Seasonal Shifts

The Lifecycle of a Vineyard

Believe it or not, vineyards are active all year round. While tasting rooms scale back hours and the vineyard sites look quiet, there is actually a lot going on in the winter. Vineyard work is hands-on throughout the year, and each vine is touched by humans an average of 17 times during its lifecycle. 

This beautiful area right around Salem is on or near the 45th Parallel – prime real estate in the ideal wine growing latitudes (between 30° and 50° on the map). The vines in our area have been dormant since late November after harvest when they dropped their leaves. Winter dormancy is a crucial part of a vine's lifecycle when the grape vines are conserving their energy for the burst of activity that starts in the spring. December to late February are the typical months for dormancy, and vineyard workers are taking that time to manage the vines with pruning to make sure that they are a manageable size for the next harvest yield.

The vines respond to warmer temperatures which signals that it's time to come out of dormancy. When the ground temperature rises above 50°, the trunks start moving sap out towards the branches known as canes. This is called "weeping," and it's the beginning step on the vine's journey to the next harvest. Soon after weeping, there's a major growth spurt.

What we're looking for in March is bud break –  that's when the first tiny green leaves start to emerge. This is risky business because around here, we know we can get a late snow fall or frost, and that could damage these delicate shoots. Winemakers and vineyard hands are on alert.

The shoots get stronger and start to produce leaves that are trained to grow along the trellis systems set up by the vineyard. They can start photosynthesis then and take in the energy from the sun (remember 7th grade science?). This accelerates growth, and the vines are up and running for their new crop. About a month and a half after bud break, the vines flower. Fun fact: grapes vines are self-pollinating. Local winds blow the pollen from one part of the plant to another, so warm, dry days are ideal. When it's really rainy or too windy, this can affect the pollination of the grapevines which can result in fewer surviving grapes for the new harvest. This part of the growing cycle lasts until around June, when it's time to start making berries.

Those tiny green balls on the flower start to develop into berries, and this transition is called "fruit set" or "berry set." They take all summer to grow into the sweet round grapes that will make our wine.

All grapes start out hard and green with very little sugar and a whole lot of acid. They grow slowly over a couple of months or so, and then *bam* veraison ("ver-ay-shun" covered in a previous post). This is when the fruit starts to rapidly ripen on the highway to harvest.

Wine Folly has a great article about this lifecycle, too, if you'd like to read more. 

So, if you're taking it slow in the winter months, remember that there's still a lot of action in the vineyards, and there's still wine to taste from previous years while we're waiting for the harvest of 2026. It's a nice time to support local growers by visiting some wineries around Salem.

Come on by Studio Vino Wine Hub for a sip or two. We're open through the winter for drop-ins and some fun classes. We're looking forward to seeing you!

Resolutions

 Community Engagement

One of our goals at Studio Vino is creating a vibrant, wine-appreciating community in Salem, Oregon. With that in mind, I thought I would share a few of my wine-related new year resolutions with everyone. My goals are personal, but perhaps you get some new ideas as well!

1. Taste more

This one seems obvious to most folks on a wine learning journey, but I want to be more intentional about tasting. See an interesting grape? Try it! Don't just drink it...study it, learn about its history and place in Oregon, taste and take notes. Case in point: Johan Vineyards has a Ribolla Gialla that they bottle unfiltered. I am not familiar with that grape at all, as it's an ancient grape from Italy that is rare to find here in Oregon.

An intentional wine tasting might include doing some research on Ribolla Gialla and reading up on what might be typical for that wine's aromas and flavors. I would chill the wine, invite some other curious friends, get my notes ready, and uncork it. We would smell, sip, and discuss to see if what we learned about the grape is showing up in the glass.

A wine you would not normally choose can become a catalyst for learning, so take that chance and taste more (intentionally)!

True or False: Ribolla Gialla is a red grape variety. *

2. Hone a (Specific) Skill

Wine tasting is not simply drinking wine: it's a series of skills that you can train yourself on. Can't identify oak when you're tasting? You can learn about how oak shows up in finished wine and train yourself to find it. Identifying aromas in wine is a trainable skill; parsing flavors in wine is something you can improve; it just takes practice.

Rather than improving my wine tasting skills generally, my goal is to choose one skill and really focus on it. Wine tasting grids for programs like WSET and CSW ask you to look at the wine, smell the wine, taste the wine, and identify aromas, flavors, alcohol (heat), finish, age, and quality. So practice is essential, but like tasting, should be intentional.

I, personally, want to learn how to work on identifying the alcohol level in wine. It's not something that is easy for me to taste or sense, so I need to figure out how to discern different ABV levels more accurately. I'll figure out how by talking to others, reading about it, and, of course, tasting wine, but one thing at a time.

