I am gearing up for what looks to be a major few days of massive action, excitement, celebration, great wines, and hopefully victory! We’re kicking it off with a killer free tasting at Storyteller Wines in Portland on Friday night from 6-8. Here’s the lineup for the evening:

• Crémant de Bourgogne - Huber-Verdereau
• Mâcon-Prissé - Domaine Thibert
• Bourgogne Passetoutgrains - Taupenot-Merme
• Chambolle-Musigny - Anne & Hervé Sigaut
• Pommard Platiéres 1er Cru - Thierry Violot Guillemard
• La Paulée Pinot Noir - Scott Paul Wines

And more goodies are rumored to be on hand, including some Lucien Le Moine. Wear your Arsenal gear, so we can show those Chelsea-loving Storyteller people what the beautiful game is all about!

The Premiere League season for my beloved Arsenal all comes down to the match on Sunday morning against arch-rivals Chelsea. If we lose, our shot at the title is over. If we win, it’s game on. So please send any juju you have Arsenal’s way on Sunday morning. My mental health may also be at stake.

Speaking of juju - we are fired up for the Superbowl around here. I’m a big Saints fan, having lived in New Orleans for five years, and I’m married to one of the Crescent City’s all-time loveliest natives. Martha, Pirrie and I did a wacky victory dance all over the house after they beat the beat the Packers two weeks back - I can only imagine the eruption if they win it all. GEAUX SAINTS! (Interesting tidbit - Martha went the the same high school in N.O. as Peyton Manning, and her brother was the QB at the school before Peyton!)

Martha’s birthday is next Tuesday. As is the custom, she prefers a week-long celebration, so we’ll kick it off Friday night with some friends at home, then move it out to the winery on Saturday -where we will be in the tasting room and looking forward to seeing you from 1-5. Then it’s back to Portland to continue the party and root for Arsenal and them Saints.

Then we roll into the b-day itself, then our sold-out winemaker dinner with Laurelhurst Market on Thursday, and then into our amazing Lucien Le Moine tasting here in Carlton on Saturday the 13th (and then a sold-out Burgundy class that evening!) And then Valentine’s day. Other than that, it’s pretty mellow!

See you tomorrow night at Storyteller - come on by if you can!

It’s one of the four major days of the year for those of us whose lives revolve around Burgundy & Pinot Noir - the release of the new issue of Burghound, Allen Meadows’ quarterly journal reviewing thousands of wines and hundreds of producers.

Allen Meadows, the Burghound hard at work...

The 1st quarter issue, which always covers the reds of the Côte de Nuits, arrived on Sunday. In addition to the detailed reviews, it also offers the first look at Allen’s in-depth take on the vintage. Fascinating reading as always - specifically in his analysis of the 2008 vintage in Burgundy. The cumulative effect of multiple unusual factors resulted in the ‘08 Burgs finishing their malos very very late, thus making them difficult to judge with the usual accuracy 14 months after harvest. I was in Burgundy last fall at the same time as Allen, and I can attest that many of the wines were still not through malo, or had just finished, making it quite hard to get a real read.

That said, I agree with Allen that the vintage as a whole is a bit more interesting than 2007, but it is even more variable. The highs are higher, the lows are a bit lower, and there are perhaps more misses in ‘08 than ‘07. Overall, the good wines from ‘08 are indeed “Classic Burgundy” - the best of which are pure, fresh, elegant and very refined - a style I happen to enjoy greatly.

It will be a vintage to be very selective. That of course is my job, to select the best and bring them in for the U.S. market. Thus, it is heartening to see that Burghound has selected a number of our producers and their wines for special distiction. Domaine J-J Confuron once again received stellar scores, and had wines singled out in all three of Allen’s “best of the vintage” categories - “Top Value”, “Sweet Spot”, and “Don’t Miss”. Kudos to Alain & Sophie Meunier, the proprietors/vignerons at Confuron, for hitting the Burghound trifecta, as it were!

Also great to see that Anne & Hervé Sigaut, Jean-Marc Millot, and Taupenot-Merme all received scores as good or better than their lovely 2007s. It won’t be until late this year or early next before the 08s start to arrive here, but we are in for some nice treats then, to be sure. And Allen’s take on the hugely-buzzing 2009s? “Potentially Great”. But those are a long way off…

In the cellar at Buisson-Charles

Burghound also covered 2007 Oregon Pinot in this report, which he deemed “The good, the not-so-good, and the ugly.” I’d say he’s right-on. The better 2007s are indeed elegant, refined and delicious. The rest are varying degrees of not so refined and delicious. We were among the lucky ones in ‘07, as the vintage favored our style over bigger, more heavily-extracted wines. The bottom line is - taste the wines! There will be plenty of Oregon ’07s for you to love, you’ve just got to taste ‘em for yourself.

