Weather has continued to be an exciting event in the vineyards. This morning, March 6, we had 3 inches of snow. We are expecting 60 degrees on March 8th, so never a dull moment.
Our vineyards crews have worked through all kinds of weather just like the postal service. We have the vineyard at the winery almost completely done and the Redford/Wetle Organic vineyard, 8 acres, are done.

The winery staff meantime have been finishing, racking and bottling wine. The labeling process starts this week.

The Tasting room is quiet this time of year, but as you can see on FaceBook, we have been doing some fun tastings and sampling new products, so stop by.
The preliminary tastings of the cliff hanger 2011 harvest have been really a testament to grapes desire to ripen. The wines are rich and tasty. Since crop yields were down, the juice is very concentrated. The first of these wines will be released this summer.
Hope to see you at the winery or a wine event soon. Check out the new events calendar to keep track of us.

The wines are being put to bed, with visions of wine glasses in their head. Enjoy the season. The Amity Crew

It finally happened! We picked and crushed the Pinot Noir from Myron and Vikki’s vineyard today, October 18th. Fruit was beautiful, sugars were high – 23 and 24 brix. They tasted great. All reports of doom and gloom for this harvest are wrong.

Yes, the red grapes have finally turned color in the process know as veraison. Our vineyards are just about completely finished with the process. Ripening is in full swing. Conventional wisdom states that harvest will be 45+ days from complete color change. Looks like a Halloween Harvest! Keep your fingers crosses for a wonderful, warm Fall.

The Pinot noir grapes are just beginning to change color. They are about 3 weeks behind normal. We are hoping for a long, warm Autumn.

Once again the ability to ship directly to you, the consumers, is under attack. Please go to the Free The Grapes website and support the effort to keep the wine flowing.

http://capwiz.com/freegrapes/home/

Please try this recipe with Amity’s Auxerrois, Croft and Winemaker’s Reserve Pinot Noirs; it will pair wonderfully with any or all three.

Choucroute Garnie with Salmon
- 1 1/2 lbs unsweetened sauerkraut
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 tbsp. unsalted butter
– 4 slices slab bacon
- 2 sweet onions, minced
- 8 red potatoes
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 4 (5-6 oz) fresh salmon fillets
- 1 1/2 cups Auxerrois wine
- 1/2 tsp fresh or dried thyme
- 2 tsp juniper berries
- Coarse sea salt
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
– Fresh ground pepper

Rinse the sauerkraut thoroughly in cold water and squeeze out all water possible.
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and stir occasionally until the onions are translucent but not colored (about 6-7 mins). Add sauerkraut, cover with wine and 1 cup of water and bring to a boil.
Wrap the juniper berries, coriander seeds and bay leaves in a cheese cloth or large tea strainer, add this sack/strainer to the sauerkraut, lower the heat, cover and simmer for an additional 45 mins.
Cook potatoes in boiling salted water until soft (about 20mins) and drain.
Fill the bottom of a steamer about 1/2 way with water, add vinegar and bring to a boil. Season salmon fillets with salt and pepper, place in the steamer basket, top with thyme, cover and steam until cooked through (5-6 mins).
To serve spoon a mound of sauerkraut in the center of four plates, top each with a salmon fillet and slice slab bacon, surround with potatoes and serve with course sea salt alongside.

This is a wonderful and unique way to serve salmon; the bacon gives some of the smokiness and fattiness of a classic choucroute garnie to this version of this classic dish.

These are the three wines featured in our 2011 Spring Wine Club Shipment. Not a Wine Club Member? Sign up on our website or call to join (503) 835-2362 ext 1#.

Cheers!

Oregon’s Spring has been cool and rainy, so the vines are chugging along at about a month behind schedule. But summer is coming so winery, vineyard and tasting room chores are in full gear.

Our vineyards are leafed out so shoot positioning and sucker control are on the schedule. For the young, organic vineyards shoot positioning, weed control and debudding are being done now. The winery is equally busy with bottling, labeling and barrel room duties. The tasting room staff is cleaning, sorting and getting the picnic area and room ready for summer visitors.

2010, what a year! First off it was a moderately cool growing year, which delayed bud break close to two weeks later than normal, which made flowering later than usual, which subsequently made seed hardening and veraison late and lastly made sugar accumulation and phenolic ripeness late. In spite of the weather abnormalities, Mother Nature decided to grace the Willamette Valley with a beautiful Indian summer with above normal temps through the second to last week of October. As a result, we were able to hang our fruit longer than normal in order to achieve optimal sugar ripeness and acid balance from all our vineyard sources. The only downside to harvest was that we had a three-day window to pick all of our fruit before the rains showed up on the 22^nd of October. So needless to say the third week in October was extremely busy for the harvest crew.  But with minimal sleep and lots of hard work, our able bodied crew was able to process over 100 tons of fruit  (both white and red) in a three-day period. It goes without saying that Darcy is deeply indebted for their hard work in getting everything processed in a tight time frame. In all, the fruit that came in looked and tasted great and their subsequent fermentations went exceedingly well. As we write there are four fermenters left to press off and the majority of the wines have been moved to barrel for the winter months. We are looking forward to making some classic Amity Vineyards style wines from this vintage.

We weren’t sure how to title this blog, but considering the positive forecast for the rest of June, we decided on the above rather than: “Rain, Rain Go Away.”  We can’t sufficiently stress how annoyingly wet the spring weather has been this year in the Pac NW (those of you living in the area are probably nodding your head right now).  Our sometimes dismal climate can be a real threat.  Nothing influences crop yield in the vineyard on an annual basis more than inclement weather.  Cold, rain, clouds, and hail during bloom can really minimize the amount of fruit that will set for the year.  Poor weather this time of year also increases the risk of vines contracting fungal diseases.  Neil, who manages our warehouse and maintains all of our equipment, is our dedicated tractor driver and therefore dedicated fungicide sprayer.  This season, he has put out five fungicide sprays for Powdery Mildew.  In spite of Mother Nature’s wicked wrath, we’ve had a fairly productive spring season in the vineyard.  All of the vines have had their suckers and secondary shoots removed and catch wires have been raised to support the rapid Spring growth.  The vines look consistently strong; with all the water they’ve gotten, they seem to be moving along rather quickly as we prepare for Bloom.  Warm sunny weather really aids in the development and rapid pollination of the inflorescence that will turn into grapes.   So, the good news is that it looks like we may be breaking out of our bad weather pattern just in time for the flowering to begin.