The Solena Journal By Laurent Montalieu

Spring is Fast Approaching...

March 20, 2008

The pruning is finished in the Old Vineyard, and the new vines that were planted last year are being cut back to just 2 tiny buds this week, in hopes that the two shoots that result will grow long and sturdy. This is the first move towards training a young vine- a guiding step that is not particularly invasive. The major training will take place after the middle or the end of the second year, when we lay down a cane on the fruiting wire. For now, the vines will just grow out in their own fashion, establishing a good root system and a number of healthy leaves.
We have big piles of canes that will be burned to bite back the Powdery Mildew that stuck a portion of Block 1 this year- the Pommard block. This is both in keeping with Biodynamic practice, and a tradition in France and Italy that continues today. In the Willamette Valley, many growers have moved away from cane burning in favor of chopping up the canes and integrating them into the soil. Both practices return nutrients to the soil- the burning a bit more quickly, and the flail mowing slower, but with higher total return.

We are exploring the possibility of grazing sheep and maybe goats at Domaine Danielle and Laurent. The hope is to establish a symbiotic relationship with grazers so that the sheep will have a place to be when the grass seed farms are barren. The grazing will take place not in the vineyards, but on the land surrounding them. There is little research on how the sheep will act amidst the vines, but we will try to learn how they benefit the farm as a whole. We will keep you posted on this development.
Ground preparation begins in the next few weeks, as do the start of the applications of the Biodynamic preparations. This is to be followed shortly by bud break, and then things really take off.
Solena Cellars is busy putting wines in bottle, finishing and blending wines and utilizing new equipment. Northwest Wine Company purchased a crossflow filter this past month. This tool is considered the state of the art of filters. The basic premise is the same way the human body filters out toxins: the smaller molecules pass out of the stream of blood by slipping into the pores along the capillaries in the kidneys, while the larger molecules- the toxins- remain in the stream. The technology was created for laboratories and pharmaceutical manufacturing, to ensure perfect filtration. This turned out to be too perfect for the wine industry-the old ones stripped out everything!- and so the past few years has been spent making a filter that is incredibly gentle, reuseable and one that takes out only the “bad stuff” and leaves all the good stuff in (filtration down to about .3 microns). This type of filter allows us to handle the wine less, and, in some instances, skip a whole step in filtration and handling.

The 2007 Solena Pinot Gris is in the bottle, and tasting great. We also put into bottle a series of experiments from the 2006 Vintage that were carried out by 5 great local winemakers. The participants were Terry and Ben Casteel from Bethel Heights, and their South-East Block grapes; Steve Doerner from Cristom Wines and his Eileen Block; Lynn Penner-Ash and Lia’s Vineyard; Ken Wright and Abbot’s Claim Vineyard; and Laurent Montalieu and the Amity Hills Willakia Vineyard. Each winemaker took a ton of grapes from 5 different vineyards and made small batches of wine from them- 2 to 3 Barrels, or about 75 cases. This makes 25 wines of distinctive style, with the wonderful imprint of a distinctive winemaker, all with the same source material. The wines will be called Cellar Crawl, and the details about getting them to the public are still being worked out. We will let you know if, and how, you can get them.

Planning for the season ahead

02/27/08

Cloudy/Showers
Temp: 53°/39
Humidity: 41%
Pressure: 29.84
Wind: WNW at 2mph

As in most winegrowing operations in Oregon, Solena Cellars is busy planning for the season ahead. This means meetings, equipment repairs, reorganization of every sort and a general cleaning-of-house. Domaine Danielle Laurent's precious Landini tractor went to the clinic for its checkup, but it is back safe in the barn, ready for the season ahead.

We are in the midst of pruning activities at Domaine Danielle Laurent. A few of the rows were pruned this month according to the ideal days prescribed on Maria Thun's Biodynamic calendar. We are shooting for a late February window to finish the pruning, and hope for as beautiful weather as we had in January (We are not kidding -- the pruning days were pristine!)

Other activities include: Getting the 4-wheeler ready to spray the biodynamic preparations; fixing posts; cleaning up the barn and work shed; getting our deer fence up so that the deer don't eat the tasty young shoots in the spring. We are also installing the trellis system for the new 15 acre planting -- the little vines will need support for this year's growth.

The Solena wines are moving happily through the season. The 2007 Pinot Gris is awaiting bottling; the 2006 Single Vineyard Pinot Noirs will also be bottled soon (and these are showing great). We tasted though all of our other 2006 red wines -- Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Zinfandel -- and these are some deep, exciting wines to come.

Laurent and Phillip met with Philippe Armenier, our Biodynamic consultant, at the end of January. After an evaluation of the vineyards, we entered into a lively discussion about how one represents Biodynamics to you, our friends, and the world at large -- critics, the press, anybody who will listen. Consider the diagram below.