Oregon 2013

WINE TALK
1

I got an email from a winery I know really well which suggested 2013 may resemble 2007 in many ways.
I think we need a 2013 Curmudgeon Cuvee!!!

2

A winery knowingly admits that 2013 is “shitty” like 2007? :wink:

That’s actually surprising… as 2007 was bashed pretty hard in critics reviews… forget if it’s good or bad, it can’t be a good marketing thing to say 2013 was like 2007?
curious…

3

a private email
not marketing (except to me personally [wink.gif] )

4

Wine makers will have more useful comments than I do, but I don’t see a close comparison between '07 and '13. The summer was warm, and some grapes were picked even before the rains came. The ground was very dry when the rain started, so the grapes did not immediately swell and crack.
That did become a problem after a few waves of precipitation, and then there were the fruit flies.

I think that the grapes from well managed vineyards that were carefully handled and sorted yielded more concentrated wines than the '07s. Care in selection will be crucial.

P Hickner

5

We were there during harvest. More fruit flies than I have ever seen. Weatherwise, tt did seem to be about the opposite of what you want–a relatively warm dry spring and summer followed by a cool wet autumn. My favorites seem to do great every year, so I try not to worry too much about it.

6

I am in the process of writing our spring newsletter which will comment on the 2013 vintage and offer wines from the vintage so I have had to think about what went on and what we want to say about the vintage. I went and looked on the web for what others have said and immediately found that The Wine Spectator has it all bass-ackwards. “Promising grapes: Pinot Gris and earliest-picked Pinot Noir in Willamette Valley… Challenging grapes: Anything picked in Willamette Valley after Sept. 22.” This wasn’t so surprising as much as it was sort of depressing and annoying. Easily our best stuff was picked well after the rain and our most problematic was the stuff picked prior to the rain. Thankfully our tonnage skewed 30%/70% before/after.

I don’t think I would compare it to 2007 which was a cooler, later vintage. 2013 was early and was going to be very early overall without the rains. Even with them we were done picking much earlier than normal. Some of the wines are lighter and may resemble 2007s but they remind me more, in general, as sort of a cross between the higher acid wines of 2011 and the riper, bolder 2012s.

We have some stuff that will get declassified to a second label and a couple of vineyards we normally bottle as SVDs will get booted down to the Reserve bottling (nothing wrong with that if you like that bottling) but more years than not there are things that aren’t exactly the way we want them. 2012 was an abnormality in that sense. I like where the wines are at right now (I sort of dig the funky/slightly reductive stage even if that is not how I would want them to finish off) and I think there are some really terrific wines in the cellar. People are going to have to either get over or ignore some journalistic endeavors that are telling simple stories about more complex issues.