It is also worth noting that David Schildknecht, who covers Burgundy for Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate, has just released his reviews of Burgundy’s ‘07 whites and ‘06 reds. He lavished praise on the Buisson-Charles ’07s from Meursault (90 for the Meursault VV, and 93 for both the Goutte d’Or and Bouches-Chères 1er Crus - all of which are arriving here at the end of the month, btw.) On the red side he had great things to say about the Anne & Hervé Sigaut ’06s as well as the wines from Huber-Verdereau. Looking forward to his ‘07 red coverage soon…

It’s always been my nature to just keep moving forward - I’ve never been one to look back from whence I came, nor to slow down and reflect. Occasionally in moments of clarity I realize that these avenues are not mutually exclusive - that I can in fact slow down, look back, and keep moving (though preferably not all at the same time…)

I talk very little about my 30 years in the music and radio business. I had several lifetimes’-worth of amazing times over those years, and absolutely loved it. I have so mentally moved on from those days that it seems like another lifetime altogether, but much of it remains close to the surface - or at least bubbles up from time to time. One of the great opportunities that came my way was the privilege to work with Michael Jackson.

It has taken a few months since his death, and last week’s DVD release of the amazing “This Is It” rehearsal footage, for it all to sink in. Only Elvis and The Beatles were ever at his level in terms of worldwide superstardom and cultural impact (and  of course Michael was obsessed with Elvis and The Beatles.) We are not likely to ever again see the complete entertainer that Michael was. At age 50, and not in shall we say robust health, he still looked the most captivating and compelling live performer one could ever imagine seeing. He was a genius on so many levels, and at the same time a strange, very very different human being. I, and I imagine history, will ultimately focus on the genius and his legacy of great songs and performances. Like nobody else on the planet, the guy just knew how to put on a show!

For a time I was the Sr. Director of National Promotion for Michael’s record company, Epic Records, and being part of the incredible world of Michael Jackson was nothing like anything I’ve ever experienced before or since. Just the pride and passion that we all took in knowing that we were working with the biggest artist in the world - it was an amazing feeling, and it permeated everything we did and drove us on to do more than we’d ever done before. It was just understood that Michael deserved, and in fact demanded it. It was an atmosphere of extreme pressure at times. It was never spoken, but we just knew that anything less than the best that had ever been achieved would be a failure. Pressure? What pressure…

I remember in excruciating detail the launch of Michael’s single “Black or White” in 1991. Never before in recorded history had every single major Top 40 radio station in America added the same record to each of their playlists in the same week. So, that became our goal. Somehow, we pulled it off. I will never forget getting the confirmation that the 214th out of 214 stations had indeed added the record on that Tuesday (for some bizarre reason, Tuesdays have always been the day radio stations report their new playlist additions for the week.) At any rate, it’s a record that still stands, as far as I know. The single went straight to #1 and stayed there for seven weeks. Though we didn’t know it at the time, this was probably the beginning of the end of his commercial peak.

I remember video (excuse me - “short films”) shoots where we did endless take after take after take - he was a total perfectionist, and always knew exactly what he wanted. He would never quit until he got exactly what he had in his mind. Sometimes it took a while for everyone else to understand exactly what that was - but no one ever seemed to get exasperated or impatient with him.

When I was the afternoon DJ on New York’s top-rated  WHTZ/Z-100 in the mid-1980s - “Thriller” was at its peak and Michael-mania ruled the world. He was in New York, staying at the Helmsley Palace - and I remember his manager Frank DiLeo calling us and offering us the sheets off of Michael’s bed to give away in a contest. Michael signed the sheets with a Sharpie, and Frank brought them over to the station. This drew perhaps the biggest reaction to a radio contest I’ve ever seen - it got more action than giving away $25,000 cash! What exactly did the winner do with the sheets, I have always wondered…

Ultimately, we are left with an amazing body of music that has touched millions of lives. In the end, he was and is an inspiration. The stirring tribute to Michael on last night’s Grammy Awards telecast inspired me once again, and led me to sit down and share a few memories. I am blessed to have been a tiny part of that world.