Resolve to choose a specific thing to work on with your wine tasting and take a deep dive.  

3. Grow Community 

Wine tasting is something that can be done solo, with an agreeable friend, or with a group of other wine aficionados. This year, I would like to foster growth in my personal wine community. I taste alone a lot...where are my people? I'm growing by talking to others, getting out to wineries, and blogging into the internet void, and if I can lure enough people to Studio Vino, I think I have a shot at this wine resolution.

Join me for some of our events this year at Studio Vino (Tuesday Tasting Group or Willamette Wines, for example) or just drop in! Help me with resolution number three...I can't wait to meet you (and I have wine).

*Quiz answer: Ribolla Gialla is a white grape from northern Italy (Fruili)

The Anatomy of a Grape

 Grape Expectations

To understand the flavors and aromas in your glass, you need to understand the anatomy of a grape. Start by thinking about grapes that you might snack on from the grocery store: there are different types of table grapes that we mostly refer to as "green," "red" or "purple," and they have different flavors when we bite into them.

The grapes used for wine are very similar, but they are smaller in general and always have seeds, so not quite as satisfying to snack on. Wine grapes can be DNA tested and differentiated by the varietal and growing region, so instead of just "green" or "red" grapes, we have Pinot Noir grapes, Sauvignon Blanc grapes, Tempranillo grapes and so on. Those grapes are used to produce wines of the same name.

Each type of grape grows differently and looks slightly different than other grapes. Some grape skins are golden and translucent, and some are pinky-grey (hello, Pinot Gris), while still others are almost black. Each grape has its own unique juice scent and taste as well, just like those table grapes. A Muscat grape picked off the vine has sweet floral aromas if you break it open and smells very "grapey" while a Pinot Gris grape may smell more like honey (and grapes).

The juice contains tartaric acid and malic acid as they develop in clusters, and the berries produce sugar (glucose and fructose) as they ripen. Sugar is important because that is what is fermented into wine. The seeds and skins have tannins as well as chemical compounds called polyphenols that affect a lot of the aromas and flavors that we perceive in different types of wine.

Yeast is introduced to the grape juice during fermentation. The yeast eats the sugar and converts it to alcohol to make the wine we enjoy.  Each type of grape has different reactions to fermentation, and of course, the way the juice is fermented can affect the resulting wine, but in the wine world we can talk about "typical" flavors and aromas because each grape is unique.

Some juice is fermented in an inert container such as steel which will not have an affect on the flavors as much as oak. Some wines are fermented with the skins in the juice (all reds but some white wines, too) which will add color and flavors to the wine. Skin contact also increases the tannins, or that kind of drying sensation you can get on the inside of your cheeks from a sip of wine.

Quiz time!

What is whole cluster fermentation?

A)  juice that's fermented in small batches, or clusters of containers

B)  juice that's fermented with other clusters of fruit like raspberries or herb bunches

C)  juice that's fermented while still growing on the vine

D)  juice that's fermented with the grape bunches still on the stems

Yes, it's D! 

Red wine is sometimes fermented in the whole cluster and yeast does not (always) have to be introduced because the whole berries will start to ferment themselves. It adds structure and bright fruitiness to the resulting wine. Gamay Beaujolais Nouveau is an example of this. Many winemakers will whole cluster ferment part of a whole batch to add some liveliness, so whole-cluster fermentation can show up in different ways.

Come by Studio Vino to learn some more and taste the difference between grapes for yourself!

 

What's Happening in the Vineyards?

Turn, turn, turn

Guess what is happening in the vineyards right now... 

A) Veracity

B) Veraison

C) Harvest

D) Heatstroke

The correct answers are B and C. Yes, harvest has already started for some grapes in our region, mostly those used for sparkling wines (more on sparkling wines in another post). But before harvest happens for other grapes, there is an important shift in the growth cycle called veraison. 

About 6-8 weeks before harvest, the grapes start to change. Veraison is the word for this onset of a color change to red grapes and when white grapes start to become more translucent. After that, the grapes start to ripen quickly, and then mature into fat, ripe berries (yes, grapes are referred to as "berries" in the wine world). After veraison, the grapes will increase in sugar levels and other compounds found in the skin called "phenolics." Things like tannins and molecules that make up color, flavor and aromas of the wines we end up with are found in the skins, and those elements start to change during veraison.

Veraison is a short but very important part of the lifecycle of a grapevine. Big changes happen in a short time. Grapes like those for sparkling wines can be slightly underripe at harvest because lower sugar and higher acid are needed for making sparkling wine in the traditional way (like in France and Oregon).

