Howdy one and all from Western Oregon! Yes! it is that time of year again - end of summer, the beginning of fall - and we have some beautiful wines for you! 2023 Pinot Noir and Chardonnay site specific wines! And we have a little of the Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, Wild bee Chardonnay and laughing pig rose to finish out the last of summer! We have been super busy with projects, events and animals plus the vineyard and hosting. I am tasting barrels now and Bottling 2024 soon! fingers crossed, 2025 is shaping up nicely and Harvest is right around the corner!

This time last year, Jim Roofner of HPS construction was busy “up to his eyeballs in alligators” he said, digging our pond. He did a great job to get it to the point that we could fill this past winter. It has been a boon for the vineyard this year to help get our struggling baby vines started. The little bit of rainwater that I collected in past years in my bottling tanks and the 3 above ground swimming pools was nothing compared to being able to have more than enough. Hopefully, we will see a little bit of fruit from our own vineyard in the winery next year! We also asked Jim to make the pond a little bit deeper than you normally would so we could swim in it and we have done! On the warm days Clare and I have refreshed ourselves with a swim at the end of the day. When it is just the two of us we leave the swimsuits behind and go for a “chunky dunk” since neither of us are as svelte as we would like to be. a “skinny dip” would be a misnomer! A variety of wildlife also appreciate the pond lots of different ducks, occasional geese, deer, elk, wild turkey drink out of it and most of all the barn swallows. The sheer number of them has been amazing! We have never seen so many before! They zip and dip into the water and they have built a virtual metropolis of mud nests in the high corners and eaves of the barn. Needless to say, we are super happy to have this new resource on the farm and look forward to the future of possibilities that it can provide

All the animals are doing great under Clare's watchful eyes. We had six bull calves this spring so Red Fred was 100% successful, and Julius the ram also bred all the ewes so we had lots of super cute lambs running around this spring! The lambing went well and with a little more experience from last year under our belts, we (Clare!) were more confident and competent this year, so the few issues we did have were handled without any frantic calls to the vet. We got a new flock of layers this spring, so we are back in eggs! Although the eggs of young chicks are small and will take another month or so before they size up, but they are still delicious! We just eat three instead of two for a meal! Clare's beehives are possibly having their best year ever. Is it her ever improving husbandry or the season? Most likely both from my observations - it seems like a very difficult thing to manage hives successfully. I think I read somewhere that 85% of backyard hives fail - from my conversations with lots of people and watching Clare throughout the years this is unsurprising. She has been doing it for almost 15 years or so - and root her on - if she makes more than we could possibly eat, someday in the future you might see the overage in your farm box!

Wait, what is this ’farm box’? more later…

*Brian gathering spring greens from his hot bed*

Bob and Stanley continue to leave us gifts of mice on the porch and Clare continues to ride her horses when she can. This year my garden is mostly weeds. I started with great ambitions in the spring, this is how I do a lot of things - but too many other things have gotten in the way. we'll have a little corn and some green beans, but not the usual bounty that past years have provided. oh well I guess that is the way it goes sometimes

Sadly Levi at 15 years old left us peacefully a few days ago we miss his sweet kind spirit.

Clare continues to amaze me with her paintings, especially her recent still life of flowers - I often buy them for her. It is a win win win! She loves them, I get a good husband attaboy, she paints them and then we take a tax write off! Who knew buying flowers could be so profitable?! Truth is I would do it anyway and have been doing so since our first days together. She is also working on another painting project – a clothes pin a day, same simple object and the same size, but the exercise is in color, shadow and perspective. It is really cool to watch happen. The goal is one a day but given how busy summer is that has been hard to achieve. I don't know how many she has done but ALOT! And to see them altogether is like a fantastic mosaic! I think she's going to have a show in December and in the meantime, you can check them out online at www.clarecarver.com or follow her on Instagram

