Vineyard row in the Pepper Bridge VineyardIt is getting on towards the end of June and the vineyards are done blooming. I get to see Pepper Bridge Vineyard on a pretty regular basis, basically everyday, so it is fun to see how the bloom moves along. Each varietal blooms at a different pace, and different areas of the vineyard move along quicker than others. Most notably, the sections of vineyard adjacent to the asphalt driveway are the quickest to bud out and the quickest to bloom. So it is easy to see all of the various stages of bloom all at the same time within the vineyard just by walking a little bit. Blooms on the vineThe blooms themselves are not very impressive. Even when fully flowering the blooms are easy to miss, they look a bit more like white hairs than flowers. Grape vines are pretty amazing plants in that they don't need any assistance from insects because they are self pollinating. Once the flowers are pollinated the grapes set and little bb sized fruit starts to grow. The blooms are all finished in Pepper Bridge Vineyard and the fruit is set. Fruit set on the vineIt appears that the fruit has set pretty evenly given that we had a bit of damage from cold weather in the winter. So Jean-François is looking forward to a nice yield this fall. In July the vineyard crew will go through and start the process of thinning out the clusters, grapes that did not set properly, and clusters that are in the wrong spots on the vine. Pepper Bridge VineyardSo for now the grapes will be left alone to grow. The crew will be out in the vineyard doing some lateral thinning of leaves to give the clusters more room, air, and sunlight to get growing. We just need some more warm sunny days to get things going.

Assistant Winemaker Tim KerriganMalbec was the subject of our most recent tasting with the Pepper Bridge/Amavi staff. Malbec has become such a hot grape here in Walla Walla, it seems like everybody is making one these days. Jean-François always makes a little bit of Malbec for blending into both the Merlot and Cab, 10 barrels in 2008 . But I do believe that it will be impossible to talk him into bottling a 100% Malbec. One on the best reasons being that at the moment there is a whopping 6 acres of Malbec planted in the Pepper Bridge Vineyard, and we only get 1 of those acres. If Jean-François were to bottle Malbec all by itself he wouldn't have enough left for blending and it seems to be one of his secret weapons, great color, great fruit, and earthiness. Pulling a sample of Pepper Bridge malbec

So we compared a classic French Malbec from Cahors, an Argentinian bottle, a local Walla Walla Malbec, and a barrel sample of 2008 Pepper Bridge Malbec. All of these wines were delicious and good representations of the varietal. The French bottle from Chateau Haut-Monplaisir was full of dark fruit and earth, very French. We tasted a bottle from 2003 and I think that it surprised everyone with how fresh and young it was. Achaval-Ferrer was our Argentinian bottle. Very fruity and food friendly and a total bargain at $17.99. From Walla Walla we tasted the 2006 Seven Hills Winery Malbec. It is a very nice bottle of wine and I think that it is a good representation of the varietal. Their fruit comes from vineyards that are adjacent to the Seven Hills Vineyard, about 10 miles from the Pepper Bridge Vineyard, the source for our Malbec grapes. The Pepper Bridge Malbec, even coming out of the barrel in an unfinished state, was fruity and floral with lots of earth and fantastic color. I would say that it seemed to fall in between France and Argentina style wise. Not as earthy and rustic as the French, and not quite as fruity and juicy as the Argentinian. Really I guess that means that Malbec does pretty well here in Walla Walla. The only unfortunate part being that the only way to taste Pepper Bridge Malbec is 3-5% at a time.Tasting 2008 Malbec

