Your harvest breakdown has arrived!

Hi Wine Friends,

As promised, harvest kicked off in earnest this week. If you follow local winemakers on social media, your feed was likely full of grape clusters, sorting tables, and fermentation bins. It’s thrilling to be underway, and even better that the weather has cooled, giving us a longer picking window and allowing the red grapes to stay on the vine a bit longer.

The Arden team took a field trip to McMinnville on Sunday to experience the excitement firsthand. We’re embarking on an exciting project this year: making our very own barrel of Pinot Noir!

In the spirit of hands-on involvement and immersing ourselves in the local wine scene, we saw this as a great opportunity to learn more about the winemaking process and create a special by-the-glass pour that we’re all intimately involved with.

The Dream Team

So, we teamed up with two of my favorite winemakers (and humans): Grant and Renée Coulter of Hundred Suns. They’ve graciously agreed to mentor us through the production of our Pinot Noir, from grape to glass. We’ll be visiting every few weeks, getting our hands dirty and making critical decisions that will shape the final product.

Our first meeting was all about strategy and style. We rolled out of bed, grabbed a jug of coffee, picked up some epic breakfast sandwiches from Alea (the always-sold-out bakery pop-up at Mcminnville’s Thistle), and arrived at Grant and Renée’s door with six Pinot Noirs to taste.

Pinot Noir can be made in many different ways. Terroir, grape variety, and weather of that vintage all play a role, but the winemaker's decisions are crucial too. Wesley (Arden’s fabulous wine director) and I selected six Pinots from around the globe in varied styles—lean and earthy to full and plush—and we tasted them blind as a group.

As we tasted, we discussed the flavors we detected—green astringency, reduction, baking spice—and Grant and Renée explained how these characteristics might arise from different winemaking techniques. For example, brambly green notes might come from a high percentage of whole cluster, reduction from a lack of battonage (or many other factors, we were surprised to learn), and baking spice from newer, more toasted barrels.

Tasting with winemakers is always an enlightening experience. While sommeliers and wine professionals often use more accessible language (since we are front-facing with guests), discussing wine with its creators reveals the science and thought processes behind it: how high is the pH? Did this acid come from underripeness or from the soil itself? Is this reduction from nutrient deficiency in the vines or an extra toasted barrel? Is that a hint of volatility creeping in?

If you got lost in the jargon, don’t worry—many winemakers lose me too, and that’s why I’m so excited about this project. Seeing behind the curtain into how and why a wine tastes the way it does is truly eye-opening.

The Game Plan

By the end of the tasting, we felt a bit like Team Goldilocks. We appreciated the lean and earthy German Pinot but found it a bit too austere. We enjoyed the Dundee Hills' red fruit but found it a tad too ripe. The amphora-fermented cuvée had great texture but was too astringent. The 100% whole-cluster fermented Pinot had intriguing bramble notes but was a bit too green. We loved the reduction on the Burgundy but felt it was a tad too funky for our needs.

What we settled on is a desire for something elegant and balanced—with a bit of everything: structure, spice, vibrant fruit, a touch of savory earth, and, most importantly, deliciousness.

With Grant and Renée at the helm, I’m confident we’ll achieve this, and I’m endlessly grateful to be part of the process.

What's Next?

Next, we’ll head out in small groups to pick, work the sorting table, and punch down fermenters. (I’m keeping my fingers crossed for some old-school pigeage like in 'I Love Lucy'—an activity on my bucket list since I first got into wine.)

I’ll be back next week to talk more about the harvesting process, but for now, grab a bottle of Hundred Suns (recently named Pinot Noir of the vintage by Decanter Magazine!) and raise a glass to all the winemakers starting this crucial month. And when you’re tempted to grumble about the cool, gloomy weather forecasts, just remember: it’s fantastic for the grapes. 

And what’s great for the grapes will be great for us too—we’ll just have to be patient for a few years before it’s in our glass.

Cheers and see you next week,

Kelsey