As I mentioned, the vineyard is going slowly. This is partly by choice and as we have done all things on the farm. We have forgone the use of chemicals and synthetic fertilizer. Anything that seems scary we have avoided. organic would be the simple word to describe our approach. We are careful about how we use energy, Biodiesel and we have three electric vehicles. Our first was 2015. We are super happy with all of them and will happily tell you about them if you ask us! We have a 2017 Chevy Bolt, 2019 Polaris EV Ranger and the newest is a 2024 bright drop delivery van - all are 100% electric! We have solar panels and batteries on both the Winery and Clare’s studio and recently upgraded the insulation at the atelier in Carlton. We are moving away from plastic tape and recently started using biodegradable stretch wrap for holding the pallets of bottled wine together. we still have more we hope to do, but it all takes investment of time and money. I was taught the mantra of reduce, reuse and recycle from a young age and continue to implement as best I can. We think it is worth it and we choose to live and run our farming and business in the healthiest and thoughtful manner as possible.

20 years! Clare and I just celebrated 20 years of marriage. It's been mostly good! We have truly had a great adventure together and are constantly discussing next steps - in love, working together, and apart, and what the next years will look like! Art, wine, farm, Stay tuned!

And 20 years! Yes 2025 will be 20 years of making wine as Big Table Farm. We started with just 150 cases and made a little more each year as we could afford. We built our winery at the farm in 2014 to give our wine its own home and to turn a rent payment into a mortgage. We began the process of planting vineyard in 2019 and until that starts producing we continue to source all of our fruit from trusted growers. We have made the wine all along with a consistent theme of making the best that we knew how. Quality takes precedence and all else from there. we take great pains to attend to all the details during Harvest, to get it right the first time! enough people, supplies, maintained equipment, etc. Once the wine is made and in barrel, I always do my cellar work at the beginning of the week, Monday and Tuesday and then everything else after the wine work. Quality first and foremost! We believe in working with nature, both on the farm seasonally, and in the winery, we use whatever yeast blows in the door or comes in with the grapes that year to ferment, and let malolactic conversion happen without inoculation. We choose to leave the lifeforce in the wine, the deliciousness that comes from the unseen, and sometimes the seen in form of sediment or less-than clear wines, but I think this is a small price to pay for deliciousness! We could strip all of these out by filtering, but I have always taken the approach that less more, so yes - from time to time our wines need a little more care in pouring, but again - wine is a natural, agricultural product and a little sediment or cloudiness is a small price to pay for deliciousness!

The Wines!

2023 Sunnyside Vineyard - Luci and Tom are still at it! They take care of their 8 acre vineyard themselves with the exception being harvest. The vineyard was planted in 1970 and they purchased it in the mid 80s and have been devoted to nurturing it year and year out ever since. I started working with them in 2011, so this will be 15 years! Time flies! The 23 version is true Sunnyside pinot noir. All the dark fruit plus all the spice. I love the wine and know you will too!

2023 sunnyside vineyard pinot noir – 72 per bottle – label is one of clare’s chickens and yes 6 or more and shipping is on us!

2023 Yamhill Carlton Pinot Noir is a super fun wine for me to make. It is a reflection of the vintage and the AVA (American viticultural area) from my perspective. we source fruit from Coats and Whitney (since2011) and Yates Conwell (since 2014), and then I choose my favorite barrels from each to make the wine, balancing the power and tannin and juicy fruit and lusciousness to make the perfect combination. This wine is an easy favorite, a comfort food of sorts. as I often say - I get to make what I wanna drink! This wine is an easy go to!

2023 yamhill carlton pinot noir – 72 per bottle – label art is a classic old barn in yamhill county, and you should buy a case and we will ship it gratis!

