Winemaker’s Dinner

Everyone had a great time at our winemaker’s dinner with Joe Dobbes last night. Even the Chef.

Busy week ahead

This weekend is our winemaker’s dinner in which we are featuring Dobbes Family Estate with Joe and Patricia Dobbes as our guests. We have a great guest list and a wonderful dinner planned.

Next up; We will be in Seattle on Thursday for the Willamette Valley Block Party where 50 wineries from the Willamette Valley, including Youngberg Hill, will be pouring our current releases to the trade in the afternoon and to the general public in the evening at Sodo Park.

Then next weekend is the SIP (McMinnville Wine & Food Festival) at Evergreen Space Museum. A great event in a great facility. We will be introducing our 2009 Pinot gris and Pinot blanc.

In the vineyard, dormant spray is complete to protect the new buds from mite damage. It looks like bud break is going to be 2 to 3 weeks early at this rate. Very different from the last two years.

AHHH! Breakfast!

Our guests this morning enjoyed one of our signature entre items, Cornish baked eggs. I was fun discussing the vineyard work we were doing at the time, a wooly bud spray, while they ate breakfast and enjoyed the view of the Cascades.

We are putting the finishing touches on the winemaker dinner this Saturday night. It promises to be a great evening.

Barrel tasting the 2008s for the last time this week to make final selections of barrels for our Barrel Select bottling and decide whether to leave it in the barrel a little longer.

Note the plate is melted glass from recycling our wine bottles.

Winemaker’s dinner

We’re sitting in the kitchen gazing out the window at the mountains, putting together the menu for next Saturday night’s winemaker dinner with Dobbes Family Wines. Joe an Patricia will be here along with many dinner attendees in the past like Gene and Lynda Corbin.

As always it will be a great eating and drinking experience.

Cheers.

Seattle here we come!

Hey Seattle! We’ll be at the Willamette Valley (@wvwines) Block Party on 3/11 at Sodo Park by Herban Feast (@herbanfeast). Fewer than 100 tickets left!

Earlybird pricing ends 2/28.  50+ Oregon Wineries. Great wine and food! Be there!

Link to: http://www.willamettewines.com/seattle_tasting.shtm

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The Future is so bright, we have to wear shades!

It is another spring like day at Youngberg Hill. It is bright and sunny and warm. We can see the entire Cascade range including Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson and the whole Willamette Valley.

A lot of wine tasters out today and they are getting a spectacular view. The 2007s are opening up beautifully today. One couple decided to stay and sit out on the porch and have a glass of wine. Another couple decided to stay the night.

We will be in McMinnville this evening for the Wine and Art Walk. We will be pouring at Copy Cabana. Hope to see everyone there.

On a darker note, we had a mishap in the vineyard yesterday. It is a little wet out there yet and while chopping cane, the tractor went into a slide and wiped out a few vines, a line post, and wires caught in the mower. Bummer. Well, that is the life in farming.

Love is in the Air

With the past Valentine’s weekend, there was a large increase in engagement activity. There were three up here on Youngberg Hill alone. We have gotten a larger than normal number of calls this week for brides wanting to have their wedding on our spectacular Hill. This has been a great week to show the Hill off as the weather is just perfect.

With love in the air (and I think in the water here as well), I tought I would share some pictures of last years weddings.

February Thaw!

WOW! What a day. What a week. It is dry. It is sunny. It is warm. The vineyard is drying out. We may be able to get in to chop cane by Friday.

Flowers are popping up everywhere. The cherry tree is blossoming. Buds are swelling. Hopefully, it will not last too long or we will have an early spring and early bud break.

This weather is great for getting the siding finished on the Inn and working on other projects.

The Valentine’s night dinner went off famously. Everyone had a great time. We had our third couple get engaged here on Youngberg Hill over the long Valentine’s weekend. Love was definitely in the air (and in the water).

Be careful when your up here on Youngberg Hill. There is definitely an aura on this hill that brings out the romance and love in everyone. This is a special hill.

Chocolate!

We had a great day with friends and guests enjoying wonderful chocolate delights from chef Jess. The 2003 and 2004 Library wines were tasting marvelous and paired well with the chocolates.

There must be something special in the wines on Youngberg Hill. For the second night in a row we had a couple get engaged.