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…

It is hard to believe that 2010 will bring our 12th harvest - having started with a dream and a passion and some borrowed money back at the start of 1999. The dream and the passion still burn brightly, and we’ve borrowed more money. And we’re still here, fervently preaching the joys of Pinot Noir that champions elegance and finesse over power and extraction, both New World and Old. Most importantly, I still love what I do, and am deeply grateful to you for supporting our efforts. In spite of all the economic elements conspiring against us, our little enterprise continues to grow enough to allow us to keep on keepin’ on…

I’m excited about the year ahead. Here is a sneak preview of some new stuff on the horizon for us -

• Two brand-new Scott Paul Pinot Noir bottlings from the 2008 vintage will be released this year, in addition to the Audrey and La Paulée cuvées that have been around for many years. Release dates have not yet been decided, but over the year we’ll unveil the 2008 D122 and 2008 Dom Denise Pinot Noirs - each of which are micro-production wines of under 150 cases - watch this space for all the details. (The 2008 Audrey is scheduled for release in April, and the ‘08 La Paulée for the 4th quarter. 2007 was the final vintage for Cuvée Martha Pirrie, so alas there is no more.)
• A new website and easier online shopping. We put a lot of time and effort into our website and keeping it current and hopefully interesting. We’ll be tweaking it up a bit once again in the first quarter and adding a slick and easy shopping cart to the site, which should make your online browsing and buying experience as seamless as possible.
• The first Scott Paul wine produced in Burgundy! We are about to bottle our one barrel of 2008 Chambolle-Musigny, which has been resting in the cellars of Anne & Hervé Sigaut in Chambolle for the past 15 months. 25 cases of this beauty will be here and ready for release later in the year. This wine, like the two new Scott Paul Oregon bottlings this year, will be available only directly from the winery - so as I used to say on the radio “Stay close for all the details….”
• The book is underway. As I alluded to in this space last fall, the research and writing phase has begun for my first book, a history of the “La Paulée” harvest celebration in Burgundy. I’ll be exploring not only the legendary “La Paulée de Meursault”, but the private Paulées that take place at each of the thousands of Burgundian domaines every year, a tradition that spans the centuries.
• Comments, please! I’ve never intended for this blog to be a one-way only conversation. Being somewhat technically challenged, I have just now figured out how to open these posts up for your comments. I look forward to hearing from you and welcome what you have to say.

The village of Chambolle-Musigny

As far as ongoing endeavors - I’m way excited to get back to teaching our series of Burgundy seminars. We’ve added a couple of new classes this year to the mix, including a study of the village of Chambolle-Musigny and a focus on the reds from the Côte de Beaune. Email kellykarr@scottpaul.com to book your seats, as several of the classes are filling up already.

Our Burgundy Express Club continues to be one of the best ways to experience the wines and learn about the region. The next shipment in the spring will be a study of the appellation hierarchy in Burgundy, from Bourgogne Passetoutgrains all the way up to Grand Cru. We can still accept a few more members, so contact kellykarr@scottpaul.com if you’d like to get signed up.

I will continue to spend 6-8 weeks each year in Burgundy - working closely with our producers there and finding you the best wines for the money from every part of the region (and Champagne too, of course!) While I’m not looking to add new producers or expand the portfolio this year, if something phenomenal becomes available, I will certainly jump on it. The mission, as always, is to bring in the best quality wines that are also the best values in their categories. I import the wines directly from the producers, eliminating the many unnecessary layers of middlemen and mark-ups that often contribute to the perception that Burgundy is “too expensive.” It IS too expensive if you’re paying $100 for a wine from a producer that goes through excessive broker & importer markups, when you can get an equal or better wine from us direct for about half the price…

Today’s economy demands VALUE. We are here to deliver just that in spades. You may in fact see some wines and producers dropped from our portfolio if their pricing does not allow us to offer the wines to you at prices that are good values in today’s market.

As I often say, there’s nobody else crazy enough to do what we do - run a full-on winery & vineyard operation as well as a direct import company - but we love it and couldn’t imagine it any other way. It would truly be impossible without the team of bright, talented and dedicated women I’m surrounded with - my wife Martha, Marketing Director Kelly Karr, Winemaker Kelley Fox, and bookkeeper Robin Burnside. We are blessed to have them on our side, and doubly blessed to have a brilliant partner and mentor and dear friend in Cameron Healy.

Here’s to a great 2010 for us all, full of great wine, food & friends - and the good health to enjoy them to the fullest!

