The heat wave was in full swing when I interviewed Oregon winemaker, Julia Cattrall, so I wondered; what’s it like in Dundee, Oregon? On that date the high was 82, and then only briefly, so while I was drinking Oregon wine, I was wishing I was drinking it there. So we’ll take a virtual trip to Oregon this week to take our minds off the heat. We will also cover wine and heat and organic and sustainable practices in wine.
Oregon Wine: Duck Pond Cellars
When we talk about Oregon wines our expectation is excellent examples of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. Well two of those wines showed up at my doorstep and I couldn’t be more delighted. The wines come from a winemaker whose family has farmed the Willamette Valley for several generations. Multi-generational wine families in the Old World are fairly common, but in the US, we haven’t had that long a winemaking tradition so I cherish every one I find here.
Duck Pond Cellars
Duck Pond Cellars opened its doors on Memorial Weekend in 1993 and has expanded its wines and vineyards ever since. Duck Pond’s portfolio includes different wine groups and also spirits. A trend I’ve noticed in other places. While our focus here is on the Duck Pond wines I’m listing the other wine series so you can appreciate the whole picture.
Doug & Jo Ann Fries purchased land along the Willamette River in Dundee in 1993. They planted a hazelnut orchard and a 13-acre vineyard. The winery has grown to own and farm three vineyards in Oregon. This is in some of the richest land in the world to plant the world’s best varietals.
In 2018, The Great Oregon Wine Company, which had been purchasing their grapes, also purchased the winery. Obviously they liked what they were getting. Duck Pond currently produces 50,000 cases of wine a year.
Winemaker Julia Cattrall
Julia is the Chief Winemaker for Duck Pond Cellars. She is the fifth generation of a family with deep roots in the Willamette Valley wine industry. Her work in viticulture began at the tender age of seven, learning organic viticulture from her father at the Cattrall Vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills. When you start that early I’d think you’d be hooked on making wine.
Julia crafts Duck Pond, Ransom and Great Oregon Co. wines with a mission to preserve and uphold the beauty and legacy of Oregon’s great wines. Her wines have earned many 90+ points by key wine industry opinion leaders.
Julia leads a winemaking team with a portfolio of Oregon wines, including Duck Pond Natural Path Production, Duck Pond Heritage, Single Vineyard wines, Ransom wines, Great Oregon Wine Co. and Rascal wines. She also hand-selects the finest botanicals for both Ransom Dry and Sweet Vermouth which made Wine Enthusiasts top 100 spirits list scoring 92pts! That makes her a very busy woman.
Interview with Julia
My interview with Julia revealed a very articulate woman, confident in her abilities and enjoying life as a fine wine winemaker. Sometimes people still do live the American dream.
Did it seem being a winemaker was inevitable when you were growing up, or was there an epiphany that started it all?
One would assume possibly that someone learning about wine at an early age and taught by her dad would automatically become a winemaker. And one would be wrong when it’s an intelligent, independent woman deciding what her career should be. Since she took up anthropology at Reed college; winemaking was not her original plan. But eventually those genes did kick in and we can all be grateful for that.
With a focus on Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris what do you enjoy most about these wines and what are the biggest challenges?
Julia said she found Pinot Gris the most challenging, which as she described the requirements to produce a good vintage, began to make sense to me as well. She described the weather challenges of a cooler start to the season before warmer weather assisted the crucial fully ripening of the grapes.
Duck Pond Wines
I had already sampled the Pinot Gris and found it excellent before we had talked about it. Along with the clarity of fruit there was a delicious mouthfeel. Their tasting notes below suggested lemon migraine, but I think the writer meant meringue because that’s what I was picking up. I’m pretty sure this wine will only do good things for you, no migraine! Sometimes an AI spellchecker takes us down a different path.
For your consideration: Pinot Gris 2022, 12% ABV, $15.99.
This wine is part of the Duck Pond natural path series of wines. If you turn to the back label you’ll discover something you haven’t seen before on a wine bottle: ingredients. That’s right, this is a full disclosure wine and the first ones to be defined as natural path, which is described below.
This Pinot Gris displays a pale straw color with crystal clear brightness in the glass. Aromas of key lime, pear, kiwi, and honeysuckle mingle with hints of fresh-baked brioche and lemon migraine. The flavors mirror the aromas with dry and persistent finish that lingers on fruity florals and minerals. Enjoy well-chilled.
I was severely disappointed my local Total Wine didn’t carry this wine because I was all set to buy a few as well as the Pinot Noir. At their price point these are very good wines to have.
For your consideration: Duck Pond 2021 Pinot Noir, 13.5% ABV, $19.00
Bright ruby in color with a light rim, this dry Pinot Noir offers a great view of the 2021 vintage. In the glass bright cherry and berry notes play with hints of cola. Mild notes of oak and soil add depth and complexity. On the palate, rich cherry, berry and plum round out a fruity and velvety finish.
Pouring this wine the lower level of extraction was obvious and contributed to a more delicate wine, but with a velvety finish. For me the cola was more than a hint, but contributed to a very attractive nose. In fact I was sniffing the aromas of both wines while we talked.
After we covered the wines we talked about older vintages and the concept of sampling wines from previous harvests and tracking how they were performing. If you think a winemaker is all about the next vintage that is true. Julia mentioned the fact there were only so many vintages to perfect, so each year the quest to do better is very strong.