I am thrilled to announce a stellar lineup of world-class talent coming to Oregon to join us this summer for the annual IPNC festivities. The International Pinot Noir Celebration is now in its 24th year, bringing together top Pinot Noir producers, top chefs, and wine & food lovers from around the planet to McMinnville, Oregon every summer for three days of tantalizing tastings, meals, seminars, and full-on Pinotphilia! It all happens on the idyllic campus of Linfield College July 23rd-25th.

Journalist Jordan Mackay with vigneron Thièbault Huber at IPNC

We have just learned that Scott Paul Wines has been chosen as a Featured Winery for this year’s events, and that Burgundy stars Alain & Sophie Meunier of Domaine J-J Confuron will be coming in to join us this year! They will also be a Featured Winery at the events, and Alain & Sophie will be our guests of honor at our annual pre-IPNC dinner at the winery, held this year on Thursday July 22nd.

Cooking our dinner that night will be James Beard Award-winning “Best Chef Northwest” Vitaly Paley of Portland’s legendary Paley’s Place. And to top it off, Food & Wine Magazine’s wine editor Ray Isle, Jr. (this year’s master of ceremonies at IPNC) will also be our special guest at dinner. I could not imagine a more start-studded lineup - it will truly be like Christmas in July here in beautiful downtown Carlton. More details on all this soon…

Thanks to everyone who joined us in Wilsonville last night for a great tasting at WineXing - it was a pleasure to meet you, and I look forward to seeing you here at the winery one day soon. If you’re in Portland, don’t forget to drop by Storyteller Wines in John’s Landing a week from Friday (Feb. 5th) - I’ll be pouring from 6-8pm (and wearing my Arsenal gear, of course!)

Huge thanks to Seattle wine blogger Thad Westhusing, for his fabulous review and write-up of our 2007 La Paulée Pinot Noir on his Behind The Bottle blog - which you can check out here. Amazing that with our new 20%-off case discount - this yummy 90-pointer is only 24 bucks a bottle. And they say there’s no value in top Oregon Pinot!

Congrats to Caryn Urata of Portland, who has won the two seats for our Burgundy 101 Seminar on Saturday night. Thanks to each of you for your entries (and every entry got the answer correct, btw.) More interactive fun & games to come, so watch this space and our Facebook & Twitter pages…

My world-tour ‘10 continues this week with a stop at WineXing in WIlsonville, OR tomorrow (weds) night from 5-7. I’ll be pouring the Huber-Verdereau Crémant, Mâcon-Prissé from Domaine Thibert, Chambolle-Musigny from J-J Confuron, Pommard Epenots from Aleth Girardin, and our ‘06 La Paulée Pinot - should be a great night, and I look forward to seeing you there.

I’m also fired up for our first Burg seminar of the year on Saturday night - I really enjoy teaching, and there is nothing in the world I’d rather do than talk about Burgundy for a couple of hours! We may still have a seat or two open, so contact Kelly Karr at 503-319-5827 if you’d like to join us.

Romain & Jean Taupenot

I’ll be in our tasting room in Carlton 1-5 on Saturday for a very special tasting of the wines from Domaine Taupenot-Merme, one of the true rising stars of the Côte de Nuits. I’ll be pouring their ‘07 Gevrey-Chambertin, ‘06 Gevrey-Chambertin Bel-Air 1er Cru, ‘06 Morey-St. Denis la Riotte 1er Cru, ‘06 Nuits-St. Georges les Pruliers 1er Cru, and the ‘06 Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru - quite a stellar lineup of goodies that are not rarely open for tasting. And all Taupenot-Merme wines will be on special at 25% off Saturday only - a great chance to grab some treasures for the cellar. Join us if you can!

“For readers who not be familiar with the style, it’s one of elegance and balance. The wines are built on a base of finesse rather than power, and are both tranparent and very Pinot. I like the wines, as they are understated and never tiring to drink. They offer excellent values, and each of them have their distinct personalities.” Allen Meadows, BURGHOUND

As hinted at previously - we have two seats to give away (a $90 value) for our upcoming Burgundy 101 seminar, which will be held here at the winery in Carlton on Saturday January 30th - 6-8pm. The class is a great way to get a really solid grounding in the basics of the complex wine region that is Burgundy. We explore the history, geography, geology, appellation system, viticulture and winemaking, as well as take a look at each of the major winemaking villages up and down the Côte d’Or - while tasting six examples of wines from the region along with some nice cheeses and charcuterie. It’s a comprehensive introduction to Burgundy, and you will leave with more Burgundy knowledge than 99% of your friends!