2023 Cattrall Brothers Vineyard, the high elevation and Northeast aspect to make this vineyard a slow ripener and always one of our last to come in. don't let the color fool you! Pinot noir is a thin skin variety and sometimes doesn't yield a lot of color, but it will still pack a punch! aromas of red fruit forest Floor, on the pallet tart cherry That lingers into the finish with a touch of brioche all at 11.9%. It's not the size of the dog…

Sadly Bill Cattrall passed away this spring, we will remember his kind spirit and be inspired by his pioneering commitment to organic viticulture every time we open a bottle from his and brother Tom’s vineyard. rip

2023 Cattrall Brothers Vineyard, 72 per bottle, drawing of the coolest grape delivery truck ever! And yes complimentary shipping with 6 or more on this wine too!

2023 Yamhill Carlton Chardonnay and 2023 Eola Amity Chardonnay

Like the Yamhill Carlton Pinot noir - these two wines are also super fun to put together. They are both comprised of two distinct vineyards within their respective AVA’s and are therefore a representation through my lenses of Chardonnay from each region. Both/all chardonnay's are made the same and with equal diligence, the grapes are pressed as soon as they arrive at the winery, the juice is settled overnight and then it gets put into some number of barrels - where the magic happens! Within each barrel a fermentation starts, is nurtured, and the subsequent wine lives until just before bottling. So each barrel, despite being homogeneous in the beginning, has a uniqueness that develops throughout the 10-11 months it spends in barrel. I spend the most of July and early August tasting and deciding which barrels goes where and same for Pinot. I am super happy with the 2023 vintage and these two wines are no exception! The YC displays it’s typical richness with stone fruit core and the Eola Amity displays citrus and minerality. I hope you buy some of each, and make up your own mind!

Clare and I, and the team at BTF thank you for continuing to buy our wines and art, and hope that the joy our work brings us is contagious and brightens your homes, tables and walls together!

One last thing Clare asked me to mention – we will be opening the gate at the farm for you our customers next April 18th here at the farm. This will be a celebration of Clare’s art and a release party for the spring wines and 2024 laughing pig rose! There might be some cute baby lambs too…`

** a note on ordering wine - If you're super busy - please let us help you order wine in whatever way is EASIEST for YOU! We are happy to assist. Call, email - We are available to make sure you get the wines you love! If you want to reach out please just send an email to kathryn@bigtablefarm.com or call 503-457-5726 or Text Directly! and we'll follow up with YOU and get your order. You can also Click here to go right to the buy wine page

If you don't follow me on Instagram you might enjoy doing so. As all the projects, vines, and animals all continue to grow on the farm, I will continue to post recipes and what’s happening on the farm and in the winery @bigtablefarm

ps - you can also follow new paintings @clarecarver and www.clarecarver.com

Thank you again, we still pinch ourselves regularly!

Cheers from our table to yours!

Brian, clare and the team at big table farm!

Last but not least from the sales and marketing side of the house! We are super excited to announce something new!!!

the big table ‘farm box’

11 bottles of our wine plus a local gift from our table to yours.

We are so happy to bring you a box that inspires you to open a bottle and cook a meal and share it with friends.

when you sign up for the farm box you get 11 big table wines including allocated or library wine 2x's a year along with a special curated product that we use on our table along with a big table farm recipe.

We are bringing our family of local producers that grace our table to you and hope it inspires connection and creativity.

We are keeping this simple - 2 boxes annually Fall and Spring, ground shipping included to your door you pay $700 2x's a year (min 1 year commitment) or a monthly payment of $117 per month (plus local tax)

If you would like us to follow up with you about the farm box just fill out this form and we’ll give you a call or text

This fall we will include a 375 ML bottle of Arbequina Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Durant Olive Mill and Vineyard in the Dundee Hills and a recipe that will pair with the below big table farm wines!

Fall Farm Box Includes the following
11 winemaker selections:

1 Library wine (this fall it's the ‘18 Pelos Sandberg Vineyard) at current release pricing!
2023 Sunnyside Vineyard Pinot Noir (2)
2023 Yamhill Carlton Pinot Noir (3)
2023 Cattrall Brothers Vineyard Pinot Noir (2)
2023 Yamhill Carlton Chardonnay (1)
2023 Eola Amity Chardonnay (1)
2024 Pinot Gris (1)

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