This picture flashed across my screen for literally 5 seconds. I fell in love with it in about a half second and had just enough time to right click and save before it disappeared.
This is a dream photo. I have tears in my eyes just looking at it.
Andrea Johnson Photography
That’s what I like in an apple: Crisp, tart, fresh crop, and local. Ginger Golds and Newtown Pippins are some of my favorites, to name a few. One of the best Fall happenings in Portland is the the Portland Nursery Apple Festival (pears too). Look at all the different varieties to taste through. By the end of the line, you are so stuffed with apples and pears that they are coming out your ears!
The second weekend is October is usually one of the most beautiful weekends of the entire calendar year here. The sun in shining beautifully, the trees are ablaze with oranges and reds, and it’s usually when I can finally pull out the chunky scarf and still wear sunglasses. On that weekend, you’ll find me tasting apples, sitting on hay bales and eating some pulled pork with apple chutney. Can’t wait!
I’ve been really wanting to learn different aspects of the wine industry. I’m an old pro in the tasting room, and even though I love that line of work and could easily be happy with another tasting room job, I’m being proactive in trying out new sides of the wine biz. This weekend, I had the opportunity to help one of my favorite wineries, Winderlea on their bottling line. Bill Sweat (owner/proprietor), Cheney (assistant to the assistant wine maker) and Lydia (intern) are pictured below having a rowdy time packing boxes.
We took all their 09s from the barrel to the bottle. It was hard work and my back and thumbs (weird, I know) are sore today, but I really had a blast and made some new friends. I’m looking forward to working Crush (when the ripe grapes come in from off the vine and are essentially sorted, pressed, and put into fermentation tanks, then aging tanks or barrels) with them as well.
No matter what side of the wine industry you’re on, from wine drinker to wine maker, the weather is a key player in the vintage bounty. September is usually one of the sunniest months of the year in Oregon which is what those vines count on to ripen the grapes that make fantastic wine. This September hasn’t quite cooperated…
On Saturday when we were bottling, we got a lot of this:
It continued to downpour when I got home that evening which made for an achy, cozy evening watching the Two Fat Ladies and Project Runway. But it also means that the harvest is 3 weeks late and the yield is nearly 50% of what it could be.
But on Sunday when we were bottling, it looked more like this outside:
Wine maker, winery owner, bottling crew, assistant winemaker, vineyard owners, and grapes alike rejoiced in the sunshine! We all hustled (everyone except the grapes, that is) to get done by 1:00 to enjoy the rest of the sunny day before the rains came back that night. Since we were in Carlton, a couple of us did a round of tastings at Seven of Hearts (this tasting rooms shares space with Honest Chocolates so they had home made Pinot truffles to pair with their wines! And their Coupe’s Cuvee dessert Pinot Noir was to die for!), WildAire Cellars (Wine maker Matt Driscoll was watching football and playing his guitar when we walked in. Sorry to interrupt!), Folin Cellars (some nice Southern Oregon wines), and Alexana (Dundee Hills will always have a soft spot in my heart). I’m always a little torn having to leave and drive back into Portland.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I feel so at home in wine country. I found 3 Oregon wine jobs on Winejobs.com so keep your palms together or your fingers crossed for me!
I could sit beneath this canopy all day long.
(Stolen from Bridget Collins’ blog…unashamedly)
I think it’s pretty obvious what excites me.
The people who know me or read my blog or tweets know what gives me a glow, spreads a unwavering grin across my face, lets me breathe a sigh of relief, and makes me straight up giddy. Farmers Markets, seasonal cooking, great weather, the sun on my face in the morning, skies full of stars, Oregon bounty, good friends, Portland Trail Blazers, nature, and of course wine and wine country.
But there are certainly things that do not excite me: constant gray skies, working a desk job, staying up late, fast food, the state of this countries meat and agriculture industry, tardiness, being cold, flaky people, to name a few. Another thing that steals my excitement and actually brings a heavy burden and anxiety on me is something that was in my recent past: school.
I’ve never been one to excel at academics. I made it through high school without any major bumps or bruises (save the junior level algebra class that I barely passed 2 weeks before graduation. any other math haters out there? woot woot!). College was a different story all together. 5 colleges, 4 majors, and 6 years finally earned me a degree in a field that I had absolutely no interest or experience in. I still cringe at the thought sitting in statistics and economics classes for 4 hours. The moment I realized that I had finished editing my senior thesis, a stream of joyful, proud, and exhausted tears rolled down my cheeks. I rejoiced at the thought of never having to write a paper, read a text book, do a group project, or give a Power Point presentation ever again. I never thought I would go back to school.
Until now. 
At the end of September, I’ll be a student in the Viticulture Program at Chemeketa Community College in Salem. I’ve had plenty of experience in tasting rooms, but now I want to dabble in other areas of the wine industry. I’m taking General Viticulture and Wine Marketing–Brand Development. Who knows, maybe I will absolutely love the growing/vineyard side of things or find that I have a knack for making earthy, luscious Oregon Pinot Noir. Or maybe I’m meant to be back in the tasting room or out at restaurants and grocery stores selling the wine someone else makes. All I know is that I can easily see myself in the wine industry for the rest of my career, so here I am pursuing it.
And I couldn’t be more excited.
It feels great to have something to look forward too and be giddy about. I had Europe to look forward to all summer and now it’s a new season of life and I’m going to enjoy what is ahead. And maybe I’ll be like some of the women in these photos! Can’t you just see me in those playing in those vines??
I fell in love with this photo (to the left) the moment I saw it. Sitting on a vineyard at sunset during harvest might be one of the most restful, peaceful, serene, magical images I could possibly imagine. This is where my imagination goes when I need to get away. When I close my eyes and quiet my head and heart, this is where I end up and I could sit here for hours and hours. Perhaps it won’t always be a dream…but a reality.
Oh PS…I’m trying to find creative ways to make money to help pay for classes. I’d be happy to work some shifts in a tasting room, help out over Thanksgiving weekend, help with crush, mow some lawns, weed some garden beds, housesit, dog-walk, clean your house, ANYTHING! If you have any odd jobs for me, I’m for hire!