Wow this summer is action packed for Pepper Bridge. There are wine events and pourings every week for the next few months and Pepper Bridge staff will be all over Washington State and beyond. This weekend is the Seattle Wine Awards' Grand Awards Tasting. The 2006 Merlot received a double gold, the highest rating, so we will be featured at this pouring along with the other award winners. It should be quite an event featuring some of the very best wines in Washington State all in the posh Rainier Club. Our winemaker, Jean-François, is in Hawaii this weekend for the Kapalua Wine & Food Festival on Maui. He will be pouring Pepper Bridge wines and participating in a seminar featuring the geology, and of course the wines of the Walla Walla Valley. Friday, June 19th we will be pairing up with Abeja and Longshadows for a winemaker dinner for the 2009 Wine Country Celebration. Dinner at Longshadows with all that great wine plus Norm McKibben? How could you go wrong? Our tasting room manager Lisa will be on hand for the Taste Washington Spokaneon the 21st of June. More than 100 wineries all under one roof, the Davenport Hotel roof, to be exact. If you are in Spokane it would be an excellent way to spend Father's Day. July kicks off with a winemaker dinner here in Walla Walla at T. Maccarone's Restaurant on July 2nd. Chef Jacob Crenshaw will be pairing a delicious five course meal with both Pepper Bridge and Amavi wines. Next, Jean-François dashes off to Bozeman, Montana for the Museum of the Rockies Wine Classic on the 11th of July. It is an excellent event that benefits the museum and features great wines from around the Pacific Northwest. Maybe there will be a little fly-fishing that weekend as well. Both Pepper Bridge and Amavi will be participating in the International Wine & Heart Health Summit on July 15th-18th here in Walla Walla. In addition to tasting great Washington wines the conference will be exploring the links between wine and health, aka drink more wine be healthier/happier. You can find out more info at winesummit@comcast.net . July wraps up with a winemaker weekend at the Marcus Whitman Hotel. Pepper Bridge and Abeja will be pairing up for a dinner on Saturday the 26th plus a reception on Friday and tastings on Saturday afternoon. Definitely a dynamic duo. So that is it so far for June and July. August updates a little later.

Pepper Bridge VineyardNow that it is June here in Walla Walla, summer seems to have finally arrived. Grapevine begining to bloomWe have had a few weeks now of warm weather and the vineyard is loving it. Lots of sun shine and temperatures in the upper 80s has really kicked the vineyard into high gear. It seems like this time of year you can watch the vines growing. Antonio in the vineyardBy the time we leave the winery in the evening the shoots seem to have grown 3 inches since the morning. All of this quick growth means lots of work for the vineyard crew. This is the time of year for shoot thinning. Even after all of the pruning from the early spring the vines still have a tendency to put out too much growth. Manuel shoot thinningThe target amount of growth for each vine is two canes per spur on the cordon, so the vineyard crew is out pulling off the extra shoots. They have to work quickly but they do have to be careful with which shoots they remove. They have to keep an eye on which canes are bearing fruit and which canes they will want to use next year, all while trying to work quickly because the vineyard is continuing to grow and there is a fair amount of acreage that needs thinning. Horacio hard at workIt always really impresses me that the vineyard crew can work so fast and be so meticulous at the same time. I know that I wouldn't be able to keep up with them.Grapevine after thinning

There has been a flurry of activity along Pepper Bridge Road the last few weeks. Earth movers and road graders have been busy building a drive way and a site for a barrel room. Pepper Bridge's sister winery, Amavi Cellars, is moving to the neighborhood! Amavi has outgrown its current  tasting room on 13th St. in Walla Walla. The new location is going to be bigger and of course better. Not only is Amavi going to have a lovely site amongst the grapevines in the Pepper Bridge Vineyard, they are going to have a fabulous view of Pepper Bridge Winery. Well I guess that they will have a nice view of the Blue Mountains too. I know that Patty, Eric, and George will all miss the lovely view of Mill Creek and of course the concrete company that they currently get to enjoy, but I am sure that they will become accustomed to the new location. It is pretty rough working with a view of vineyards, mountains, apples, alfalfa, and blue sky, not to mention all of the wildlife and birds that we have in the neighborhood. I am sure that they will learn to adjust eventually. At Pepper Bridge we are excited because we will finally be able to spy on one another. We have yet to decide whether we will use flags or smoke signals for communication, perhaps we will fall back to e-mail. Either way it is going to be very fun to have Amavi just across the way. Now visitors to Pepper Bridge won't have such a long drive to go and taste the other wines made by Jean-Francois. It is always nice to welcome one more great winery to a neighborhood full of great wines. Thank you Dana Lane for all the excellent photos. Cheers