles in about twenty seconds.

About a week from now, we’ll bottle our other wines with the help of a mobile bottling unit (and crew). Small lots such as this one can be done by hand in a single afternoon. We split up the tasks three ways, with one person loading the filler with empty bottles, one person prepping the corker with a well-placed full bottle, and one person operating the corker and stacking full cases. The majority of the workload was carried by the filler itself, a remarkable piece of technology that did not spill a drop. We’re still mystified by its flawless mechanics.

The 2010 Chemeketa Pinot Noir one of our smallest lots to date. It is the work of Jim Sanders, winemaker at Le Cadeau in Dundee. Early tastings find the wine expressing beautiful aromatics and lush berry flavors. Being a 2010, this wine has vibrant acidity that provides length and composition. We will debut the wine this Sunday, April 1st, at the Treehouse as part of our Chemeketa Release Party. The wine is named after the community college in Salem, a Vista Hills partner via the Clint Foundation.

Blending

Now comes the part those with evolved palates truly adore. The educational and at times panicky stage before the wines are bottled wherein we can write-off extensive tasting as work related research. This deliberating period of mixing and matching is otherwise known as blending, and we’re knee deep in it right now.

Trying out different vineyard blocks and barrel lots en route to a perfect blend.

Presently, we’re finalizing the 2010 Pinot Noirs. Specifically, decisions are being made as to what goes into the Fourmen, Treehouse and Rollins wines of that vintage. Weighing aromatics and flavor, the goal is to find a ratio of additions that make the wine stand alone in terms of structure and personality. What we consider to be the best juice is set aside and predominately used in the reserve lineup.

Playing around with balance can be a bit of a tight rope walk. The 2010′s are quite acidic by nature, so it’s important to achieve roundness with what’s at our disposal. This can be anything from extra barrel time to additions of more fruit-forward lots to sand down the mild sting of the acid. Every wine has an identity. Further, many of our wines have a reputation and it’s important to continue that (in terms of familiar flavors, styles and traits). What is a Treehouse Pinot Noir without its characteristic backbone of earth and spice?

With the aid of a graduated cylinder, we can create micro-batches of proposed wine blends. And with the aid of a large Pinot glass and a hefty swirl, we can gain a pretty good idea of what that blend would look/taste/smell/feel like. There’s reward in pulling samples for blending trials. It feels a bit like signing your artwork, a finishing touch of sorts. Sure, the bottling and selling are yet to come, but much of the winemaking is in the past. Better still, you can finally assess the vintage as a near-finished series of wines, putting the many estimations and hypotheses of many months ago to rest.

Closure has never tasted so good.

Cold Stabilization

As our white wines and Roses near the bottling period, a few big tasks remain. Clarification and stabilization are key issues, bolstering the wines with newfound resistance and a clean new appearance. At our Matello location in Mcminnville – an old bakery turned winemaking facility – we have access to a cold room. This refrigerated area is set at about 35 degrees, perfect for stabilizing wine.

Racking Vista Hills 2011 Pinot Gris from the cellar to the fridge.

Cold-stabilization involves cooling the wine to a near-freezing temperature. Physically, this has a settling effect on the wines, precipitating crystals and other solids and thereby deeply clarifying the wine. The result is eye-catching. After just a week in the cold room, our Rose of Pinot Noir had lost most of its vibrant color. The color, of course, will return when the wine goes back to the warmer cellar.

The chilly climate stabilizes the wine as well. Overly acidic wines benefit from this especially, forfeiting some of their tartrates (the aforementioned crystal deposits) and thereby becoming less astringent on the palate. Any leftover yeast dies out in this cold environment as well, eliminating any shot of a secondary fermentation, rare as it may be.

Many winemakers wheel their tanks or barrels out into the cold and let Mother Nature do the stabilization. The timing, in most cases, is just about perfect, as most white wines and Roses are through fermenting and mature enough by the time snow starts to fall. Red wines do not demand this process as much, benefiting from a longer process that will naturally round out the wines over time and a darker color that can hide sediment better.

