Message from the Winemaker
Scott Shull
2007 was a year full of activity at Raptor Ridge Winery, and while it seemed from the inside that we were tackling only the most critical items on the to-do list, hindsight shows a year of big steps and big changes. Over the course of 12 months, we:
- Planted the balance of our 18-acre Estate Vineyard;
- Moved our winemaking facility to Carlton;
- Up-scaled our production equipment;
- Participated in Oregon Pinot Camp, the Steamboat Winemakers' Conference and the International Pinot noir Celebration;
- Employed a mobile bottling line with the 2006 vintage;
- Harvested a record 121 tons from the 2007 vintage; and
- Said goodbye to our dear friend, Sadie-Marie.
Planting
The year began with surveying and layout of five more acres of our estate vineyard, Tuscowallame Vineyard. "Tuscowallame" comes from the indigenous language of these parts and means “place where the owls dwell.” Our winery partner, Dave Grooters, along with Dustin Miller, helped with the surveying, post pounding and planting.
We’ve already enjoyed wines from our first plantings of this vineyard site, and harvested seven barrels of Pinot noir from “Adalfo’s Block,” just in its second year of production. We’re very impressed with the dense fruit and spicy flavor profile coming from this vineyard at such a young age.
Moving into Our New Facility
Dave Grooters and another of our winery partners, Robin Russell, acquired a metal warehouse building in Carlton, Oregon around February 2007. Carlton is a burgeoning winemaking village, and a great location for wine enthusiasts visiting Oregon for a sample of Willamette Valley's best.
We agreed to pitch in together — Dave would remodel the building and I would provide the winemaking equipment and production oversight. Annie would be responsible for managing compliance with OLCC and TTB for both entities.
Despite a two-month delay early-on in the project, the new facility was completed with 48 hours to spare before the first fruit came in from harvest.
Up-scaling Our Production Equipment
Increasing our annual production by 55% required additional fermenters, barrels, tanks and tools. We added a pneumatic punch-down tool, five new temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks, and a fruit elevator. Each of these items comes attached to a five-figure price tag, so it's great that we are selling all of our wine! Of course it helped to be named "Winery of the Year" by Wine and Spirits Magazine — that's an honor we are still celebrating.
The Summer Came and Went
Each year we swear to take on less in the coming year, especially during those wondrous days of summer...and each year we commit to more industry events, seminars, and activities!
In 2007, both Annie and I served in leadership roles for the Oregon Pinot Camp. Annie was the president-elect, and now serves as president of this 50-winery consortium that attracts wine professionals from around the nation and the world for three days of intensive training, touring, and tasting of Oregon Wines. My job has been to author and deliver some of the key courses at the event for the last several years.
No sooner had Pinot Camp wrapped than it was time to attend the 20th Annual Steamboat Winemakers' Conference, held annually at a remote fishing lodge in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. We made new friends and renewed old relationships with winemakers from France, New Zealand, California, Chile, Patagonia, and yes, Oregon.
After four days of intensive wine-geekery at Steamboat, it was back home to McMinnville for the International Pinot Noir Celebration, where Raptor Ridge was chosen to be one of the showcase wineries. I was honored to participate as a panelist on “Terroir” of various Pinot noir winegrowing regions, and represent Oregon alongside panelists representing Burgundy, New Zealand, and California.
Mobile Bottling Line and the 2006 Vintage
In past years, Annie, me and a bevy of loyal volunteers bottled our few thousand cases by hand. It was a tedious process to fill and cork the wines one bottle at a time using our a semi-automatic bottling machine. This year, we hired the illustrious Jon Casteel of Casteel Custom Bottling to bring his fully automated mobile bottling line up to our old winery space, and "get the job done." With a little help from our friends, we were able to fill, cork, capsule, label, pack and palletize our entire 2006 Pinot noir production in just two intense weekends, rather than the four it took to bottle far less wine by hand.
Harvesting Record Tonnage from the 2007 Vintage
Our own Estate Vineyard, Adalfo’s Block, offered the first three tons of fruit through the door of the new facility in Carlton. We had about sixty percent of our entire vintage in when the weather fell apart. We picked during the dry times, and hid out during the rainy spells. One weekend after four good, dry days, we decided to bring in all our Pinot gris and as much Pinot noir as we could. We finished off late Sunday night after processing 52 tons of fruit in one weekend.
We’re delighted with the finished product in the barrels. Its truly amazing what
punishment the grape can take and still make fine wine. But there was one more storm we had yet to weather, and that was the loss of our 11-year-old "love child" Sadie-Marie, our Labrador retriever.
Saying Goodbye to Sadie-Marie
I was courting Annie in the winter of 1996. She had just purchased her first house and loved all that went with having her own place. She wanted a puppy, so I found a breeder of lab hunting dogs on Sauvie Island. I took Annie to the Island, ostensibly to do some bird watching, and made an excuse to stop at a certain farmhouse because I needed "to use the facilities." I think we were about 15 minutes into enjoying the puppies when the breeder called me by my first name and I was busted. Annie chose Sadie from the litter because she had a wrinkle on her forehead just like Annie's.
A year later, on New Year's Eve, Annie agreed to marry me. The wedding was held here on the property the next summer, and Sadie served as Annie's flower girl.
Sadie was truly a love child. She greeted any visitor to our house with a tail wag and a "welcome toy." She seemed to want to make others happy. Even to her last moment — when the vet techs came in for the fatal final injection — Sadie raised her head and gave them a tail wag. "Welcome...I know you have a job to do...I love you," was what she was saying.
December 10 was a brilliant clear day. We drove to Dignified Pet Services
and picked up Sadie's ashes. The weather soon turned, however, and a light snow began to fall. Annie, Chamois (our other Lab) and I lit some incense, poured Sadie a glass of wine, and went for a walk to the spring and creek where Sadie loved to swim. We scattered some fresh cut holly and poured the wine into the water. Then we scattered Sadie's ashes where she so often drank and swam and wagged her tail. We sent her off with a prayer that her abilities to bring people together in love could somehow be used more
widely in the world. God knows we could use it.
Scott Shull
Founder & Winemaker
Raptor Ridge Winery,
Scholls, Oregon