Opening an older vintage is a reward for all the hard work that went into it. Julia sets aside birth year vintages for all her staff, a very generous and thoughtful gift. She even offered to find one for me, but I think most of mine never escaped WWII.
Other Natural Path Wines:
2021 Duck Pond Cellars Rose Oregon “Natural Path”
2021 Duck Pond Chardonnay Oregon – “Natural Path”
There is much more to earn here, but I’ll let you check that out for yourself: https://duckpondcellars.com/
Protecting your wines from heat
Since we’ve been talking about protecting grapes from excessive heat we also need to protect the resultant wines from heat. A number of steps make sure your wines are always at their best.
Shipping wine:
The advantages of ordering online are reduced when wines are shipped during the summer. Don’t go cheap on shipping costs if you must get wine in summer. It does not take long for prolonged heat to damage wine. If you see a cork popped because of heat in the wine that is the same telltale as your turkey pop up; your wine is done!
When picking up wine at a store in high heat let your wine ride with you rather than roll around in the trunk. It’s really hot in there. The wine is the first thing I take into the house, then the frozen food. I have my priorities straight.
Storing wine:
If you have no wine cellar or cabinet then seek the coolest and most constant temperature location, which probably isn’t your kitchen. Wines react to wide temperature changes just like we do and cooking times are the worst when a 20 degree shift is typical.
- Keep red and white wines in the fridge if you have no other recourse. You can always allow reds to come up to the proper temperature after removal.
Serving wine:
There is a range of temperatures over which wine is served. Many folks serve whites too cold and reds too warm to both their determent. That can happen in outdoors areas of a restaurant, or ones oriented outside. At a resort’s swim-up-to-the-bar pool I usually go for a Margarita or Tequila Sunrise myself.
There are wine thermometers and wine bracelets that give you the reading and where it falls on the grape’s temperature range. Sparkling wines need the coldest temperature as you’ve no doubt discovered trying to open a warmer bottle.
And remember; room temperature is the room you’re in, be it warm or cold and it’s seldom constant. The temperature diagram from Wine Folly provides a great visual of wine temperature ranges.
Sustainable, Organic and Biodynamic Practices
These three terms, although they have much in common, refer to three different levels of certification and different philosophies of how to make wine. On a recent radio show Eddy asked me if sustainable was just a buzz word. That led me to the Wine Folly article I summarized below.
Each category of certification has differing founding principles, although a lot of shared principals, which means the terms do overlap. And there are numerous standards for each category, both within different wine regions and globally. The synopsis for each category is listed below. For more information see: https://winefolly.com/tips/beyond-organic-certified-sustainable-wine/
If we list each category as having a founding principle this is Wine Folly’s description:
- Organic: Purity of product using non-synthesized ingredients.
- Biodynamic: Holistic agricultural health.
- Sustainable: Mitigation and reduction of wastefulness in winemaking.
All three categories focus on health benefits of the wine to some degree and more grapes are grown organically. Mass-produced wines, by their very nature are seldom organic because of the use of pesticides, fungicides, herbicides and other nasty chemicals. And then there are the additives to make them sweeter, more visually appealing, etc. None of these ingredients appear on the bottle.
As I’ve often said, life is too short for cheap wine and becomes shorter the more you indulge in it.
Sustainable practices
Sustainable practices offer environmental advantages in the use of water, power and other resources, such as solar power, etc. I’d assume they’d reduce any harmful chemicals, even without a separate organic sticker. But the principal is environmental; less harm to the earth. Whether that actually does positively impact the earth is for the buyer to decide when they purchase the wine.
The idea of humankind’s negative impact on the land has been blown so out of proportion we now have folks worried about CO2, which is one of the essential chemicals that keeps us all alive, and want to see it reduced. Why I find this strange is plants, included grape vines, thrive on CO2. Increasing the amount of CO2 in a hothouse greatly increases yield and quality. I’d think that would be a positive thing.
My focus is on how well the wines are made and how good they taste, but that’s just me. However, I’ll always choose a winemaker who nurtures the earth rather than one that is wasteful.
Organic practices
Organic wines made with organically grown grapes, all additives (fining agents, yeast, etc) are organic, no GMO’s (or other prohibited ingredients) are allowed including sulfur additions (sulfites). There aren’t that many US organic certified wines due to the fact that sulfur is the best available natural preservative for wine. Therefore you’ll find that most USDA Organic wines have a much shorter shelf life and aren’t meant to age.
Made with organic grapes is the next category from USDA Organic and closer to European organic certification. Wines made with organic grapes also have organic additives (fining agents, yeast, etc) and are also non-GMO’s. The one change to this certification is that wines are permitted to have up to 100 ppm sulfites. That permits “made with organic grapes” on the label. The USDA Organic seal will not be on the label.
Biodynamic practices
A small subset of sustainability is called biodynamics that focuses on maintaining soil health and timing planting actions with lunar cycles. Biodynamic wines must also practice low-interventionist winemaking to insure wines become a reflection of biodynamic vineyard practices. Some biodynamic practices appear strange, such as using bizarre soil preparations made with herbs and bones (so they’re not exactly vegan). And, while biodynamics aren’t necessarily based on hard sciences, followers challenge that the processes produce remarkably consistent results of improved soil quality and overall vineyard health. And yes there are programs for this vineyard practice as well: Demeter and Biodyvin.
All of these practices are more labor-intensive so expect to pay a bit more for these wines, but they do result in healthier outcomes as long as consumption is moderate.
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