Labeling

After an extended barrel rest, our 2010′s are starting to see the bottling line. Come April, we’ll bottle the majority of our wines, but a few batches have graduated into finished form already.

Last week, we applied the final touch to our 2010 Rice Estate Pinot Noir. And while there is such a thing as rice wine (aka sake), the name here refers to Clint Foundation member Rice University of Houston, Texas. At just 150 cases, this wine is more than manageable when it comes to wintertime cellar activities like filtering, bottling, and labeling. What’s in the bottle is lovely, a wine with pleasant acidity and big red fruit flavors, strawberry especially. But the focus last Thursday was on what was stuck to the outside of the bottle.

Slow and steady wins the race, especially where labeling is concerned.

Most wineries use an automated labeling machine which can knock out a case of wine in mere seconds. Most wineries are also significantly larger than us. With sub-200-case lots, it’s just a sensible to use a hand labeler, which turns out finished bottles at about a bottle every five seconds (give or take user error, cold conditions, or a pause to change the music). Once a rhythm is set, the process is quite efficient. One person unloads cases and readies blank bottles, one person runs the labeler, and another person loads cases while soaking the labels that didn’t quite make the cut. There is something truly rewarding about physically touching every bottle of one specific wine ever produced.

The device itself is fairly simple. A spool feeds the labels through a series of tightly-wound guides and a couple of pegs hold the bottle in place. The label is affixed via a hand crank. In the end, we tackled close to 2,000 bottles over a five hour stretch. The biggest holdup came from the cold cellar conditions which created condensation on the bottles. Toweling them off beforehand helped some, but it wasn’t until we pulled out the big guns – in this case a portable pair of floodlights – that we found a solution. The warm glow dried the bottles nicely, allowing for a sticky and lasting marriage of bottle and label.

User’s perspective: Setting the bottle

In the coming weeks, we’ll be cold stabilizing our 2011 Pinot Gris and Rose. Stay tuned for more.

Harvest, Part V.

Winemaking is made possible thanks to a slough of important tools, instruments and specialized equipment. We continue to believe that some of the most important work is done well beforehand, in the vineyard, by skilled agricultural workers. But for the six weeks or so we spend in the cellar every fall, there are some things you can’t live without. Introducing, the list of invaluable items for Harvest 2011.

Puncher

It’s little more than a plunger with holes drilled into the head, but this handy tool is in heavy rotation during the first few weeks of harvest. Used on young wines and freshly fermenting caps, the puncher allows for even extraction during maceration by mixing up the must. Punching-down provides aeration and helps reduce reductiveness in wines. It also builds muscle mass in those doing the punching, especially considering that it’s at least a twice-daily activity.

Breaking through the cap during a routine punchdown.

Flashlight

When it comes to barreling down wine, visibility is key. A powerful pump can fill a barrel in just a few minutes and while a timer is helpful, a flashlight allows for careful tracking. As fun as it is to guess how full the barrel is by the sound alone, this almost always leads to stained shirts and plenty of cursing. The best option here is a flashlight with a snake-like arm that can illuminate the inside of the barrel as it’s being filled. Take it one step further with a headlamp, which frees up a hand.

Buck Knife

Fact is, something always needs to be cut. From bags of freeze-dried yeast to brand new, plastic-wrapped oak barrels. Winemaker Dave Petterson uses his to whittle down bits of stick for plugging barrel leaks. This writer found a buck knife particularly helpful in slicing off the second crop from grape clusters as fruit poured in.

Forklift

Oh, how the process has simplified since the creation of the forklift. This dear machine does all of the heavy lifting throughout the winemaking cycle. Loading fruit, weighing fruit, loading the press, setting up the crush pad, stacking barrels, stacking fruit bins, even changing light bulbs in the cellar – all acts employ the rich talents of the forklift. And, if you’re going to be spending a lot of time behind the wheel, you might as well do it in style.

Our forklift is better than yours: Dice in the mirror.

Rush

Canada’s favorite prog-rock export thawed our hands and warmed our spirits during endless hours on the sorting line. It is one of few bands that can match the pace and complexity of harvest-time enology. Neil Peart’s masterful drum work provided the pulse for our every move. Some wineries prefer the therapy of classical, others the artfulness of jazz. This year, we selected the highly caffeinated organized chaos that is Rush.

