Curly tails and a jackass - Vineyard Journal 2026 - Week 2
Vineyard journal 2026 entry number 2
Let’s start with two of my most vivid early memories of farm life as a child. My parents moved my brother and I from the suburbs of Portland to the rural hamlet of Scholls in 1972. They bought five wooded acres and built a house. I started kindergarten at Groner elementary that Fall. For my fifth birthday, they decided I needed a bicycle. So, they perused the classified ads in the Oregonian looking for a used bike. However, what really caught their eye, was the ad offering a female donkey. In typical hippie style, they decided to buy their five-year-old son a jackass instead of a bike. What prescient beings they were! Though I did also get the bike, this started a childhood filled with animals and other forays into agriculture that would inform much of my life. At the age of five, I began to envision a career as a veterinarian. Soon after purchasing the donkey, they bought five wiener pigs and placed them in a small enclosure in the forest. My first experience with diagnosing disease occurred when one of the pigs fell ill. My dad was quite surprised because the pig had a tight curl in its tail, what was considered to be a sign of perfect health. This early lesson, that one needs to look at the whole animal (or human) when making a diagnosis and not focus just on one sign or symptom, would stick with me throughout my career as a physician. In fact, I used this story as part of my successful medical school application essay!
What’s going on in the vineyard?
Well, I went back to school this week. Many of you may remember that I started taking viticulture classes Chemeketa Community College in Salem last Fall I took introduction to viticulture and introduction to winemaking. I am now enrolled in the winter practices in the vineyard course. Though the vineyard is dormant, we are making decisions that will have a major impact on the upcoming vintage. The most important winter vineyard practice is pruning. This involves cutting back all of the canes from the 2025 vintage and selecting two new canes that will produce the shoots that carry the fruit for this year. I will be learning a relatively new pruning technique called sap flow pruning that originated in Italy. We have the great fortune to have an instructor from Italy coming to certify us in this technique. I am very excited. I’ve been assigned two rows of Pinot Noir at the college vineyard that I will take care of all the way through harvest this year. I only got a couple pictures of my first attempt at pruning at the college vineyard. I will try to get more photos next week.
This week, Joe, Leslie and I also sat down with Chad and Bree, our winemakers, to conduct blending trials of the seven barrels of 2024 Pinot Noir that have been patiently aging in the cellar. After about five hours of quaffing different combinations of the barrel wine, we have decided on three very distinct bottlings. I am so excited to share with you what I consider to be the best Pinot Noir we have produced so far. Entering our 12th vintage, the vineyard is hitting its stride. This is very evident in the quality of wine that we are making. Seriously, the 2024 vintage of Estate Pinot Noir will blow your mind! To quote the legendary Tina Turner, this wine is “simply the best”!
The tasting room is also making progress. We are waiting on new patio doors and there’s a small chance we won’t be able to conduct tastings in the new tasting room as planned on February 7. No worries, though, if the tasting room itself is not fully functional, we will just host you at our dining room table. Either way, you will get a unique, intimate wine, tasting experience. Don’t miss it! Be sure to sign up at the “Visit Us”tab above.
