Paul O’Brien Winery

Recent news

• ReleaseNov 18, 2023
  Lorem Ipsum

  Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum. It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).

• ReleaseAug 23, 2023
  Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply

  Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum. It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).

• ReleaseAug 23, 2023
  There are many variations of passages of Lorem Ipsum

  Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum. It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).

• ReleaseFeb 3, 2023
  Pruning

  While the vines are now dormant, Winter in the vineyard is still a busy time that sets the foundation for the coming year. During this time, we are pruning the vines which is a critical step forward in the annual growing cycle of the vine. Pruning can be divided into two major styles: cordon pruning and cane pruning. Cane pruning involves building a lateral arm system that has spur positions. Spurs are last years shoots that are typically cut back to two buds. Each spur would then grow two shoots and we would expect two clusters per spur. Cane pruning takes one year old canes from last year and uses those buds for growing positions in the coming vintage. Cane pruning is the most common pruning technique in Oregon for several reasons. Oregon primarily grows Pinot Noir which is known to produce less clusters and smaller clusters than most varieties. The climate in Oregon is very cool, especially in the spring when bud derivation takes place. What this means is that the number of clusters a bud will produce this growing season was determined last spring. So cool wet springs tend to mean less clusters the following year and warm dry springs tend to equate to bountiful vintages the following year. Because the buds on the one year old cane have all been exposed to sunlight they tend to be more fertile. We have learned that by cane pruning we are able to increase the number of clusters. Furthermore, there is also occasional cold damage from extreme cold that can harm a portion of the upper vine structure. Since we lay down new canes every year, we have less concern about the effects of cold damage versus if we were spur pruning and had to rebuild the cordon. The cost of cane pruning is about 1.5 to 2 times as expensive as it takes a lot more labor to prune and tie down the new canes every year.

• ReleaseOct 6, 2022
  Whole Cluster

  As the harvest season is in full swing, I thought it would be fun to discuss my favorite winemaking technique….Whole Cluster. Whole cluster fermentation was derived from the technique called Carbonic Maceration where a winemaker can place 100% of the clusters in a vessel void of oxygen using carbon dioxide. The fruit is held for 5-10 days then either inoculated with yeast or pressed off and fermented. These wines are typically very fruity, lighter in style and meant to be consumed young. Wines such as Beaujolais Nouveau (Gamay) are often made using partial carbonic maceration. Rather than do 100% carbonic maceration, I prefer to only add a portion of whole clusters to my tanks. Most of my Pinot Noir wines include an average of about 25% whole clusters in the fermentation vessel. There is some serious biochemistry involved but I will try to keep it simple. Once harvested, we take whole clusters from the vineyard and place them in the bottom of the fermentation vessel which has been purged of oxygen with dry ice. Then we put destemmed fruit on top of those clusters and again cover that tank with a blanket of carbon dioxide using dry ice. At this point we inoculate the fermenter with yeast and proceed with a normal fermentation. However, as the yeast release heat the tank warms up to about 80F which activates a host of enzymes inside each of those intact berries. Under anaerobic conditions (no oxygen), independent of microbial activity, the enzymes transform the natural acids in the berry to a bit of ethanol as well as an amazing array of flavor compounds such as strawberry, cherry, raspberry, and cinnamon. This gives Pinot Noir the lovely “lifted” fruit aromas like framboise that invites you into the glass. I choose to limit the whole cluster portion of the ferment at 25% because with the whole clusters come the stems. The stems do contribute some tannin and if not ripe could lead to green aromas and bitterness. Some winemakers choose to do whole cluster, and some do not, as their personal preference. This allows for another dimension of character in the wines. Although Pinot Noir and Gamay are the most common varieties where whole cluster is typically employed, you may also occasionally see wines whole cluster in Cab Franc, Syrah, and Grenache.