Hi,
I, and wonderful friends, have been busy with harvest, crushing and pressing grapes and apples.
It has been an interesting year as the grapes were in some cases picked a bit too early.
I ended up blending early picked grapes with some late picked grapes and actually fermented them together (co-fermentation). I call it my Accidental Wine. It is a cross of 1/4 each of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and 1/2 of Malbec. The Cab and Merlot came in early from Walla Walla from a vineyard connected to Rex Noah. It was dry-farmed (without irrigation) and organic; and the grapes were tiny and intense and maybe slightly underripe. The Malbec came from White Heron Vineyard up by Quincy and were super-ripe.

I have some other Walla Walla Cabernet Sauvignon just finishing fermentation and expecting one more shipment from yet another source in Walla Walla.

I also have a batch of Cabernet Franc going that is a blend of two vineyards. One of the vineyards is Upland Estate and it was payment for some historical research work I did for them. I am very excited to be working with them. That vineyard was featured broadly in my book, The Wine Project.

I just pressed a bunch of cider apples for this year’s cider, and I just released my new cider which will be available at the winery and at Vashon Thriftway. This new release is a combination of apples from Oregon and from Puget Sound including apples from Vashon. It is really good….it captures perfectly the taste of autumn. It reminds me of an apple that has dropped to the ground and started fermenting on its own.

Lastly, I want to mention that I will be teaching a four week class at Vashon College starting on Thursday, October 25, called Wine Fun-damentals, from 7 to 9pm. We’ll cover the basics of tasting wine and what accounts for the differences in wine including geography, style, and various wine types. We’ll even talk about wines for the upcoming holidays.

Contact Vashon College for an application at vashoncollege.org, or for more information contact the college at info@vashoncollege.org, or call 206.408.800.

Best regards,

Ron Irvine