Howdy y'all from Western Oregon! Happy end of summer/almost fall! We have had a gorgeous summer here (I feel sheepish writing that but it's true!) Busy as always, and lots to share since my last missive and course some new wines to tell you about! The rest of our 2024’s and of course a little Pinot Gris from 2025. As a harbinger for the rest of the wines from the vintage, the 2025 laughing pig rosé was magnificent (sold out sorry!) I drank more than my fair share so I will call that a well-informed opinion!
The Farm
I would say the biggest news on the farm is that we got Clare got a dog! Rita came to us from the shelter in Newberg on St. Patrick's Day and the longer she's with us the more fabulous she becomes. She follows Clare everywhere and is friendly to all, two and four-legged alike! she's very polite and would never take a lunch out of your car unlike her predecessors! Stanley, the cat has readily accepted her and Bob (the other cat) is warming up to her slowly. Rita won the dog lottery and we're happy to have a wagging tail around again.
Lambing happened in mid spring and went well - seven ram lambs and 6 ewe lambs bringing our flock to 30+! Joe (the ram) did his job! We are still learning all things sheep but having a couple seasons under our belt has given us confidence as to when to help and when to wait. The ram lambs are in with goats to make the ultimate brush clearing team! The goats get the tall brush and the sheep eat the low stuff so nothing gets missed - perfect! They will all be ready for the freezer mid December. Talk to Clare If you are interested in some for your table, both are delicious! Also we have been getting the pelts tanned for the last few years and have all that we need so I think we may have a few available for sale. We use them to as seat covers and sometimes to cover our legs if we are outside and it gets a little chilly. Late spring is calving season and we unfortunately had a still birth leading us with four healthy calves this year, and four healthy moms. We also had to call a cow and amazingly her calf was adopted by the one who lost hers…..nature always has a way. Red Fred the bull has been reunited with his ladies as of end of July, so all going well, we'll still see more calvies next spring. Our small laying flock has kept us in lots of eggs as they do when they are young and the broilers were tremendous this year. We used a different breeder this season but the same breed - red Rangers - but wow, did they get big! We have more than a couple that are over 7 pounds - almost turkey size! I guess I forgot to say anything nice about the horses. Well, my dad always told me if you can't say anything nice…
Art and Events
Clare does all the daily care and feeding of the animals, hosts the Friday farm tour, hosts tastings in Carlton, and helps run our wine business - and still finds time and energy to paint, amazing! This time of year it is challenging, but I have full confidence after her load lightens she will step back into the studio. we participated in the makers table series at the Portland art Museum in April - very exciting! for one evening Clare's art was on display complemented by my wine and a dinner. It was a magical evening! She has a website clarecarver.com with a lot of her available work, but I think the most current work is on Instagram (follow here) if you really want to know what she is up to!
This past July, we met some good friends in the Le Grande, Oregon and then hiked 8.2 miles into the Eagle Cap Wilderness to the Minam Lodge, a fantastic place that is off grid, but lacks nothing! Clare has been going there since it's refurbishment 10 or so years ago and myself just the last couple. The food is fantastic and we do a wine dinner on one of the nights. Next year’s date is July 15th 2027, please join us! If hiking is not your thing, you can ride a horse or there's a grass runway that small planes regularly shuttle. April 10 is scheduled for Clare's art show and our yet to be made 2026 laughing pig rosé release! It is really great way to kick off spring! and if Joe (the ram) does his job there should be also lots of cute lambs running around. Hopefully, we see you at one of these events. In the meantime - buy some wine!
If you are in our area this winter Clare has a new brian child to share her creative space -
winter table in the studio - Clare is opening her studio to a few very intimate curated dinners this winter - This very fist dinner ‘Farm and Forage' celebrates a long partnership between Joe (the guy) and Chef Paul Stanislaw - Both have deep knowledge and love of foraging and have been collaborating on this dinner for a fist full of years. Chef Paul is bringing his culinary artistry to the farm to help kick off this series. Paul will be featuring the range of oregon’s macro-fungal bounty along side meat from our farm all paired with big table wines - There are only 26 seats available for this inaugural studio dinner on October 24th - pls click here to RSVP.
The Vineyard - First fruit exclamation?!
We have been farming four of the 10 blocks in our small 8 acre vineyard this year for production so we should see a small crop in the Winery this year! It has and still is a journey. It will still be a couple more years before we are in full production, we have had to replant several times with the most recent this past spring and another to come this fall. These new plants will take a couple years to catch up. Fortunately, we will be able to keep them alive and growing thanks to the stored rainwater in our pond. We're anxious to get our sheep into the vineyard, but with all the baby plants, we are using them for the headlands and fencelines. In the meantime, we are looking forward to this year's crop!
The Wines!
When people ask me about the 2024 vintage my answer has been consistent - if I failed to make a decent wine in 2024 then I should look for a new job! Everything fell into place perfectly and the results are stunning wines across the board! If you have had any of our spring release wines (the Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, Pelos Sandberg Vineyard Pinot Noir, Elusive Queen Chardonnay, or the Wild Bee Chardonnay), then you know what I'm talking about! we still have some of those wines available if you're interested in more!
