A New Generation of Winemaking: A Father’s Tale

March 19th, 2012 by nicolette

Winemaker, Wayne, and his 12-year-old daughter, Natasha, each wrote about their own experiences as farmers and winemakers. Below is Wayne’s version…

When we began this journey of growing grapes at Youngberg Hill in Oregon, we did so with the vision of keeping the vineyard in the family for decades.

In fact, when discussing our move to organic farming practices and our evolution to  biodynamic farming, one of the reasons we did so was for the earth and the vines to be healthier 50 years from now than they are today. As in many endeavors, our goal is for our daughters to some day desire to be a part of the business.

Some of our fondest memories as kids were growing up on the farm, and we hope our girls will develop those same memories.  Growing up on the farm is a great way to grow up, to be close to nature, learn from nature, and to explore. Our girls get a lot of chances to do that every day.

We spend time with the girls in the vineyard to educate them on what is going on in the vineyard. At each stage of the vines growth during the summer, we walk the vineyard and discuss what is going on. As the fruit is ripening, we take the girls out to measure sugar levels and Jordan and Natasha have become very good at using the spectometer to do this.

When harvest time arrives, and we choose a date to harvest some fruit, we keep the girls out of school to help. They get clippers and a bucket to pick fruit along side the other workers.

Once the fruit is picked and we take it to the winery; the girls get on the sorting table and clean fruit with everyone else. They get a good appreciation for what needs to be done to get the best fruit to make the best wine.

During fermentation and barreling, they also spend time in the winery learning the process and the evolution that the wine goes through.

 What are your hopes for your children? How do you connect with them? What challenges do you face in instilling them with the same types of experiences you had? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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A New Generation of Winemaking: A Daughter’s Tale

March 18th, 2012 by nicolette

Winemaker, Wayne, and his 12-year-old daughter, Natasha, each wrote about their own experiences as farmers and winemakers. Below is Natasha’s version…

A lot of people love a certain thing about their job. For me it’s blending wines. In my opinion blending wines is not about checking the sugar levels or the ounces of alcohol it has. To me it is about creating something new, something different that people can enjoy. Adding flavor to flavor, spice to sweet, I feel as if I did something that only I could do: To make our beautiful new flavor burst inside someone’s mouth and have our hard work make the people pause for one moment and think about what it took to make that single drop of sun shine that came out of their bottle and into their glass.

Another thing I enjoy is taking pride in every single groaning branch and laughing leaf that my family has. I love nature, I don’t believe that not one of you readers has not fallen in love with one of Nature’s wonders – I believe one of you at one point stood and thought  “wow” to a symphony of trees or canyons. That is what I feel every day that I see, smell, feel, or work the land that I’m proud to call my family’s.

Not only does our natural beauty that is named Youngberg Hill make me proud, but it inspires me. You see I love to read and write fantasy novels, and this place creates a lot of my settings in the books I write. When it rained, snowed, and shined here, in my mind I created small settings for any story that I could write.

This is my book of inspiration, and as my teacher would say, the setting is only the first chapter.

Something I’m looking forward to:

A lot of kids can’t wait to get and drive in their first car. Well I can wait, but what I can’t wait for is to learn to drive our tractor.

Unlike most girls I don’t focus on girly stuff. Some kids are like me; one of my friends is even more tomboy than me. But that is not the point. I want to learn to drive the tractor because then I can help more with my family’s work. I can help load the crates at harvest, (one of my favorite times of the year) and help with the driveway when it snows. It would be so important to me just to do more of anything around my home.

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One Response to “A New Generation of Winemaking: A Daughter’s Tale”

  1. Diane & Paul Romans says:
    March 19, 2012 at 1:40 pm

    What a superb outlook on life, Natasha! We wish you many happy days and future books in your lifetime ahead.

    Reply

Youngberg Hill is for the birds!

March 14th, 2012 by nicolette

It’s true – we really are.

For those of you who follow us on Facebook, you are probably well aware of the growing problem that we have with European Starlings that feed on our grapes just before harvest.

When our harvest is late, which is common here on Youngberg Hill, we can lose up to 30% of our hard won harvest to these invasive birds.