Seasonal shifts

Like any plant, grapevines have a growing cycle that follows a similar pattern each year. Right now, the vineyards are the most active with rapid changes in the vines and harvest starting. But the work is not done when harvest is over for the people or the vines. The vines will start to go into a dormant state for the winter when the autumn nights start getting cooler. They drop leaves and move sap from the branches into the trunk and roots. Once they are dormant, there is some pruning that the vineyard workers will do to make sure that the vines are a manageable size when it's time for them to grow again in the spring.

Harvest

Harvest is a great time to visit vineyards! They are showing off their fall colors, and there is a lot of activity happening for the vineyard workers and winemakers. There are also some fun things for 
visitors to see and do. Though the tradition of stomping grapes in barrels with bare feet to crush them for juice has fallen out of favor (for sanitary reasons and for the inefficiency of it), many wineries will have demonstrations of this method or you can try it yourself. 

There might be barrel tastings or food pairing events to celebrate harvest. Check out websites like the Oregon Wine Board, the Willamette Valley Visitors Association, and the Willamette Valley Wineries Association for calendars of events and directions to get out there!

If you don't have time to get to the vineyards, you can always stop by Studio Vino to taste from a few and hear about all that's going on for local winemakers right now. We are moving, so stay tuned for another "grand" opening in the next few weeks.

Until next time, salut!

Guess That Grape

Seeing Red

You may not be surprised to learn that red wine grapes are the most-planted variety in Oregon, and indeed right here in the Central Willamette Valley. See if you can guess what these grapes are...don't cheat by scrolling to the bottom just yet!

1.

This grape grows very well in the Willamette Valley and was among the first planted here in the mid-1960s.  It tends to produce a wine with some spice and a kind of savory quality. Some say it has a "signature scent" of cola!

2. 

This popular red grape is dense and very aromatic. It can have a robust structure and very complex dark fruit flavors – think black fruit and earthy notes.

3. 

     

This one happens to be the most widely planted red grape in our region. It has small clusters of tightly packed fruit and very consistent aromas of black cherry, roses, and something like leather.

4.  

     

This one has a fun history! Vines from this grape were brought to Oregon in suitcases from France in the 1970s. It is now widely respected as a "heritage grape" in Oregon's wine industry.  This grape produces elegant, smooth wine with herbal characteristics.

Do you think you guessed the grapes? Scroll a little more...

SURPRISE! All of these grapes are clones of the diverse, finicky, flavorful star of the Willamette Valley, Pinot Noir! 

Pinot Noir is a highly adaptable and genetically unstable grape that is very influenced by its environment. Over time, it has developed into thousands of clones. In the wine world, a clone is an offshoot from a single grape vine and is usually cut and grafted to another rootstock to grow. This offshoot is almost identical to its parent vine, but it does develop some unique characteristics as it adapts to its new growth in (possibly) a different environment, so it's not considered a new variety of grape, but a clone of one. Check out Van Duzer's blog for an interesting description of the Pinot clones in the area around Salem and the UC Davis Grapebook for the history. For a bottle of Pinot Noir, clones are very important because when offshoots are planted, they take on the influences in their environment through the climate, soil, and geological differences in a given area, and there are noticeable differences in the various vineyards that grow Pinot Noir right around Salem.

Of the thousands of Pinot Noir clones, only about 15 are used in the wine we drink today, mostly blended together to bring out the best in this grape.  Here are the Willamette Valley clones shown above:

1. Wadenswil: the only certified clone back in 1965 when it was planted by David Lett at Eyrie.
2. 777: Certified by the Burgundy government and part of the "Dijon Clones" that are the backbone of Oregon Pinot Noirs.
3. 115: Among the first certified clones released by France to be virus free.
4. Pommard: Yes, brought in suitcases from France, but also grown by UC Davis and introduced to Oregon by Charles Coury and Dick Erath in the early 1970s.

Other Dijon clones grown around here are 114 and 667, which you will find blended in bottles of beautiful Pinot.  The most popular combo has clones 115, 667, and 777. Whenever you go out to a winery to try Pinot Noir around Salem, ask which clones are in your glass...it will be a few! Willamette Valley Vineyards to our south also has a clonal blending system 👆 which allows you taste each one separately before blending!

August 18 is International Pinot Noir Day, so raise a glass to the beautiful grape and visit Studio Vino to taste a few. We are pouring a single clone pinot August 16-18, so come test out what you have learned!

Digging the Dirt

Does dirt make a difference?

Eola Hills-Photo courtesy of Oregon Wine History Archive at Linfield University 

There has been some debate in the wine-o-sphere about whether the soil the grapes are grown in affects the flavor of the resulting wines. In 2018, there were a number of articles claiming that the science just wasn't there to justify the influence that soil has on the wine in your glass (BBC; Decanter). However, the whole principal of that fancy word terroir is a "sense of place." And terroir – the climate, soil, water, sunlight, and geology of a vineyard – can indeed influence the wines that are grown there. 

