Harvest time in Willamette in '09?

We’re trying to finalize our trip plans to Oregon. It’s a general purpose trip; night 1 in Portland (Hotel 50), going with the SOs brother and wife to Crater Lake for 2 days (staying at C.H. Bailey house in Roseburg) and then 2 days midweek in Willamette (Carlton’s R.R. Thompson House) followed by 3 nights in Portland (The Nines). I’ll post details in Travel for those who helped with the planning. As an aside most of the recs for places to stay were already booked (e.g. McMenamins in Portland and McMinnville) but I’m pretty pleased with our choices. We’ll be making dining reservations in Willamette and Portland this week.

So we’re in Willamette Sept 15 leaving on the 17th (obviously we could do visits later from Portland too but we want to go to the Gorge and see Portland). We have mostly decided on winery visits but before I start calling for appts I wanted to know whether the wineries are going to be involved in more pressing matters like, say, the harvest. If so, are the places with open tasting rooms a better bet?

Highly unlikely anyone will be involved in crush on those days, Chris. Perhaps some whites will be ready for sparkling wine, but I was out in the valley just Friday and the clusters of pinot I saw were around 40% (max) through veraison, which puts harvest around October 5-10. I have pictures but have been too lazy to upload them.

Thanks Bob! Great news for us.

handy timing, as I will be out there immediately before you (leaving the 15th). cg