We now know that the starlings pose an even larger threat than we once thought.

Oregon is losing an alarming number of native birds due to the explosive growth of the starlings and native species like the Western Bluebird and Violet-green Swallow, as well as several species of Woodpeckers and Flickers, are feeling the impact of the invasion.

Many wildlife biologists are convinced that the starlings are enacting irreversible harm to western ecosystems and our new knowledge of this fact has spurred us to take action.

We recently partnered with Dr. Don Powers, Professor of Ornithology & Ecology at George Fox University to conduct the first Youngberg Hill native bird species survey on March 17th.  We hope to make this survey an annual event so that we might be able to measure the health of our native bird population each year.

We are also enhancing native bird habitat around the vineyard though the planting of native shrubs and the installation of nesting boxes and feeders that are anti-starling in design. You can help our efforts by using starling-proof bird feeders in your own backyard bird habitat.

In our April newsletter we’ll be reporting on the results of the native bird survey so be sure stay tuned!  As always we appreciate your support for our sustainability efforts and believe that not only are they the right thing to do, but ultimately make for a wine that leaves a good taste in your mouth in more ways than one!

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Grape Stomping 101

March 10th, 2012 by nicolette

The image of people stomping grapes is as old as Pompeii.  The Greeks and Romans did it and people continue to do it to this day.  There is something primal and earthy about stomping grapes into wine that make people both young and old smile and up on Youngberg Hill we are no exception.

Even in today’s modern world some winemakers still choose to go barefoot into the vat in order to break through the thick layer of skins, stems and seeds that forms at the surface of fermenting red wine during fermentation.  This “punch down” or submerging of the cap is done to extract color, tannins, flavor and aromas from the grape solids.

Known as “Pigeage à pied” in France, it is much rarer to see in the US as part of winemaking as most American winemakers prefer to forgo the foot, using instead a special plunger like tool for punch down.

Still other winemakers find neither method satisfactory choosing to simply pump the juice over the top of the grapes until the cap sinks down into the fermentation.

No matter how it is done, you can’t make good red wine without using all the amazing parts a grape has to offer.

Last fall, just before harvest, Nicolette, our family’s version of the Greek Goddess was  filled with the Dionysian spirit of her ancestors and decided to have a go ago at squishing grapes with her toes just as her people did so many thousands of years ago.

The result?  Well let’s just say that the spirits of Plato and Aristotle are no match for good old Oregon Yellowjackets!  After a few minutes of dancing in the barrel and several painful stings Nicolette was running for the house at full speed, skirt still hiked up leaving a trail for purple footprints for the wasps to follow.

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Greek Lucy

March 4th, 2012 by nicolette

Flashback time: The year is 1956. The show? I love Lucy. Ricky and Lucy travel to Italy. Lucy finds herself stomping grapes in a vineyard to absorb a little “local flavor”.  And like many who saw that episode, you might aspire to do the same (minus picking a fight with your fellow stompers!).

Well, wine making is a little different these days. While there are some wineries across the world that still stomp grapes the old fashion way, most commercial wineries use hand punches and automated equipment to break skins and extract flavors and tannins from the skins.

Fast forward to today: Our city girl, Nicolette, has continued to learn on the farm and it does not end in the vineyard. She has spent much time in the winery to learn the goings on there as well. She has her daily upper body workout by doing manual punch downs ( while falling in the tank), filling barrels ( while spilling wine all over herself), and sorting fruit ( while fighting away earwhigs and other natural critters).

And it doesn’t stop there. She has learned to swallow, not spit, while doing barrel tasting such that by the end of a routine barrel tasting, she must be driven home. Oh, the perils of being in the wine business…

And what do Greeks know about wine? The Greeks have been making wine longer than anyone in modern history, keeping in mind there is evidence of winemaking thousands of years prior. Their tradition in wine was not lost on Nicolette as she learned to drink wine diluted by water at the dinner table as a child. Her passion for wine runs as deep as her Greek heritage, but she is always up for a good martini to cleanse her palate.

We have fun in this business and are enjoying teach our girls the farming and winemaking aspects of the business. None of them have been wine stomping… yet.

Have you ever stomped grapes? If so, share your favorite grape stomping experiences with us here!