For a chance to win - simply send your answer to our Burgundy trivia question to: info@scottpaul.com - and we’ll draw a winner from all correct responses on Tuesday morning the 26th. (Winner is responsible for getting themselves to Carlton for the class - airfare and/or ground transportation are not included!)

So, we’ll make it pretty easy to give as many people as possible a shot to get in for the drawing. Without any further adieu, the question:

All of the wines from the village of Pommard are made from which grape varietal?

Email your answers to info@scottpaul.com - putting “Contest” on the subject line, and we’ll draw the winner Tuesday morning at 11am Pacific, and notify you by email.

We still have a couple of seats available for sale too, if you’d like to secure your places rather than take your chance in the drawing. Call Kelly Karr at 503-319-5827 to reserve yours now.

Good luck, and I look forward to seeing you here in class on the 30th!

I am writing this while hugely inspired by Arsenal’s amazing come from behind 4-2 victory over Bolton tonight in London. My Gunners now sit at the top of the English Premier League, at least for a few days. It’s been an amazing turn-around since dropping 11 points off the pace just a few weeks ago…

Their gutsy performance has inspired me to go public with my intention of running the Wine Country Half-Marathon this September 4th. You should know, first of all, that I’ve never run more than three or four miles at one time in my life. 13.1 miles at this point seems about as reachable as running to Seattle. I am determined, however, to give it my best shot.

Thiébault Huber - my Burgundian running partner

There’s a half-marathon through the vineyards in Burgundy that takes place every November while I’m over there. This past November Thiébault Huber (Domaine Huber-Verdereau in Volnay) and his wife Marielle and I made a pledge to each other that next year, we would all run it. We said that, of course, after feeling especially sluggish from a week of non-stop foie gras, potatoes in goose fat, duck confit, and copious amounts of great old Burgundies. I don’t know if we all took each other seriously or not, but Thièbault - I’m calling you out, mon ami - we’ve got to go for it.

Lord knows I need to lose a pound or 40. I’ve been alternately lean & hard and round & soft throughout my adult life, and dearly want to get lean & hard again while I still have the chance of enjoying something resembling a youthful middle-age. So, I am now in my 3rd week of training - with the intention of working up to a 10K, and then kicking it up to the half-marathon level by September. Assuming I survive that, I’ll gun for the run through Pommard, Volnay & Meursault in November as well. I am taking some solace in the fact that the courses for both events appear to be relatively flat, so there may be hope yet. And, the finish line for the Oregon event in September is literally a few paces from our tasting room door in Carlton - so I can crawl into the cellar on my lips if necessary… Wish me luck!

On other more vinous matters, it’s time to start making plans for Valentine’s Day weekend. This year we’ve got two special events happening on Saturday Feb 13th. From Noon ’til Five that day we’ll be pouring two special flights in the tasting room. Our regular $10 tasting fee will get you some of the killer Marc Chauvet Champagne, as well as an assortment of Burgs and our elegant Pinots. Additionally, we’re doing a very rare tasting of the coveted 1er & Grand Cru Burgundies from Lucien Le Moine - the high-scoring cult superstar of Burgundy. These wines are generally never available for tasting anywhere - so if you’d like to taste for yourself and see what they’re all about, plunk down your 25 bucks and we’ll have at least five major bottles open for your dining and dancing pleasure. (Tasting fee is refundable with any six-bottle purchase.) If you want the best for your Valentine (or yourself, of course), this is the stuff.  I am really looking forward to this one! NOTE: we will be closed on Sunday, Valentine’s Day, so we can spend it with our honeys!

In the cellar with Mounir at Lucien Le Moine

Then that evening I’ll be teaching a Burgundy seminar on the village of Chambolle-Musigny, which as of this writing is one or two seats away from being sold-out. Email kellykarr@scottpaul.com to book your seats or to get on the waiting list. We DO definitely still have a few seats for the Burgundy 101 class on January 30th - again just email Kelly to get yourself all set up. And we’ve decided to run a contest for our Blog, Facebook & Twitter followers - to give a way a couple of free seats at the Burg 101 class in January - watch this space for more details shortly…

The Biodynamic calendar says today is a “Fruit Day”. Wines generally show their best on fruit days, as the lunar energies are aligned in such a fashion as to accentuate the fruit and flavor elements to their fullest. Having tasted the same wines on fruit, flower, leaf, and root days, I can attest to the fact that there is indeed a hugely discernible difference - with the same wines appearing closed-down, tannic, or just plain flat on leaf days for example, but fresh, vibrant and juicy on fruit days.

