WE ONLY HAVE 25 TICKETS LEFT for the 2008 International Pinot Noir Celebration! We expect to sell out very soon and we don't want you to miss the opportunity to enjoy the most internationally inclusive wine event of its time! Celebrate with winemakers and taste over 100 Pinot Noir wines from Burgundy, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Austria, California, and Oregon.

Registration is easy with a visit to the IPNC website or a call to the IPNC office at 800.775.4762.

Our friends in the Southern Hemisphere have just finished the 2008 harvest. Lynnette Hudson of Pegasus Bay shares her thougths on the vintage...

Scientists seem to be saying that global warming will result in extreme weather patterns. This sums up our growing season for 2008. The spring was very warm and dry and this continued into summer – a drought summer and the hottest summer in over 10 years. Then in February, just as veraison was starting, we had a large rain storm which was much needed. Rain showers were scattered here and there in February and early March. Luckily the sun returned in March allowing us to harvest the Pinot at perfect maturity. The intense heat of the summer certainly helped to remove any herbal flavours and gave us great seed ripeness. The seeds were very brown and crunchy at harvest.

Interestingly we had just had the esteemed Oregonian scientist Steve Price lecturing to us at our Southern Pinot Noir workshop about the importance of berry moisture content and surface berry moisture content. If the drought had continued then we would have seen a lot of shrivel but due to the rain we had, it resulted in good physiological maturity with lower sugar levels, which does not often happen in New Zealand. As a result we have Pinots with ripe but not over-ripe flavours, showing a lot of elegance and finesse with alcohols around 13% instead of the usual 14-14.5%.

We are extremely excited about the vintage and look forward to seeing their development in barrel and eventually the bottle.

Regards, Lynnette

Join us for the Sunday afternoon Passport to Pinot! The Passport to Pinot is the largest annual outdoor tasting in Oregon and is a favorite among local food and wine lovers.

As a pocket-sized version of the IPNC weekend, Passport to PInot gives you the unique chance to meet and taste with over 60 Pinot Noir winemakers from around the world. Enjoy food created with local ingredients by over ten of the Northwest's top chefs including:

Paul Bachand
Fred Carlo, Salumeria di Carlo
Paul Duncan, Tabla
Ken Forkish, Ken's Artisan Bakery
Laurie Furch, Red Fox Bakery
Pierre Kolisch, Juniper Grove Farm
Autumn Martin, Theo Chocolate
Johnny Nunn, Restaurant 503
Robert Partida, La Rambla
Robert Reynolds, Robert Reynolds Chefs' Studio
Adam Sappington, The Country Cat

Passport is full of all the things I want out of a tasting: wines from some of the best Pinot producers in the world, complimented by foods from some of the great restaurants in the area, all in one afternoon.

- Anna Matzinger, Winemaker, Archery Summit