Bergström Wines

2015 Harvest Report: 

We have finished the Chardonnay harvest with the Temperance Hill Vineyard which looked and tasted amazing!  All Chardonnay is now in barrel happily bubbling away.  The early picked Chardonnay from Le Pre du Col and the Bergstrom Vineyard are finished with their primary fermentations and beginning their secondary fermentations.

The Chardonnays this year look to be exactly what we set out to create:  classic wines in aroma, texture and structure and I am very excited about their potential. Hang time between bloom and harvest was anywhere from 90-110 days which is ideal.  Juices turned from pulpy green and herbaceous to golden in color with ripe flavors very quickly, so we had to be ready and in the vineyard rows sampling every day to pick each vineyard at the perfect time.  Two days too late would have made totally different wines.  Two years in a row, late summer vacations and market work have been cancelled in favor of harvesting Chardonnay at the perfect moment…. No regrets.

You can see where Pinot Noir gets its name…. black fruit this vintage

Meanwhile, Pinot Noir is cruising right along.  We have picked all of the Bergstrom Vineyard, The Winery Block, Le Pre du col, 80% of Silice, 50% of Croft and three blocks of Shea.   We have not touched Gregory Ranch or Temperance Hill yet.  So we are still only about 70% in on the Pinot Noir.

So far we have been pro-active in our picks trying to get early fruit with higher natural acidity and low sugars, knowing that the higher sugars and lower acids would definitely come in a hot and dry year such as this one.  That bet has paid off and I am happy that we have such brightness in the cellar prior to letting a lot of fruit hang 2+ weeks longer.  The balance will be in the blending one year from now.

Pressing out some early whole cluster tanks

But for as hot and as dry and as long as this summer has been, the vines are not as stressed out as I would have imagined.  The fruit has an equilibrium of sorts.  I like what I am seeing despite worrying that most of this year would be about big alcoholic wines.  They are anything but at this point.  The first Pinot Noirs we have pressed off smell and taste of fruity perfume with bright and tangy acidities.  Juicy and sweet but serious wines.   It is hard to put a finger on this vintage just yet.  We have a lot of work still in front of us.

After three weeks of harvesting it is easy to start getting into rhythms of work and staying indoors all day working with pumps and hoses and tanks and juice but it is very important to get out of doors and smell, see and experience the autumn.  I often times lament that I miss the Fall because of harvest.   It is right in front of me but because of cellar work, I spend a lot of my day indoors.  But I love this time of year and will do anything to get out and breathe in the seasonal change that is in the air.

Autumn in Oregon brings so many sensory experiences.  I love the smells and the colors and the feeling of it all.  Fall here boasts sweet and pungent smells of vegetative decay mingling with forest fire smoke. As harvested grain and wet thirsty soil receives moisture for the first time the aromas are somewhere between compost, marijuana and the malty fermenting smell after a fraternity/sorority barn dance.  I love it.

The sunrises and sunsets are laden with big vibrant pinks, oranges and yellows that we won’t see for several more months once winter arrives.   Periodic rainbows (and double rainbows) bless the sky this time of year and light up the tired foliage on trees which is yellowing and beginning to wilt and float towards the ground.   Coyotes and quail and pheasants are a daily sight in the vineyard rows now empty of fruit. Triangles of migratory birds squawk overhead on their southern trajectory.  They are hungry and instinctual, sensing the seasonal change, especially with the diurnal swing in nighttime temperatures.  It is a time for enjoying great meals with hearty, earthy satisfying Pinot Noir and for soaking up the fleeting light.

Nature’s calendar is in motion and we cannot do a thing to stop it. Powerless but inspired  with clothes and hands stained from sweet fermenting grape juice we stand atop Calkins Lane and believe in what we do more than ever.  To be a part of this age old tradition, on one of the earth’s most beautiful places is a gift and we do not take it for granted.  Every day of harvest is a beautiful one and I am reminded daily that I would never trade what I do for something else.

Lily approves of the vintage quality

Busy we are and busier we will be for the next week as we target the rest of our Pinot Noir.  Temperance Hill, Gregory Ranch and the rest of Silice and Shea Vineyards will come in over the next 7 days.  The end of the picking is near but a month of fermentation lies ahead.