Our fall release wines - The Sunnyside Vineyard Pinot Noir, Cattrall Brothers Vineyard Pinot Noir, Yamhill Carlton Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and the Eola Amity Chardonnay also fall in line! Each stunning in their own way, just with a little more regional focus - and of course -
Clare continues to adorn the bottles with her thematic drawings, done with letter press and applied with steady hands by yours truly and the rest of the team at BTF! The theme for our Chardonnay is Bees, both the domesticated honeybee and wild bees, of which there are hundreds if not thousands of species. Clare and I both find them fascinating and captivating and the manifestation of this enthusiasm is shared through the Chardonnay label art. This started with our first vintage of Chardonnay in 2011 of just 136 cases and the label was a small swarm of honeybees. We just had one of our last bottles of the 2011 from Magnum at the chardy party and it was stunning! Both the wine and the party! As our Chardonnay program evolved and grew (now about 10 times that first vintage) the Bee theme stuck, and all the chardonnay bottling's are be themed. The Wild Bee label is a charcoal and paper piece that Clare and I bought from April Coppini almost 10 years ago. We love the energy of the bumblebee that she captured with her drawing. The Yamhill Carlton Chardonnay usually has a bee in action and Eola Amity is always a flower, the bee’s food source. And the Elusive Queen label is the combination of art and imagination inspired by Clare’s beekeeping. OK enough about the labels what's in the bottles?!
2024 Sunnyside Vineyard Pinot Noir - Sunnyside Vineyard is a magical place as most vineyards of a certain age are - 55+ years for this one. There's a gentle energy that can be felt as you walk through. Yes, the meticulous and caring hands of Luci and Tom make a difference but the plants themselves have a soul, and I think this is also felt in what ends up in the bottle, a gentle but insistent energy in the wine that is indescribable, but felt for sure. Wines from younger vineyards also have an energy, youthful and maybe less focused. I recently inadvertently “found” a magnum of Sunnyside from 2012. We opened with friends and it was immensely enjoyed. I was so pleased with how well it showed and also the old soul of the vineyard - that indescribable power and spirit was still there. I've made the comparison of 2024 to 2012 and it also was a vintage that All fell into place easily. The 2024’s are drinking beautifully now and I would anticipate another couple as well, and this version of the Sunnyside vineyard is an exceptional example. 232 cases produced. 72/bottle. Big table farm rooster on the label
2024 Cattrall Brothers Pinot Noir – The Cattrall Bros Vineyard is not quite as old as Sunnyside, but still has the magical feeling – it is an extremely quiet vineyard nestled in trees away from neighbors and traffic and protected from direct wind. It's elevation of 700 feet put it above the fray. wide spacing of the rows and plants give an openness that modern vineyards planted densely lack. We have been working with the Cattrall’s since 2009 and I've always appreciated the uniqueness of the fruit and subsequent wine produced - the earthiness and brambling fruit are consistent and distinct year in and year out. I was told the cuttings to plant the vineyard were from Dick Erath and the wadensville clone, but the tiny berries and clusters are different from any other fruit that we work with. In my mind this is Pinot Noir of a different era, making it a special part of our fall offering. 110 cases 72 per bottle classic truck on the on the label - take six and we will send sans shipping cost.
2024 Yamhill Carlton Pinot Noir/2024 Yamhill Carlton Chardonnay - Yamhill Carlton American Viticultural Area (AVA) Pinot Noir and Chardonnay is produced from three Vineyards - Coats and Whitney, Yamhill Vineyard and YatesConwill - that make up these two wines - We get both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Yates Conwell. These vineyards are 20+ year old and really just hitting their stride - in the prime of their careers so to speak! I think these wines speak to tapacity of our AVA and yes, BTF could end up in these blends in the near future! There's a certain hedonism that the Wines from Yamhill Carlton bring to the table and I have always loved them for that - power and structure for the Pinots and richness and finesse for the Chardonnays. Both of these from the 2024 vintage deliver that! YamhillCarlton Pinot noir $72/bottle Old barn on the label - Yamhill Carlton Chardonnay 45/bottle blossums for the bees
2024 Eola Amity Chardonnay - the youngest Vineyards of the set but by no means babies Bieze has been producing fruit for 15 years and the X Omni for 10. The youthful energy is apparent and combined with the verve that being in the Amity Hills brings - bright acidity is the hallmark and the ‘citrus pith’ structure. The juxtapostion to the Yamhill Carlton make our regional differenced clear and exciting to taste! honeybee on the label 45/bottle and yes, six or more and we'll ship it to you on our nickel
2025 Pinot Gris 2025 - last but not least! We have been sourcing fruit for this wine from Belle Ponte since 2017 and sadly this will be the last year. The own rooted vineyard has finally succumbed to phyloxera and will be replanted this year. Fortunately, we planted some of our own Pinot Gris and the plan is for 2026 to come from BTF! Fingers crossed! This wine is fermented on the skins and stems giving it color and structure unlike Pinot Gris that is pressed immediately and made as a white wine. Ours is built for food - seafood in particular, but most anything works. Think of it as a chillable light red! We love it, and hope you will too! 34/bottle pasture grass is on the label - mix and match 6+ and will send to you free of shipping.
20 years! Yes! in 2006 Clare and I sold our small bungalow in downtown Napa and used the proceeds to put a down payment on what is now Big Table Farm. We had no idea what we were doing, I'm still not sure we do now either! We also started our wine business in 2006 with purchased grapes to make just 150 cases - wow! We worked, scrimped, did most things ourselves and every year just a little bit more. I think we are still doing that, just now with some help! Our focus has always been on quality, not quantity. We get to make what we want to drink, and eat. We built what we have slowly, over time as we could afford, so no investors no partners - just Brian and Clare and of course, - all of you! Thank you to all who have supported and enabled our adventure, we couldn't do without you! We are honored to share our crafts of wine and art and so thankful we are able to make a living doing what we love. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope you enjoyed it, And if you are able to buy wine, I'm sure it will bring a moment of joy to your table! Thank you, Brian and Clare and the team at BTF.
This letter written, for better or worse, by Brian. no AI (aggregated information) used!
