2004 Pinot Noir

2004 Pinot Gris

2004 Pinot Blanc

2003 Pinot Noir
Estate Selection

CONTENT
Letter from owner Dick Erath - "When It Rains, It Pours "
Report from winemaker Gary Horner - "Working in a Wintry Wineryland"
What's Fermenting - Events and happenings at Erath Vineyards - Chef Series 2006!
The Cachet On Us - Recent awards, reviews and press
Cellar Society - Sign up for the Willamette Valley's premiere wine club
The White-Hot Shopping Cart - What's new in the tasting room and gift shop

WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS

Owner, Dick Erath

Happy New Year!

As I sat down to write this letter in my Tucson winter home, I learned the new year started off in the Willamette Valley with heavy rains blasting from the Pacific Ocean, flooding some of our surrounding areas, like McMinnville. Makes me think of my first impressions of the area. I can remember my instructors in the wine program at the University of California at Davis discouraging me, along with my pioneering peers, from venturing into the cold and rainy north. Well, maybe we were young and stubborn, but we had faith in this valley, and we were certain we'd found our "Holy Grail", as I called it back then. Upon my first visit, I drove around in an old Ford Falcon station wagon my dad gave me, looking for places to grow grapes...after that terrible wet season I was ready to pack my suitcase and head back to California. I wondered how you could grow grapes with all that rain! And when I soon after prepared my first vineyard in the Dundee Hills, it had rained eight inches that month. Well, we learned that all that rain totted up to something great in the vineyards.

As new years and new vintages pass, I often think about the early days, I sometimes make comparisons, and I find myself coming to the same resolution - you just never know what you're going to get with each coming year. You can't exactly make predictions in this industry. Well, except for the certainty for rain! But we plan well and prepare ourselves for any outcome, whether its in the vineyard, in the winery or in the market.

Our focus for 2006 is on growth. A smart company projects up to fifteen years down the road. And when you're a company with product that's selling out faster than you can make it, well, you've got some things to think about. For one, we're like a hermit crab outgrowing its shell! Eventually, and sooner than later, we'll need more space to make our wines. We also look to establish new relationships with growers, as well as maintain solid partnering relationships with our current growers, to help us increase our overall production.

What can you expect from us this year? High quality Pinot noir for under $20 - guaranteed in our twist cap closure Oregon Pinot Noir. Exceptional and affordable white wines in our award-winning Oregon Pinot Gris and Willamette Valley Pinot Blanc. An introduction to Erath's first Dundee Hills appellation wines. Beautifully hand-crafted Estate Selection and Single Vineyard Pinot Noirs, again at great price points.

We will also continue with our wildly successful Chef Series: Wine Country Cooking in the Dundee Hills and have already secured three celebrated chefs to present their haut cuisine.

We hope to see you here in Dundee in 2006! Come by and taste our latest vintages, stick around and have a picnic (when it's not raining!) and visit us online at www.erath.com.

Thank you for your continued support and I wish you all the best in 2006.

Cheers!


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WORKING IN A WINTRY WINERYLAND

Gary Horner, Winemaker

For this issue I would like to give you a brief synopsis on the 2005 vintage and also give you a feel as to what goes on in our winery during the winter months.  It is not all sitting around playing cards you know! Before I launch into those two topics I would like to pass on an experience that several of us here at the winery had over the holidays.  Remember that our last newsletter addressed our transition to twist off closures.  You will also recall that one of the huge benefits of twist off closures is that they eliminate your exposure to cork taint (that musty smell of a ‘corked’ wine).

Over the holidays I had a total of three cork tainted bottles ranging in shelf prices from $10.00 to $40.00.  One of those bottles was a 1999 Oregon Pinot Noir I had made as winemaker for a previous employer.  Yup, a special occasion wine I had been holding onto to share with my in-laws at Christmas dinner.  Before dinner, in great anticipation and some trepidation (it was my in-laws after all) I removed the foil and cork. I poured myself a small sample. I swirled, I sniffed, and then I swore. Drats!  Cork taint.  Fortunately I had several bottles of Erath 2004 Oregon Pinot Noir twist cap to save the evening.  Our Cellarmaster, Jerry Olsen, had a similar experience with another well known Oregon Pinot Noir, again at a special occasion.  Disappointment reigned supreme. I could get into another cork rant here!  Sigh.  I’m over it.

