A Winemakers Style

Today, I came across a great letter from our winemaker, Jean-Michel, describing his style of winemaking. Enjoy!


I believe that most of my wines represent my origins, my life experiences, my personality and my belief in winemaking. My family produces Muscadet in the Loire Valley, France. This vibrant wine is always on my mind when making whites. As a result, I like to feel some acidity on most of my blends. It’s helped the wine keep its freshness and lifts up the fruit as well as extends the mouth feel. My style of red wine comes from my experience in Bordeaux and Australia. I strive for fruity reds with a deep color as well as round and rich tannins. I barrel age red and white wines according to the vintage and its potential. In any case, I do not try to overpower the fruit of wines. To achieve the ageing that suit the wine, I select oak from France, Hungary and America. I also used lees ageing, Malolactic fermentation, and different techniques of maceration and yeast strains to create several nuances into the wines.


Ultimately, I want the taster to go back to my wines and find at each new sip another layer of complexity and aromas. A good wine in my opinion arouses curiosity by its originality, respectfulness of the fruit, balance, texture, and must express to its best the vineyard site and the work of the grower.


Hope it helps.


Sincerely
J-Michel

Remembering Jerry

Nearly 10 years ago, we opened our tasting room to the public. Soon after that day, a spry 70-year old man soon became our first regular. In those early days, we only had one person full-time during the week. Each time he came by, he would remind us that if we ever needed someone, to keep him in mind. Well, soon after that we took him up on his offer. That special person was Jerry Dynge. He started off by working every Saturday and Sunday. Not long after, we talked him into going from two days a week to five: Monday through Friday. During those early years here at Del Rio, Jerry did everything from grape samples to inventory and sales of wine to art festivals. He was our man. As we grew, we hired more and more ladies to help out. He loved them all very much. Jerry was always willing to do anything that needed to be done and helped us move forward. Working alongside Jerry was easy, he tended to the customer with great diligence and we were his back-up. The tasting room ladies enjoyed reminding Jerry frequently of their favorite pet peeve…daily customers would come in the tasting room, look around, and then ask for Jerry. When it was shared with the customer that Jerry had a day off, the look of disappointment in the customer’s eyes could not be overlooked. This was a true testament of his strong character as the most thoughtful and caring person. Jerry always went out of his way to make each person he met feel special. His love of art and nature was expressed through his work and his compassion for others was felt in the warm touch. He was a very special person to us all and will be greatly missed.

---  Jolee & Rob Wallace

A Prayer for the World

Let the rain come and wash away

the ancient grudges, the bitter hatreds

held and nurtured over generations.

Let the rain wash away the memory

of the hurt, the neglect.

Then let the sun come out and

fill the sky with rainbows.

Let the warmth of the sun heal us

wherever we are broken.

Let it burn away the fog so that

we can see each other clearly.

So that we can see beyond labels,

beyond accents, gender or skin color.

Let the warmth and brightness

of the sun melt our selfishness.

So that we can share the joys and

feel the sorrows of our neighbors.

And let the light of the sun

be so strong that we will see all

people as our neighbors.

Let the earth, nourished by rain,

bring forth flowers

to surround us with beauty.

And let the mountains teach our hearts

to reach upward to heaven.
Amen.

Vineyard Hikes

September offers a chance to enjoy the beauty the summer season has created and we have the perfect way to get up close and personal with the vineyard. This month we are offering guided hikes throughout the vineyard. The hike takes you through our 205 acres of vines providing a spectacular view. It also offers the chance to sample the fifteen different grape varietals and they ripen for harvest.

Hope to see you on one or all of the following dates:

Sundays @ 9:30 am
9/11/2011
9/25/2011

Wednesdays @ 9:30 am
9/7/2011
9/14/2011
9/21/2011
9/28/2011

Things to Note:
• Bring comfortable shoes and a water bottle as we will be traversing over rolling hills.
• We will be meeting at the tasting room parking lot and departing promptly at 9:30am.
• Please contact Lindsey Zagar (541)855-2062 x7 with any questions.

Here are a few pictures from our first hike this Wednesday: