Mother nature always gives a wonderful lesson to anyone who tries to play with her. The 2006 season has been a wonderful and generous season for numerous wineries in the Willamette Valley and, for us it has been a heaven because of our specific geographical location. Sunshine and warmth was definitively present all summer and even the month of September appeared to be abnormally dry. Because we are in the North Willamette Valley and at an higher elevation, our fruit could be preserved by an excessive afternoon temperature so negative for a Pinot Noir

The crop load was very generous but in pure contradiction from a lot of concept telling us: “Lower is the crop, better is the quality”, our crop (lbs/vine) was surely higher than usual but it was an interesting phenomena to visualize early on time that the vines were bigger and stronger than usual.
As a winemaker, I cannot explain this change of “attitude” from our vines but I would imagine that the vines were telling us “Hey guys! We cropped very low since 2002 and now, let us do the work of expressing ourselves”… Because Cooper Mountain philosophy is to find the right balance between Mother Nature / the Vines / Human, we decided that we will put our trust into the vines and mother nature. Our decision was right and thanks to Mummy Nature.

We started our harvest the 20th of September by harvesting two very small block for two main reasons….the “romantic” one : The grapes were ready….the less “romantic”: we had to test our equipment before the big rush start. Hopefully, everything worked perfectly well and rock n’ roll, let’s deliver the babies.

The big Harvest really started the 26th. Extremely busy on the Pinot Gris where the ripeness came very fast, so much that we had to get two times more pickers than usual. The Pinot Gris was harvested perfectly on time for each block. The acidity and the “primary fruit” were present and waiting three days would have been a loss of quality. The Cooper Mountain Pinot Gris lover can have a smile on their face.

The Pinot Noir blocks were picked slowly with no more than 10 tons/day. We harvested the Johnson School Vineyard then we decided to be patient…Mother nature was not upset with us by preserving us from the rain. The ripeness came along, the outside temperature started to cool down significantly which was a wonderful thing. The aromas on the berries were forming and until the flavors were fully developed, the pickers will have to be on stand-by and drink some Tequilla.

The Chardonnay program was quite surprising by its natural low crop. Only 30 tons of grapes and very slow to get riped. All our Chardonnay was put in barrels because the quality was definitively there.

As usual, the Pinot Blanc was the last to be harvested (That's a lazy varietal). We harvested in two times with two weeks apart. The first harvest was based on making a spicy and dry Pinot Blanc and, for the second harvest we were looking for a higher brix from the Botrytis (Noble Botrytis) wine. The fungus came and thanks to the morning fog, we harvested it at 27 Brix.

By End of October, All Alcoholic Fermentations were done except our Vin Glace Pinot Blanc. The Pinot Noir Wines were in barrels starting their Malolactic Fermentations. The other varietals were resting in barrels and tanks.

Now, we are close to Christmas. The winemaking team keeps a close eye on the babies. We taste, we smile and we are proud of our job. The babies have been delivered, we are helping them to grow but Maman Nature will take care…..Naturally.

Crop and Quality is a dream for all winemakers.............

The 2006 harvest is one of this year.