The sunlight, rainfall, and temperatures that are part of the vineyard environment are more easily recognized as having an impact on the health of the vines — after all, vines are plants that need to photosynthesize (sunlight), stay hydrated (rainfall), and not get too hot or too cold (temperature). But what of the soil and geology of the vineyard?

The main purpose of soil is to hold on to water and provide nutrients to a plant. Different types of soil provide various benefits with regard to particle size (smaller drains water faster) and varying mineral content. You might think that the more fertile the soil, the better the grapes will grow, but that is not the case with wine grapevines. Really fertile soil, like on the Willamette Valley floor, actually makes a grapevine overproduce, growing too big and making too much fruit (usually not of great quality). Most grapevines like to struggle a bit to find the water and nutrients they need to thrive and create fewer bunches of beautiful fruit (for us to squeeze and drink), so the less fertile the soil the better. So, the hills around Salem provide just the right geology for the vines.

The main types of soil in the North-Central Willamette Valley right around Salem are volcanic basalts, which have a lot of clay content and iron and retain water well. You can see a lot of the reddish Jory soil around, which shows that iron content off. 

There is also Nekia soil out to our west, which is a little darker and has marine sediments. Those soils have a lower pH balance that causes the vines to grow deeper into the ground to get their water and minerals.

So, how might these different soils affect taste? Obviously, all of factors of terroir have an impact on the wines that are made in a given year. If you taste your way around the Salem area — pinot noir in particular — you can experience the difference terroir makes in your glass. Wine grapes grown in Jory soils tend to have brighter flavors of red fruits (think cranberry and raspberry) while Nekia soils yield darker and earthier notes (blackberry and cigar anyone?). 

What the roots of the vine do in the soil is their own business. They are clearly using the soil for their own benefit, though they are probably not absorbing different flavors from the earth. How they grow and thrive in a particular soil type is helping them produce fruit with these very different qualities. 

While the definitive answer about soil's influence on flavor is still unknown, I would suggest that you be the judge. Come by Studio Vino to taste for yourself, and ask just one question, "Do you dig it?"

We are ready to meet you! For the special opening events, drop by Aug. 1-4 or Aug. 10-11 at The Holman Hotel, 195 Commercial St SE, Salem between 12-5 pm so we can really dish the dirt (and taste some wine!).

Loving Labels

What are you trying to tell me?

You know what a beautiful label can do...it catches your eye; it compels you to pick up the bottle; it makes you want to know more.  Wine labels are mini stories unto themselves, and have so much more to tell you than what's in the bottle. There is, of course, mandatory information that is legally required to appear on the label, like what kind of wine it is, who bottled it, and how much alcohol by volume it contains. But you can learn much more than that with a quick perusal of the front and back of the bottle you are considering.

While the label art itself might grab your attention, take a moment to look at what the label is trying to tell you. If you're drinking a local Oregon wine, you can find out exactly where the wine was grown and bottled. While the general area right around Salem is called the Willamette Valley AVA, there are several smaller growing areas called sub-AVAs that are nested in the larger valley, each one with distinct characteristics of geography and climate. 

This vineyard 👆 in the Willamette Valley AVA is in the Eola Amity Hills sub-AVA, a growing area just to the west of Salem which is currently producing some of the best wines in Oregon, if not the world. That's worth noting! Also look for the sub-AVAs of Van Duzer Corridor or Mt Pisgah, Polk County for wines grown and produced right around Salem!

This wine label 👉 has some extra fun information on the back about the exact Pinot Noir clones used in this beautiful rosé (more on clones in a later post). It also lets you know what type of soil the grapes are grown in, which can influence what you're tasting in the glass (more on soil also in a later post). The other thing I love about this label is that it gives you a nice window of the best time to drink this wine — peak drinkability! Who doesn't want that information? You can also see the sustainable certifications in the lower right of that image. These certifications are common in the Willamette Valley and indicate low environmental impact for growing practices, safety for our salmon populations in the waterways, and in the case of this rosé, vegan production!

Labels will also often show you a scale of sweetness if the wine is not technically dry. The Pinot Blanc in this bottle 👉 is on the edge of dry/medium dry or could be called "off dry," which means that there is some sugar remaining after fermentation, but not a lot.  A wine is considered "dry" if there is less than 10 grams of sugar per liter remaining after fermentation. The sweetness goes up based on the grapes used and style of winemaking. Even if you don't think you like sweeter wines, give off dry a try. It is still not overly sweet (and it makes a great companion to spicier foods).

Of course, label art is also important! Many of our local wineries use artwork for their labels that is created by local artists. Always ask when you go to visit (and maybe pick up a postcard of the artist's work!). Beyond the obviously beautiful appeal of local wine labels there is a story to be told.

Until next time, cheers!