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Green Acres

March 3rd, 2012 by nicolette

Remember the old TV show Green Acres? It’s the one from the 60′s with Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm.

Well, we are living this show over and over again. While “green” fits with our sustainable farming and all that we are doing on the hill, “green” here applies more to the experiences of a Greek Eva Gabor (aka: Nicolette) who is 100% Greek and more importantly, born and raised a city girl in Chicago.

Needless to say, moving to McMinnville, Oregon where the closest city of Portland is a fifth the size of Chicago — and where shopping is a weekly excursion rather than a daily past time — has been quite an adjustment.

The other adjustments for Nicolette include:

  • Driving on gravel roads
  • Getting produce from a garden rather than a store
  • Driving a truck in the field rather than a sporty car on the freeway
  • Her closest pet being a cow rather than a dog
  • Mowing the field with a tractor rather than a mower in the yard
  • Owning more jeans than dresses or slacks
  • And cleaning the barn rather than the house

There have been plenty of funny (though not so funny at the time) mishaps that we share with guests and tasters. Nicolette talks about the time she slid the truck into the fence, the time she drove over vines with the tractor, watching the tractor slide slowly into the pond, sledding down the snow covered hill dodging vines, and the “cow therapy” she now has each day with our new “pets”.

Certainly it has been an adjustment coming from the city to the country. But after 9 years on the farm, Nicolette is starting to drive a little slower, enjoy the quiet solitude in the country, and to appreciate other animals than just the common dog and cat.

 Have your own “green acre” stories? We would love to hear them via comments, photos or videos. You can share them with us below!

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Balance of indigenous wildlife = a thriving vineyard

February 26th, 2012 by nicolette

As we discussed in our previous blog, biodynamic farming is all about nurturing a balance of all life forms on and around the farm. That balance includes all life forms from the soil to the insects to the plants to the animals that coexist on the farm. The more indigenous all these life forms are the more they will thrive and “naturally” balance life on the farm.

And as in all life forms, the more they are in balance, the healthier and more sustainable they will be.

So what does that look like on a practical basis? Let’s take an example of plants:

Every plant takes certain nutrients from the soil and puts others back in. It makes sense that if a farm consisted of only one plant, year after year, certain nutrients would continue to be taken out, depleting the soil; and, other nutrients would continue to go into the soil, putting the soil out of balance.

Corn production in Iowa is a good example of such an imbalance. Prior to chemical production farming, farmers learned over centuries that if they rotated crops each year and planted different crops in adjacent fields, that, over time, that variety of plant life would help maintain a more balanced (and healthier) soil.

Likewise with insects. People often ask if we, in Oregon, have the same problem with certain insects in the vineyard that California has. The answer is for the most part no.

California wine regions tend to be very overly populated with vineyards and not much other agriculture. As a result, two things happen; 1. Good insects indigenous to the area lose their natural habitat and leave, while 2. The bad insects find a plethora of susceptible habitat and now natural enemies. So the bad insects have a free for all.

In Oregon, our density of vineyards is much less and our agricultural diversity is much higher, both help in keeping the environment more in balance.

Does this balance of indigenous wildlife impact the end product? We believe it does.

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“Biodynamics” – A simple explanation. Or is it?

February 25th, 2012 by nicolette

The basis for biodynamics is centered around the science of alchemy. Alchemy, like chemistry and physics, explains how nature lives and works. Alchemy does not try to break things down into simple formulas or elements as science does, but looks at how all life forms and actions are interdependent on one another. This is similar to the holistic view of eastern medicine, naturopaths, and the agriculture oriented Farmer’s Almanac. Alchemy is not just about a philosophical way of life or about turning iron into gold. It is a much larger and broader science.

So what does all this mean as it applies to growing wine grapes (or any agricultural products)? It means that as we determine our farming practices, we look at all aspects of nature and how they interact with each other.

Some examples would be:

Viewing the grapevine and its interaction with the soil. Regardless of the nutrients in the soil, if the roots of the grapevines are not interfacing properly with the soil, the plants cannot utilize those nutrients.

Viewing the health of the grapevine. That health includes the nutrients it has, how efficiently they are being utilized, the immune system, it’s growth cycle, and the cycle of nature surrounding it.

