tuesday with jenni
October 11, 2011
Vol. 3 Issue 4
Greetings Friends and Neighbors,
There is something special about the 42nd to 45th parallel. If you are not sure what that means, it means those places on earth that occupy the 42nd to the 45th parallel of the earth. If you are not sure which places I’m talking about let me name a few- Shall we start with Dundee, Oregon, The Burgundy region of France, Niagara falls, Cape Cod. In Argentina, the Mendoza region at the southern 42nd-45thparallel--- a major wine producing area of Argentina.
One of the oldest regions of wine making history belongs to the Burgundy region of France. Anybody who is anybody in wine making, has visited and studied under the mentors of this region. As I write this today, (actually early this time) on Monday October 10th, I have found that the pioneer wine maker in this area dating back to the 60’s is David Lett. David Lett came here to the Willamette Valley with a Volkswagan, a bunch of vines and a dream to create a Pinot region like that of Burgundy France. David Lett passed away on October 9, 2008. His son Jason took over the vineyard and the company of Eyrie Vineyards located in McMinnville, Oregon, in 2005. His dad left an incredible legacy in this valley.
There is something mystical about wine. No bottle is the same if opened at a different part of the year or a different moon cycle, some say. Just hear what BBC news people and Jamie Goode have to say. http://youtu.be/oawMSApimhE The taste can vary depending on the weather or the amount of time a bottle spend in a cellar. It’s almost like watching a baseball game over and over knowing the outcome. Who wants to do that? That is why wine is mystical and mysterious. It’s never the same twice. David Lett knew this and knew that the Pinot grape had this kind of power. 
David Lett’s vision and hope is that this area would be the greatest Pinot Region of America. Thirty two years later David’s vision is still alive.
I loved this short essay Jason Lett wrote about this 2011 harvest.
Even though it’s been cold and rainy here all during March (and April so far), the signs of Spring 2011 are everywhere! The land and the vines are waking up, and the whole amazing vineyard cycle begins again, culminating in the achievement of another vintage. But, as Jason wrote in these notes from a past Harvest time:
“The beginning is always hard to separate from the end. We started picking today, and it is the end of the vintage for every vine we harvest. The fruit has burgeoned over months, starting as a tiny, citrus-scented flower to reach this apotheosis: a quick snip in the cool of the morning. The life of the cluster has come to its end.
But that snip is the very beginning of the wine. An acre of grapes goes into one press. The berries, pressed, yield their juice–the first of the run of Pinot gris is tart and green. The press cycles—14 pounds of pressure, then 28, then 42—backing off the platen and fluffing the berries up again between each squeeze. Each cycle brings its own character to the wine, the last yielding juice the color of rose-hip tea and sweet with the sugars stored next to the skins. It takes three hours of slow respiration of the platen of our old basket-presses to finish the cycle. We are left with an empty press and a few hundred pounds of skins, but also with a full tank of heavy juice, giving leave to the yeasts to make it wine.
When you pick the grapes, you can almost hear the vine’s relief. The canes, unburdened of their fruit, spring straight again. The beautiful architecture of the vine, and all the hand labor that went into assisting it to its form, suddenly clarifies. The leaves change color almost immediately. Freed from the burden of photosynthesis, the vines secret their remaining sugars into their trunks and begin their preparations for the winter to come.
By the time the leaves have fallen, the juice has fermented to wine. The vines grow dormant. The cool of winter steals into the winery and the second fermentation begins, the long malolactic that carries the wine safely through winter. A period of age, the careful tumult into the bottle—and someday to the table, where another end, and another beginning, awaits the wine-to-be.”
~ Jason Lett, The Eyrie Vineyards
Good wine and freshly grown food is like heaven. Great wine regions of the world are never without great cuisine. Wine taste so much better when shared as a part of a wonderful meal with friends and family. Here is a quick you tube video about wine and food in Oregon.
Ihttp://youtu.be/bgO3UXjc6Pw (Just copy paste on You tube.)
Every region on the 42nd to 45th parallel has something special to offer. Although I have yet to visit the Burgundy Regions of France, I feel like I’m there when I look up into the hills of Dundee. Little did I know that when I moved here, I would be taken with this area and truly I have fallen in LOVE with it. Even though my husband was skeptical about moving here, he is finding his niche and is learning all about sustainable living by working at a fresh farm inspired and supported restaurant. The Blue Goat in Amity, Oregon as I have mentioned, prides itself on serving food cooked in a hand made wood burning oven. Everything on the menu is from the owners farm or grown locally.There is something special and certainly healthy about eating food grown within 5 miles from your home. The people who live the longest, in a healthy way, around the world and through the ages, live close to where their food source is. It is becoming clearer to me every week, how this is possible even in this day and age of genetically modified foods, over processed boxed foods and foods filled with pesticides.
With an ever changing menu and the chance to try many different delicacies, each night brings a new taste and something for a variety of palates. David is so happy to serve many of the winery owners and winemakers as they make, “The Blue Goat,” their destination for dinner many nights of the week. One night last week they put all the tables together in one big line for a special event in which patrons sit down for a home grown country style dinner. Everyone sat together. People sat next to strangers, families next to other families. Everyone shared in this meal which ended in homemade apple pie, made in the homemade oven. I didn’t get to taste it but, David said the chef who made it has probably one of the best pie crust he’s ever tasted in his life, with the exception of his mother’s of course.
I was able to experience the Dundee Bistro again this week with David. (Of course we walked over ) My sip of the week has to be from Remy Three Wives Wine, Remy’s Red Blend. http://www.remywines.com/ Maybe because we were sitting next to a fireplace and I was sipping wine, eating a fabulous meal, the wine tasted exceptional.( Food and wine were great, but, the server had no personality.) It is definitely a bottle I will seek out in the future . My small taste really wasn’t enough. As Jason Lett said about his father David, “He always felt deeply appreciated by culinary types who understood that wine was made to go with food,” I totally agree that wine always taste better with food and is meant to go with food or a meal.
I’m so grateful I have the chance to live in a place that allows me to have the opportunity to live a healthy life. I have a long way to go! I was attempting to create new habits and have this kind of lifestyle in Carson City, Nevada with little success. But, living here, in this fertile growing region where grapes thrive and everything grows, I know that I can make the changes I have wanted to make for years. Something was drawing me here; maybe it was fate, maybe it was destiny. But, I am here. I am here in this amazing place for a reason.
Have a Great Week!
jenni
jenni
p.s. one of the apps I have on my new phone is a translator.
So, here it is.. my first French phrase:
Cela est un grand vin--- This is great Wine.
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