Pressure Washer

In addition to obvious cleaning abilities, the pressure washer is utilized for swelling barrels. In other words, barrels that have been in storage for a while are filled with hot water, expanding the wood enough to create an airtight vessel. Once the barrels are swelled (that is, a suction effect occurs when the bung is pulled out of a partly filled barrel), the barrel is ready for wine.

Dishing out the steam treatment at Panther Creek Cellars.

Boxed Wine

Not so much for drinking as a brix level gauge in the lab. Being a finished product, the wine is dry, meaning the brix level is zero and can be used for calibrating equipment, specifically the refractometer. The box lasted all harvest, appearing every morning to set things straight and ensure that all of our important readings were accurate. These daily numbers – composed of the pH levels, sugar levels and temperature – guided us through winemaking process. Who knew that so much relied on a box of Franzia?

Dog

It’s tough to imagine a harvest without a pup. Man’s best friend lives up to his name at the winery, earning his keep by consuming unwanted grapes and barking when the next batch of fruit has arrived. He frightens vermin away from the vineyard and provides a much needed bolt of energy when your tired back begins to give out. Overall, he’s a constant reminder that this business is free-spirited and fun, as most good things are.

Harvest, Part IV

We’re in that fascinating in-between stage where our older wines are ready for blending and the young wines – at least some of them – are being fined.

We tasted through the 2010′s yesterday and were astounded by the complexity and fullness of flavor on display already. In the coming weeks, the various blocks will be tasted side by side, painting an important flavor profile we’ll draw from in the future. Soon after, we’ll engage in bench trials, wherein micro-blends will be created to help determine what lots and how much of them will go into wines like the Fourmen, Treehouse and Chemeketa Pinot Noirs.

Meanwhile, the 2011′s are entering a stage not entirely unlike adolescence. Some of the wines are being tricky, defiant even, like young teenagers. This is normal, and with a little care and discipline, these wines will grow up to be truly special. The more astringent wines are being fined. Presently, we’re trying a few different agents to see which we like best. In short, fining stabilizes color and reduces the edginess of young, particularly tannic wines. For one barrel, we’re experimenting with egg whites, an age-old method used by many. For another barrel, we’re testing out PVPP, or polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (say it with me). This insoluble plastic powder helps especially with wines experiencing a bit of oxidation and discoloration.

Stirring the lees and readying the Rose for some fining.

Winter is a great time to fine for a couple of reasons. Cool cellar temperatures off a better environment for the agents – those involving protein especially – to work their magic and carry any impurities out of the wine. Additionally, for white wines and Roses, the timing is such that bottling is only four or five months away, and clarification and stabilization become increasingly important here. The name of the game, as is typically the case with additives, is “less is more.” In stabilizing these wines, it’s imperative to tread as lightly as possible. Maximum affect, minimum input, so the wine retains its natural beauty.

There are many fining agents, but none more interesting for this writer than ox blood. The blood is dehydrated and turned to powder for enological purposes. Like the egg whites approach, ox blood is hydrated some and then mixed into the wine. Apparently, blood is one of the swiftest and most powerful tools for fining, though not particularly popular these days, for a slough of reasons. As tempting as it is to try, we shall refrain this go-around.

Harvest, Part III

Explaining something is far easier with the aid of images. And so begins our visual journey of Harvest 2011, from fruit to wine, and so much in between. It’s more visual than educational and many of the shots are blurry. However, that’s the nature of the beast and we’re pleased that, despite being run over by palate jacks, covered in yeast or drenched in fuel, our phones mustered a few enlightening shots.

A Photo Essay of Sorts

Figure 1: The fruit is delivered.

Figure 2: The fruit is sorted and destemmed.

Figure 3: The destemmer appears to be working.

Figure 4: The resulting fruit is weighed.

Figure 5: The fruit is transported to fermenters. 

Figure 6: Bailey looks on, intently. 

Figure 7: Smaller blocks are placed in plastic bins, larger blocks and blends in stainless steel fermenters.