Viewing the farm or environment as an entire entity. Having diverse plants around the vineyard to provide nutrients to the soil and as shelter for good insects and other life forms. Those good insects and other life forms keep everything in balance and keep unwanted pests from overtaking the vineyard.

Viewing the cycles of the solar system. Just as the Farmer’s Almanac tells us when the best time is to plant potatoes, understanding the location/cycles in our solar system helps us understand what stage life forms are in, whether it is a nutrient absorbing cycle of a grapevine or a busy time for bees.

So another, more simple, description of biodynamics is: Practicing in harmony with all of nature.

What do you think of this description of biodynamics? Simple enough? Is it easy to see how it affects the wine in your glass? Or do you think it could be broken down even more?

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Healthy dirt, happy winemaker!

February 18th, 2012 by nicolette

As a practitioner of organic, sustainable farming practices, we view the concept of sustainability more holistically. To us sustainability includes a healthy environment, healthy plant life, healthy animal and insect life, healthy environment for our children, a healthy Inn hospitality, and a healthy balance sheet.

For those of us who are producing a product or service using sustainable measures, we are doing so because we believe it is the RIGHT thing to do. There are environmental reasons that drive our choices, not financial ones. Most recognize that making these better choices has an added cost associated with them. We are willing to pay this extra cost because we believe it is the right thing to do. Most of us do not do it as a marketing tool to sell more or at a higher price, even with it costing more to produce.

However, marketing research on retail and consumer preferences suggest a different story. Most retailers DO charge more for sustainable products because they are also trying to provide a sustainable service to be able to provide those products. That has become a successful approach for food retailers like Whole Foods and Wild Oats. Consumers know going into those stores that they are going to pay more for a better product and better service.

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One Response to “Healthy dirt, happy winemaker!”

  1. Carroll B. Merriman says:
    February 21, 2012 at 9:55 am

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Youngberg Hill Wines: Perfectly paired with salmon

February 18th, 2012 by nicolette

 

These days we all hear expressions like ‘organic’, ‘sustainable’, and ‘salmon safe’ used more and more often, but what do they really mean?

In Oregon, as in other states, these terms all signify a level of certification one must earn in order to use them in affiliation with a vineyard, farm, or other endeavor.  These terms carry a lot of weight because of the work involved in earning and keeping them, and should not be used frivolously.

Youngberg Hill farms organically and we are certified LIVE.  This means that we are recognized to have fully organic and earth-friendly practices from harvest to market, including pest control, crop gathering, and grape processing.

When you see the insignia for Oregon Sustainable, you can trust that a bottle of wine marked as such was produced using responsible agricultural and wine-making practices.  This is also a responsibility we take seriously at Youngberg Hill, because the earth stands to benefit or suffer from our choices.

Because we are in the Pacific Northwest, we have an additional responsibility to one of our greatest resources, wild salmon.  Salmon Safe is another certification we hold at Youngberg Hill.  We were certified Salmon Safe in 2005 after completing a long and rigorous examination to make sure that all farming activity that influences water, both above and below ground, did not cause harm to salmon or their environment.

Salmon are a valued natural resource of our area; therefore, we have an innate desire to preserve them and their natural habitats.

But in many ways, this certification is much bigger and broader than salmon. By following the practices and restrictions laid out in the Salmon Safe certification, we are protecting what is even a more valuable resource – WATER.

When we view holistically what actions we take to qualify for Salmon Safe certification, we are really acting in a way that protects everything that is associated with the natural resource of water. And when we protect that natural resource, we are protecting every life form that depends on water, including us.

We must provide and protect a natural and safe source of water for ourselves and all life forms.

Anything that pollutes our water resource puts all in jeopardy.  This not only pertains to industrial processes, but also sod farms, rose beds, golf courses, vegetable gardens, lawn services and so on.  All hazardous chemicals currently being sprayed on lawns, crops, Christmas trees, hazelnut orchards, and grass seed fields are not only killing our soils, but are also leaching into our natural water resource and poisoning it.

It is up to all of us to pay better attention, and homage, to mother nature. 
When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.  ~John Muir

 

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