Dear Sokol Blosser Faithful,
September rolls around every year, and it always breaks my heart. The pain of losing the summer that we all know and love here in the Willamette Valley is where the ache comes from. I don’t get to think too much about that as harvest starts and that grabs your attention like a bottle of Pinot Noir driving a car. This newsletter starts and ends with harvest!
Our first grapes arrived on Tuesday, August 30th – Chardonnay destined for either our Bluebird Brut or for our Vintage Brut Reserve Sparkling wine. August clocked in as the hottest August in 131 years of recorded weather data for our area. Yeah, it was hot. That pushed the ripening of the grapes up a week or so from what we had projected. Nothing that our winemaker, Robin, lost too much sleep over, but she was hoping to start AFTER Labor Day weekend. The first week of September has been on the normal side of things with some rain and some sun. The over an inch of rain was wonderful as it slowed the ripening down, and gave us a chance to get the winery and our mindsets ready for more grapes.
September is our Cellar Club pick-up month and we are excited for you to try the wines in your fall collections. I will see some of you at the pick-up parties since we will be thick into harvest by then, and I think my mom and dad and nephew will be on hand to put in some family spirit! Thank you cellar club members! If you are interested in learning more about our clubs click here.
I am very excited about the upcoming release of our 2021 Single Block Pinot Noirs this month. Hold on to your taste buds folks! The 21 Pinot Noirs are some of the best wines I made in my time as winemaker. Orchard and Big Tree Block Pinot Noirs are back after taking a hiatus for the 2019 & 2020 vintages and they are simply wonderful! When you come out try these new releases, and I hope you are also able to try our Farm & Forage food and wine pairing experience. To learn about Farm & Forage click here. You will see our Executive Chef, Jonathan Jones, and will also meet our newest member of our culinary team, Antwan Johnson. Antwan and Jonathan are cooking up some amazing offerings for our Farm & Forage and the fall harvest season is on and the fresh ingredients could not be better! My mom brought up a fresh shipment of honey from her hives so I know you will get something sweet on the menu.
This is our 46th harvest at our winery. While mom and dad started planting grapes back in 1971, we did not build the winery until the harvest of 1977. What a year! The Portland Trail Blazers won the NBA Championships, my wife was born, and we made wine for the first time! I interviewed my dad for an upcoming podcast show and he talks about the first harvest here at Sokol Blosser. Sign up for our podcast on Spotify here.
Have a great month!
Cheers,
Alex
