The last month has been a VERY busy at the Bells Up homestead and we’ve gotten behind in our postings, so it’s time to play a little catch-up. We’ve worked diligently to determine the best location for the production of our first vintage—which we will making from grapes sourced from two different Willamette Valley grape growers. All the contracts are finally in place, and now we’re just waiting for the vines to do their thing.

Speaking of the vines, it’s been a VERY busy time for them too. In our sourced vineyards, the shoots broke from their buds in mid-April and have been reaching for the sky ever since. Vineyards throughout the valley are on a fast growth pace, thanks to the unusually warm weather we had in May.

Once bud break occurs, it only takes a few weeks for the first tiny green clusters to appear. These clusters will flower and self-pollinate in mid-to-late June, after which the berries will begin to develop into the grapes we will make into wine. We’ve heard speculation that harvest may come as much as three weeks early—in September instead of the traditional October.

These pictures were taken on May 15 at the vineyard of Fred Robinson. Fred’s vineyard is a meticulously maintained one-acre plot in the Chehalem Mountains American Viticultural Area (AVA), and is 100% planted with the Pommard clone of pinot noir. We’ll introduce Fred more in future posts.