Thanksgiving wines to chat about
Tuesday | 18 November 2008
By Kate Leeper
2007 Cowhorn Applegate Valley Marsanne Roussanne ($19): A winner with the "I-just-want-something-light-and-dry" crowd, this silky white blend is a blend of two grapes (originally hailing from France's northern Rhone) that were farmed biodynamically in southern Oregon. With turkey, it shows complementary notes of herbs, lemons and minerals. With stuffing, unusual components of hay and quince come to the forefront, finishing with spicy ginger and white pepper. Find it at Bales Thriftway Marketplaces; Cork on Northeast Alberta Street and Northwest Lovejoy Street; Fred Meyer Burlingame; Market of Choice stores; QFC Mount Tabor and Sellwood; and Quinn's Prime and Vine.
Keep close to home with eco-friendly wines from Oregon
Tuesday | 22 July 2008
By Katherine Cole
Already, more than a quarter of the state's vineyard acreage is organic, sustainable or biodynamic
Last week we looked at how wine consumers can be eco-conscious when they shop.
As I was writing that column, I found that I kept repeating the same mantra: Buy local.
When we buy locally produced goods we cut down on energy expended in shipping and transportation and, at the same time, support our local economy.
But there's added eco-value to buying locally bottled vino: Oregon wine is a world leader in sustainable production and a model for other industries throughout the state.
See full news report...
Wine and food on the farm
Tuesday | 04 August 2009
By Katherine Cole
A new wave of winemakers are adding food crops and animals into the mix
Modern-day photos of wine country depict swaths of green vines rolling over hillsides in perfect, corduroylike rows.But as bucolic as these images might appear to us, they would look alien to a visitor from centuries past. That's because, once upon a time, farms were multipurpose operations, with grapes planted alongside vegetable patches and animal pens. Winemaking was just one of the many tasks that fell to the subsistence farmer.
Today, a new wave of local vintners is trying to re-create the Old World way of vine tending, for practical as well as sentimental reasons.
With their meat, eggs and produce, these winegrowers can glean additional revenue from their property without relying solely on the fickle wine market.
In addition, those who use horses to plow their land say that it saves them the money and fuel that would have been spent behind the wheel of a tractor. Polyculture farming, they maintain, enriches their land without harming the environment.
Finally, according to these back-to-the-land winegrowers, biodiversity protects their grapevines. Just as you're bound to come home with the sniffles if you sit on an airplane with 150 other people, a vast tract planted with a single crop is a sitting duck waiting to be attacked by viruses and bugs. By introducing other crops to their vineyards, these farmers are adding buffers against pests and disease.
But practical factors aside, there's also the basic truth that wine and food taste best together.
Here's a look at three Oregon winemakers who embrace this Old World ethic.
See full news report...
Eccentrically produced, 'biodynamic' wines offer intense character
Sunday | 05 October 2008
By Matt Kramer
You've seen the word pop up here from time to time. I assure you it elicits the full spectrum of emotions from winemakers and wine lovers, from rage to reverence. The word is "biodynamic."
Some rail against it as mystical voodoo. Others see it as a form of salvation, restoring vineyards and wine --and us --to a more naturalistic, balanced sensibility.
See full news report...
