Newberg Graphic Online

Grape harvest getting started

Growers busy bringing in truckloads of pinot noir, chardonnay and other varietals

• By: David Sale  
• Published: 9/25/2009 2:03:21 PM

Photo By: Gary AllenGrapes a plenty
Jim O’Malley of Overlook Vineyard helps out at Vidon Winery Thursday.

   Fall officially began Tuesday and with it wine grape growers in the Newberg area are making plans for harvest, or in some cases have begun picking fruit.
   “It’s been pretty wild for the last 10 days,” said winemaker Rollin Soles of Argyle Winery in Dundee. “We’ve finished picking the chardonnay grapes ... but we’ll wait for the pinot noir.”
   The recent heat wave sucked moisture from grapes on the vine, Soles said, “so we wanted to wait it out and let them come back into balance.” Picking is scheduled to resume today (Saturday) in Argyle’s vineyards.
   To the northwest, winemaker Don Hagge has already begun harvesting pinot noir grapes from his Chehalem Mountain vineyard.
   “It’s a bit early this year — usually we start around the first of October,” he said. “Of course, my vines tend to be a bit early, due to the combination of soil and rootstock.”
   Within a few days, the 2009 wine grape harvest will be in full swing, bringing with it nearly a month of round-the-clock labor for local vintners as the grapes are cut from the vines, sorted and crushed into fermenting vats.
   And while the harvest will bring a flurry of activity throughout the Willamette Valley, Yamhill County remains the epicenter of Oregon wine production with 248 vineyards producing nearly 10,000 tons of grapes last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
   Pinot noir remains the most popular grape, with nearly 80 percent of vineyard acreage being devoted to the area’s signature varietal.
   A crop forecast prepared by Southern Oregon University for the National Agricultural Statistics Service notes that, despite a cool spring, warm weather throughout the summer and fall have brought growing conditions to near or above normal.
   Measuring the “growing-degree days” (a means of expressing plant growth as a function of temperature), the study’s author, Dr. Gregory Jones, wrote: “The 2009 vintage cumulative values are 10 to 14 percent more than 2008 on the same date, currently ahead of the last six growing seasons, and tracking the warm 2004 and 2006 vintages.”
   Hot weather encourages the production of sugar, which creates alcohol when fermented. But for pinot noir producers, too much sugar in the grapes creates a risk of syrupy, overly strong wine — the opposite qualities of those sought by connoisseurs.
   While the late hot weather may have temporarily thrown off the delicate balance of water, sugar and fruit flavors in some areas, for Hagge it came as a welcome relief after the rain showers earlier this month. Just as too much heat can cause problems, a wet autumn carries its own risks.
   “It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, because it dried up quickly,” he said. “There’s been a fair amount of botrytis reported in a few sites around the valley, and I thought I might have to spray for it.”
   Botrytis is a common fungus that can infect grape clusters during prolonged wet weather — in addition to the fruit’s tendency to swell with water, potentially diluting the flavor of the resulting wine.
   This year, however, things seem to be lining up well: “It looks really good,” Soles said.

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