Now on to vintage quality.  I have been in the Oregon wine industry since 1988.  Dick had his first commercial vintage in 1972.  We have seen more than a few vintages.  The type of vintage we had in 2005 is what put Oregon on the map.  I am not talking about attributes of the recent string of drought years with the high alcohol super extracted Pinots some folks have been touting.  I am talking graceful, fragrant and luscious Pinot Noir.  Not Pinot Noir masquerading as Syrah.  The promise of vintages like 2005 is why Dick and I came to Oregon.  The vintage turned out the way it did because the vines got moisture from the sky when it was needed to support fruit maturity and was compounded by the fact we did not ripen under extreme heat.  Excessive heat going into and during harvest would have resulted in high sugars with resultant high alcohols and over ripe flavors.  The down side of the vintage is that for the second year in a row crop yields were way down throughout the Willamette Valley.  Supply is not what we would like it to be, but I know you will be happy with the quality.

Next topic.  Life in the winery this time of year is a bit on the chilly and wet side, unless of course you are able to sit down at a computer and write newsletters like me.  My space heater is on overtime.  Most of the winery buildings are unheated and many of our tanks are outside.  Our barrels are washed outside as well. It is a wet and cold existence.  Recently we have endured 27 plus days (and counting) of rain, wind and cold with no end in sight.  The people that do the vast majority of the hands-on work in the winery are heavily layered with clothing.  Sort of the Pillsbury Dough Boy look with added stocking caps. 

Activities in the cellar at this moment included preparing the 2005 Pinot Gris for bottling later this month.  The steps involved include a great deal of tank-to-tank blending and a huge amount of clean up with each wine movement.  Sanitization is key.  The white wines then need to be cold stabilized so that the natural wine acids do not form crystals in the bottle while in your refrigerator.  Some consumers confuse these harmless crystals with glass fragments.  Not particularly good for business as you may imagine.  Great conversation at a dinner party, however.  The wine is cold stabilized through cooling the tanks to approximately 32 degrees for a certain period of time.  Fortunately the freezing point of wine is lower than water or else we would be forming the King Kong of popsicles.  Following cold stabilization the wine undergoes several pre-bottling filtrations.  Filtering both enhances clarity and also prevents microbial activity once bottled.  Cloudy and spoiled wine doesn't’t help the bottom line much either.  Pink slips fly freely at that point. 

In the red wine realm most of the wines have completed their secondary malolactic fermentation and are ready to be what we call ‘racked’.  Racking is the first step in clarification and is accomplished by removing the wine from the sediment that has settled to the bottom of the barrels and tanks.  A phenomenal amount of labor goes into this important process.  Again, cleaning dominates the scene.  I estimate that 80 to 85% of the winemaking process is cleaning up.  Once the red wines are racked they are put back into their designated ageing vessels (barrels and tanks) to continue the settling and maturation process.  In a few months the process will be repeated.

Monitoring wine progression occupies the bulk of my time this time of year.  Tasting, tasting, tasting.  That is one way to keep warm.  Another focus of mine is assorted administrative activities revolving on where we go from here.  One of the strengths of our company is that we are always looking to the future.  As you all know, that takes a fair amount of planning.  We are a fabulously talented team, company wide. Our goal is to keep supplying you with the best wines for the price.

Happy New Year!

Gary Horner, Winemaker

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WHAT’S FERMENTING
Events & Happenings at Erath Vineyards


ANNOUNCEMENT
2006 Chef Series: Wine Country Cooking in the Dundee Hills
Save the following dates for the highly anticipated second season of Erath's Chef Series. We are thrilled to announce this year's line-up of celebrated chefs:



Thursday, May 18 - Cathy Whims, Executive Chef & Owner, Nostrana - Portland

Thursday, July 27 - Dante Boccuzzi, Executive Chef, Aureole - New York

Thursday, September 14 - Mark Kiffin, Executive Chef & Owner, The Compound - Santa Fe

Stay tuned for more details!


Take a look at the photo galleries from the 2005 Chef Series. Photography by Holland Studios.



AMERICAN WEST STEAMBOAT COMPANY TOURS
Erath Vineyards collaborates with the American West Steamboat Company for two cruises this spring. American West Steamboat Company presents an ideal vacation with a unique new wine and cuisine theme tour aboard the Empress of the North for two select sailings: the weeks of March 26 and April 2. While aboard this seven-night journey, enjoy breathtaking scenery, winery visits, and one-of-a-kind culinary adventures. Details available on the American West website.


The Empress of the North Steamboat

ARTIST SERIES
Erath proudly presents a series of artists showcasing and selling their wares in our tasting room. Come out and meet the artists, enjoy and contemplate fine art, all the while tasting our beautifully crafted wines. The winter and spring schedule will be posted online - stay tuned.


Fused Glass By Kari Fahrenkopf - 12/10/05

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