Not Enough

Well, Hello again and welcome to the Telve di sopra Vineyard newsletter addition number four.  We’re trying hard to keep this rolling along and we hope you enjoy what we have to share!

Telve di sopra (Tell vay de soap rah)

Instagram: @telvedisopravineyard

It’s been a real cool growing season, the coolest since we started this project back in 2013. We had a frost in April that ate 20% of the primary buds, a late start to budbreak, rain and cool weather during flowering which cause flowers to brown and fall off, and April like weather in the second half of August. August is the month where we normally receive the hottest weather need to fully ripen most of the grapes. Fortunately, the Pinot Noir was still able to ripen enough to make a still wine, however the Sauv Blanc and Riesling did not.

One good thing was all the vines were dry farmed and looked healthy and green late into the season!

We had a lot of predation this year due to rabbits, man were there some big rabbits in the vineyard. Some looked mighty vicious. Because of our high-density vineyard configuration, the 14 inch high fruiting wire where the fruiting canes are tied horizontally and were the grape clusters hang made it easy picking for the rabbits. Even netting or the temporary electric fence that we put up around each vineyard block every year did not stop them. Late one night I happened to see one make a run at the electric fence as fast as it could and blow right through it without getting shocked. The only thing I can do now is to raise the fruiting wire up another 10 inches, this undoubtedly will be a multiyear project.

Now that Harvest is over, we need to start removing/stowing the nets before any snow comes. If it snows with the nets still on the snow stays on top of the nets and gets heavy enough to weigh down the nets and snap the trellis posts in half. In addition, we can’t dilly dally on this because we need to start pruning ASAP in order to finish in time before budbreak in the spring. Other tasks include replacing trellis posts that have rotted out and fallen over, spreading the compost that we make here on the vineyard, running trellis catch wires on some of the last rows that were just planted in the last couple of years. Managing a vineyard is a 365 day a year endeavor.

In this picture we were destemming the 2024 Estate Pinot Noir and getting it into tanks for cold soaking, which it did for four days and then the native yeasts started to ferment. All went well and it’s now safe to bed in neutral French oak barrels.

We bottled the 2022 Malbec (Lots of blueberry and blackberry) and 2022 Mourvèdre (dry, light, and fresh with lots of dark fruits and earthiness), and 2023 Estate Pinot Noir (red fruit with nice acid, should be a good one). All we have left to bottle is the 2022 Oregon Vanduzer Corridor Pinot Noir, 2023 Estate Marquette, and 2022 Cab Franc.

We also did manage to bottle the Estate Sauvignon Blanc, Estate Riesling, and Estate Siegerrebe

In these pictures you can see the state of the tasting room, were getting close!