Growing up on Cumberland Road in Northwest Portland in the 1970s through the 1990s our family witnessed a cultural renaissance happening in our neighborhood and others which was reminiscent of a European community where neighborhoods, led by a wave of skilled and passionate artisan Portlanders, began supporting locally owned businesses such as bakeries, butchers, coffee roasters, beer breweries, wineries, farmer markets, organic cooperatives and more. Restaurants began to showcase dishes that were made up of ingredients grown within the local environs that were fresh and seasonal and spoke of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Inspired by these artisans and this new movement, we wanted to be a part of this movement and so we joined our fellow Portlanders in sharing our culinary discoveries with friends and family from afar, and eventually the world learned of Oregon's rich bounty. From the beginning, Bergström Wines has maintained our mission of not only supporting Northwest locally owned and operated businesses, but of becoming one of Oregon's artisanal producers ourselves with world class aspirations. Our goal is and will always be to craft great Oregon Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays that pair seamlessly with the unparalleled produce that thrives in our unique corner of the world so that we too may help to share the Oregon story with the world.

When John and Karen Bergström began Bergström Wines, they wanted to start a business that would become a legacy for their children and pay tribute to John's agricultural Swedish upbringing. With these dreams in mind, the couple moved from Portland to Dundee, where they planted the Bergström Vineyard on a gentle, 13-acre, south-facing slope overlooking the wide expanses of the Willamette Valley.

In 1999, Josh Bergström, the fourth of five children, returned home to Dundee from a postgraduate program in Viticulture and Enology in the Burgundy region of France. With him, he brought his fiancée Caroline, and the two were married that fall in the Bergström Vineyard. Bergström Wines was also born that fall as the young couple harvested their first vintage of Pinot Noir from high-quality fruit purchased at a neighboring winery. Currently, Josh is general manager, winemaker and vineyard manager at Bergström Wines, and Caroline manages the sales team.

Our family business traces its roots to our father John Bergström's Swedish heritage and the love he developed for the Pacific Northwest. John grew up in a small agricultural and logging village in northern Sweden. As a young teenager, he set out by himself for Oregon, eager to follow the American dream of creating a life better than the one he knew as a child. Ultimately, he became a surgeon, created a successful medical practice and raised five children in his new homeland. After many years, John decided to return to his agricultural roots and pursue his dream of winegrowing, eventually founding Bergström Winery. Today, John and Karen Bergström are proud parents who have helped establish a flourishing business and who enjoy traveling the world sharing Bergström Wines and its vision with fellow wine enthusiasts.

Now, 17 years after its inception, Bergström Wines is still family owned and operated. The winery's ownership is shared between John and Karen Bergström and Josh and Caroline Bergström. Bergström Wines consists of five estate vineyards totaling 84 acres that span across four of the Willamette Valley's best appellations: The Bergström Vineyard, de Lancellotti Vineyard, The winery Block, Gregory Ranch and Le Pré du Col. Each estate vineyard is farmed without the use of harsh chemicals, systemic or fertilizers, and the winery produces approximately 9,000 cases of ultra-premium and extremely sought-after wine each year, including two Chardonnays and nine different Pinot Noirs.

John and Karen Bergström planted Bergström Vineyard in the spring of 1999. Situated on a south-facing slope overlooking the northern Willamette Valley, this 13-acre vineyard is rooted in the ferrous, red clays of the Dundee Hills, a sprawling volcanic island of rock where hazelnuts, black walnuts and cane berries have thrived for more than a century. Here, bright orange poppies grow alongside thistle, ryegrass, violets and chamomile. Oak trees and Douglas firs pepper the hills with roots rife with black truffles, and the forest floor harbors an array of wild mushrooms. In short, this vineyard lives in an epicurean Eden—the perfect place to grow complex, intensely fruited, deeply satisfying wines.

Ideally situated, the vines at Bergström Vineyard are bathed in the warm sunlight of the Oregon summer by day and cooled by the marine breezes of the Pacific Ocean by night, leading to freshness, vibrancy and structure in the final wines. Because the vine roots stretch deep into the volcanic basalt below the surface of the hillside, wines from this vineyard also embody true minerality. The site expresses purity, as well. No invasive chemicals have been used at Bergström Vineyard in more than 12 years, and we are proud to be biodynamic.

Six Pinot Noir clones (Pommard, Wädenswil and Dijon clones 114, 115, 667 and 777) and three Chardonnay clones (Dijon clones 37, 76 and 548) call Bergström Vineyard home, and we use fruit from this site to make our Bergström Vineyard Pinot Noir, Cumberland Reserve Pinot Noir, and Sigrid Chardonnay. Characteristically, Bergström Vineyard Pinot Noirs are rich and decadent but known for their elegance with great red fruit flavors and aromas as well as lovely floral perfume and distinct minerality. Layers of flowers, fruit and minerals are also trademarks of Chardonnays from this site, along with tremendous length, balanced acidity and outstanding ageability.