I was frankly less than thrilled. Or should I say frustrated, or just plain chapped? On the day before Christmas Eve Portland’s (and Oregon’s) major daily newspaper, The Oregonian, saw fit to splash across the top of their front page the teaser headline “Oregon winemakers struggle to sell their 2007 vintage due to poor reviews.” Then on the cover of the business section, a multi-page article with several full color photos appeared under the headline “Oregon winesellers struggle with uneven popularity”. The article was written by the Oregonian’s business reporter Dana Tims. I actually spoke to Dana at length on this subject a couple of months back, and he seemed to be in agreement that the wines were quite possibly much better than reported, which he alludes to in his article.

The article was actually quite fair and accurate. It included quotes from two Wine Spectator journalists, Harvey Steiman and Matt Kramer, who have been on record as not exactly being fans of many wines from 2007 In Oregon. I fully grant them that it was a challenging vintage. I give Dana Tims full credit for clearly stating that their negative assessment of the vintage may indeed be unfair. But my bone to pick, however, is with The Oregonian for using their front page to reinforce the perception that 2007 is a vintage to pass up. All that most people probably saw that day was the headline linking 2007 to “poor reviews” and “winemakers struggling”. The meat of the article was somewhat more encouraging, but on a day of frenzied holiday shopping and travel, the bright red headline visible from every newspaper box around the state was likely the impression that reached the most eyeballs. As I often find with the Oregonian, the headline sensationalized an aspect of the story that wasn’t really supported very well by the article.

I don’t have unrealistic expectations that The Oregonian should be a cheerleader for Oregon wineries. But is it too much to ask of them to not fan the flames of negativity? In just 40 years the Willamette Valley has developed into a world-class wine region that is contributing over a billion dollars per year to the local economy. Maybe we should at least expect from them a greater level of knowledge and understanding of this large local industry?

As to the 2007 vintage, it was certainly a mixed bag. Like anywhere that great Pinot Noir is produced, every year is different and takes on its own character. “That’s just the way it should be” as veteran vintner Andrew Rich points out in the article. There were many excellent wines produced here in 2007. I’ve recently enjoyed superb bottles from Domaine Drouhin, Evesham Wood and Belle Pente that I thought were simply outstanding regardless of vintage, and those are surely just the tip of the iceberg. Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate recently stated that there were more good wines here from 2007 than 2006. Other journalists are also on the same track, including Cole Danehower at Northwest Palate. Kelley Fox and I have been hugely happy with our Scott Paul 2007s from day one. We could probably sell three times more of the 2007 Audrey if we had it, but it sold out as futures a year ago. As the article states, many of the better 2007s have just been released - none of which were around when the negative blanket was thrown over the vintage.  We’ve just released our 2007 La Paulée bottling, and it is off to a quicker start than either of the previous two vintages. The fact remains that times are indeed tough. Few in the Oregon wine industry are setting new sales records these days, to be sure. We’re fortunate to be holding our own, and are thankful to our customers for their continued passionate support.

The bottom line is, now more than ever, it’s time to trust your own palate. Get out and taste, and buy and drink what YOU like. With the proliferation of independent wine blogs, Facebook, Twitter and a plethora of social media devoted solely to wine - more information is available now from the ground up, meaning that more real people are writing about more real wines, and you can get great information everywhere. The wine world has been radically democratized, and the days of a few national publications beaming down their pronouncements from the mountaintop are thankfully coming to an end. Vive la révolution…

I was very excited to learn yesterday that Christophe Thibert, of Domaine Thibert Père & Fils in Fuissé, has won this year’s Trophée de Jeunes Talents - the annual award that goes to the region’s top young winemakers. You know Christophe through his wonderful whites that we import from the Mâconnais region of Burgundy - including St. Véran, Macon-Prissé, and a stunning array of single vineyard Pouilly-Fuissé wines. Christophe and his sister Sandrine are the 7th generation at the helm of this wonderful estate, and we are proud to bring their wines into the U.S.

Christophe in his cellar in Fuissé

With Christophe grabbing the trophy this year, he becomes the fourth winemaker in our portfolio to have won this coveted prize in recent years. Benjamin Leroux (Maison Benjamin Leroux), Thiébault Huber (Domaine Huber-Verdereau) and Erell Ninot (Domaine Ninot) are all Trophée de Jeunes Talents winners. Wow!  It’s nice to know that our producers are as highly thought of by others as they are by us, for sure. I guess we’ve done a pretty good job so far of finding Burgundy’s rising stars - and I promise we will continue to do so (it’s my personal, never-ending quest!)

Now I’m off to get my mise-en-place ready for baking - Pirrie and I are baking for Santa’s imminent arrival. This year it’s Julia Child’s Mocha Chocolate Chip cookies. Any recipe that calls for a pound of chocolate is OK by me!