Figure 8: Dave learns how to drive this.

Figure 9: Hands turn red from extensive sorting.

Figure 10: Daily sampling commences (pH, brix, temperature).

Figure 11: Vineyard Blocks are organized.

Figure 12: The must is inoculated with yeast.

Figure 13: Fermentation caps form (some so sturdy you can stand on them).

Figure 14: Pump-overs and daily punchdowns allow for proper extraction.

Figure 15: Pomace is shoveled into bins to be pressed.

Figure 16: Bailey continues to watch.

Figure 17: The wine is pressed, Rose in this case.

Figure 18: Barrels are swelled and readied for wine.

Figure 19: Barrels are stacked. 

Figure 20: Wine is barreled. 

Figure 21: Wine is often spilled (artfully, mind you).

Figure 22: More barrels are fetched.

Figure 23: Night shifts become the norm.

Figure 24: Winter shows up, harvest comes to an end.

Harvest, Part Two

Nobody laughed at botrytis jokes late last Fall. Humility shook the industry hard in 2010, when birds and rot wreaked havoc on clusters from the Applegate Valley to Amity. It was simply too close to home, and too early to reflect on without feeling wronged by the merciless gods of Agriculture.

An unusually dry November in Oregon Wine Country.

The combination of moisture and a delayed ripening schedule is a dangerous one. And, given our soggy Northwest surroundings, you typically can’t have one without the other. Especially when the timeframe you’re considering is early November.

Fortunately, the final two months of 2011 were very nice. Some of the driest days came when we needed them most, when the fruit was still hanging and the sugar levels were creeping up. The chilly evenings and calm, dry days made it very difficult for botrytis to take hold. This brand of bunch rot thrives in wetter conditions, starting at weak points in the fruit – like splits caused by wind damage or over-ripening – and spreading throughout the cluster, dehydrating the grapes en route.

Not winning any beauty pageants: Botrytis converges on a cluster               www.fei.com

When it sneaks past the sorting crew and into fermentation tanks, botrytis can steal color from a wine, sweeten the smell and create bitter, phenol flavors in the finished product. Botrytis is also notorious for complicating fermentations, killing off certain yeast strands. We saw some rot in the fruit this year, but avoided it at large thanks in part to beautiful, tightly-set clusters that left little room for rot to build a home.

Speaking of clusters, the shear size is worth mentioning. Some Vista Hills bunches were well over 400 grams in weight, and could be mistaken for small footballs. The brix levels never rose much above 22, but that was not our greatest concern. More important was the maturity of the fruit, expressed by balanced flavors, bright (but not blindingly bright) acidity, and browning stems and pips. Outside of some unripe second crop fruit and the rare rot-ridden bunch, quality is what we got.

Keep it coming: Higher yields and mammoth clusters fill the sorting table.

In addition to simple sugar and acid tests, a more involved diagnosis of the wine is carried out early in its inception. A small sample is sent to the local lab, where everything from the tartaric acid to the alpha-amino compounds is measured. It’s called a juice panel and it paints a pretty good picture of what the wine will likely become. One figure we really focused on this year was the glucose-fructose count, the two main sugar and carbohydrate sources in the fruit. Studying this measurement helped us determine the alcohol content in the finished product and how to go about getting it there.

The numbers tell a story on paper while the grapes tell a very tangible story. We sorted carefully and diligently this year, weeding out any unhealthy specimens. Discolored fruit was sampled, and if overly tart or bitter, tossed away. The earliest stages of rot can hide quite well, so we made certain to turn the clusters over and have a look at all sides. Several weeks of this makes a fruit sorter quite literally see fruit in his sleep.

In short, harvest 2011 kicked off with surprisingly healthy fruit, higher yields, and lower than average sugar counts. Crisp, dry weather meant joyous conditions on the sorting line – no bees, no earwigs, a spider here and there. There was plenty of finger twiddling in October, when welcome conditions allowed the fruit to hang, and hang, and hang. It also afforded us a chance to juggle a soccer ball on the crush pad and rest up for an onslaught of activity a few days later.

Stay tuned for Part 3.