Kelley Fox and I chose today, a fruit day, to do our first comprehensive tasting through the cellar of our ’09s, which have finished or are just finishing malo. We’ve been really pleased with these wines since the beginning, but it’s always illuminating to get the first look post-malo and see what the wines are really all about. (There were pretty high levels of malic acid this year, so the overall acidity and structure of the wines change quite a bit after all the malic gets changed into lactic…)

In a word, we are thrilled. 2009 was very good to us. There is a very appealing juicy fruitiness to the wines on the mid-palate, very nice flavors that are driven by fruit sweetness, but without elevated alcohol that could have come from the rapidly rising sugars as harvest approached last fall. All of our pinots will come in at about 13.5% alcohol - which I’ve always felt to be a sweetspot for our style of wine. The length is quite extraordinary, and there is just a lovely balance and harmony all around. It is already evident that the old vines from our blocks of Maresh Vineyard in the Dundee Hills will be the best of the cellar and will make up the 2009 Audrey cuvée. Everything else we will leave to sort itself out for the next several months, and we will see what different bottlings may present themselves to us over the course of élévage…

Don’t forget that tomorrow night - Jan. 14th at 6:30pm - I’ll be pouring La Paulée and some J-J Confuron burgundy at the fabulous Allison Inn & Spa in Newberg - where our wines are featured all week in the exquisite Jory restaurant - I look forward to seeing you there!

At long last, it’s here - Pt. 3 of our mini-Burgundy 101 seminar - A Walking Tour Through the Côte de Beaune.

Enjoy - and don’t forget to check out our full-length Burgundy Seminars every month January through June at the winery in Carlton!

So much for Xmas vacation (which was wonderful, but already seems so 2009…) I was blessed with a lot of great family time, way too much good food, and an exceptional run of good wines - especially the 2001 & 2004 Romanée-St.Vivant from J-J Confuron and the ‘99 Marc Chauvet Special Club, world-class juice all around.

I was also blessed with Guitar Hero and Beatles Rock Band, which I’m sure Martha will regret gifting me (but Pirrie and I are enjoying our nightly guitar duels immensely!) I am also crazy about my new SodaStream - which allows you to make your own excellent sparkling water just using regular tap water. No more bottles to recycle - yay!

I was not so blessed on the afternoon of December 30th - when a freak snowstorm hit Portland and Pirrie and I took 4 and a half hours to go 9 miles - abandoning the car and walking the last 1.7 miles home after the ice had cars piled up on the roads like some apocalypse movie!

So, now two days back into action, and I’ve already discovered that I’m booked pretty much until next Xmas! No complaints, believe me - I just find it amazing how quickly the calendar starts to fill up. To kick off the new year - four excellent tastings coming up in the next few weeks:

• Thursday, January 14th - 6:30-7:30pm  I’ll be pouring at the Allison Inn & Spa in Newberg, and our wines will be featured on their tasting menu in the Jory restaurant that night…
• Wednesday January 27th - 5:00-7:00pm  I’ll be pouring a great selection of Burgs & Pinots at Wine-Xing in Wilsonville…
• Saturday January 30th - 1:00-5:00pm  We’re featuring several wines from Domaine Taupenot-Merme in a special Burgundy tasting all afternoon in our tasting room. (And that night is our first Burgundy Seminar of the year.)
• Friday February 5th - 6:00-8:00pm  I’ll be pouring at Storyteller Wines in Portland (be sure to wear your Arsenal gear to this one!)

I recycled a bunch of books at Powell’s over the holidays, and used some of the credit to pick up Randall Grahm’s fascinating “Been Doon So Long” - an anthology of his wonderful wine writing over the past 15-20 years. As excellent he is as a winemaker and wine marketer, he just may be the best wine writer we’ve got going. It is inspirational, insightful, dead-on brilliant, and at times side-splittingly funny as well. I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s one of those books that just might change the course of your life (or mine!)

And an announcement before I check out for the day - we have a great 2,200 Sq. Ft. Live-Work space in the heart of NW Portland available for lease. 20′ ceilings, full kitchen and bath, loft bedroom, and tons of wide open space for just about whatever you need - offices, art studios, living space, etc. Tremendous location - walk to everything, and great neighbors (us!) Email martha@scottpaul.com for more info…