Fresh grapes from Oregon, in Oregon?

[waygorked]

Just in case someone has a good answer for this and missed my other thread,

Does anyone know of a good source for fresh grapes in Portland, OR? I want to step up from kits this year. I live in the Wilamette Valley, and want to make an Oregon Pinot. There are a few local shops that do fresh grapes, but all of them come in from the Yakima Valley AVA. Nice, but not what I'm after. Brehm is local, but they only do frozen juice pails, 5 gallons instead of the 6 that I need, and nothing from the Wilammette valley AVA. I have a friend that is the marketing director for one of the big wineries in town, and he has been calling his friends for a week now, with no success. Tons of places are happy to give me a ton or two, but the request for 200lbs is falling on deaf ears.

Any ideas?

 

[seth8530]

Hmm, might want to talk to some local wineries and see if you can buddy up on their harvest. Try around, see what you can find. Maybe a local brew store or wine club might be wanting to get some in?

Otherwise, you could order from juice grape.

 

[codeman]

Subscribed. I live in Gresham and would like to buy some grapes.

 

[waygorked]

So far, I've come up with this:

http://portland.craigslist.org/yam/grd/4645617761.html

That's deep in the heart of Yamhill-Carlton, my favorite AVA, down the street from Elk Cove, which is nothing to sneeze at. All of my favorite local pinots rely heavily on clone 667, and he has them. Wine Spectator loves Elk Cove estate wines. A buck a pound for u-pick. I'd rather have someone else pick and destem them, however.

There is this dude in Oregon City, offering a slightly better deal, but outside of the Wilamette Valley:

http://portland.craigslist.org/clc/grd/4638990003.html

 

[Boatboy24]

A buck a pound! Nice!

 

[waygorked]

Just got back from visiting Mike in Gaston, with 300lbs of Pinot Noir and 100lbs of Chardonnay. Pinot brix was 24.5, pH 3.6, TA 6.8. K-meta and pectic enzyme added, yeast goes in tomorrow.

It begins...

 

[seth8530]

Brix are a tid high, but overall those are some really good numbers!

 

[ibglowin]

It has been a warm growing season in the PNW so not surprised at the Brix. Overall looks like really good fruit!

 

[homesteader26]

Following along here to learn - how much wine will 400 lbs of grapes yield? I'm on my first four 5 gallon buckets with Concord grapes - have no idea what I'm doing so your wine making sounds big scale to me!! Good luck!! Can't wait to hear how it goes!

 

[waygorked]

So far, so good. Today will be one week after yeast addition. Knowing that it would be hot out in the garage, we went with about 15% whole cluster fermentation to slow the process down and add some complexity. Las night brix was about 9, and we should be pressing in 3 days. The 667 tastes markedly different from the 114/115, big and jammy vs tangy minerality. The acidity in the 113/115 seems to be going up a bit, so last night I scooped out the cap and macerated the heck out of it, on the assumption that I was getting some carbonic acid development. Both pinots taste and smell fantastic at the moment.

It's early to tell, but I suspect we should get about 7 gallons per 100lb of pinot. The need to press the chard grapes whole limits the juice yield. Had I known, we would have picked another 25 lbs. We wound up with just over 5 gallons from 100 lbs.

 

[seth8530]

Sound promising, keep us in the loop!