vines
harvest 2023
oct 2023
With ferments just settling down, wines going into barrel, and the winery finally back in order from the chaos of harvest, we have been reflecting on what made this harvest- and the upcoming releases- different.
Compared to 2022, harvest started much earlier this year and has moved quickly, with all of our fruit arriving in the cellar by the second week of October. It was a breath of fresh air (literally, less fires!) to have a more “typical” Washington state growing season after the more extreme conditions the last few years. The weather wasn’t too hot or cold, and there wasn’t copious amounts of rain either. The crop is significantly smaller this year than in 2022 with high concentration, intense flavors, and even ripening. By the time that the last of the grapes were picked, we had already bottled several pet-nats, including some new experiments and some secret projects. It is shaping up to be an amazing vintage, with many exciting new projects, partnerships, and collaborations underway.
As always we are extremely grateful for our harvest crew who braved a whirlwind harvest, all with a stellar sense of humor and amazing work ethic.
If we had to assign a word to this vintage, it would be healthy. The impacts of growing and sourcing organic grapes continues to amaze us in the cellar. Every bin of grapes we brought in, whether from our estate vineyard, or from our partner growers across Washington state, were exceptionally robust and healthy. A greater marker for this health is YAN (yeast assimilable nitrogen) - a measure of how much nitrogen is available for yeast to consume during fermentation, essentially indicating how strong the fermentation will be. Nitrogen is a critical grape which affects the rate and completion of fermentation, fermentation bouquet and style of wine. Despite sounding less than exciting, our YAN was incredible this year, with all our fruit coming in at the ideal YAN levels. Our ferments were fast and powerful, with absolutely no supplements of any kind needed.
One of the main pillars in our approach to natural winemaking is a commitment to natural ferments, no matter the environmental circumstances. Each year we have enjoyed the terroir reflected in the subtle flavors released from the natural fermentations, however this year, we cannot wait to taste the hardiness of such healthy vineyards reflected in the wines.
The runner up for the harvest theme this year is patience. While the pét-nats we make are fruit forward, light, and easy drinking, we have typically not aged them for extended periods of time. The past couple of harvest we have been holding a few pét-nats back to experiment with the impact of time and extended aging.
Several wines, harvested in 2020, 2021, and 2022, have benefited from time in bottle, and are tasting better than ever. Joining the 2022 vintage releases next year, will be the reserve pét-nats that we have been holding on to. While they are delicious, it has definitely been an exercise in patience for us over in the cellar. We have been anticipating sharing these wines for what feels like years, and we are so excited to finally open these bottles with you.
natural vineyard sprays
jun 2023
While there are many certified organic vineyard sprays, we opt to make our own- going far beyond the organic standards to minimize chemical inputs at our estate vineyard. Brewing up compost teas, and holistic sprays is not only a fun exercise in fermentation, but it is also a great tool for maintaining healthy vines and soils.
I have been using holistic sprays in the vineyard over the last few years. We combine these teas into our spray program, along with neem oil, liquid kelp, and compost tea to promote soil health and reduce chemical usage in the vineyard. Personally, I think that less additives in the vineyard produces fruit that is healthier with a truer flavor. Because of the natural processes that we use in the cellar, this is a better place to start from when fermenting naturally. I want the fruit to be as natural as possible for it to have good nutrient content to kick start fermentation off strong. It's pretty normal for conventional winemakers to add nutrients artificially during the fermentations, but for organic/biodynamic farming this is really a priority if you want to try and have healthy fermentations that are less likely to have issues with microbial spoilage.
Two examples of fermented teas I’ve brewed up and used in our spray program at Stonemarker are a horsetail herb tea and a stinging nettle tea. The horsetail herb was foraged in Eastern WA, while the stinging nettles are found and collected on our property at the base of the vineyard, along Coldwell Creek. These plants are rich in bioavailable silica, calcium and other beneficial micro-nutrients that help to fortify the plant’s immune system.
Using natural methods for maintaining soil health, controlling vine pests and diseases, and combating weeds and mildew creates visible changes at the Stonemarker. Ultimately, we feel that responsible farming is not only important for protecting our environment, but results in healthier soil and better quality fruit.
harvest 2022
nov 2022
Wonderfully smoke-free and much more temperate than the past few years, the 2022 harvest was refreshing for Eastern Washington winemakers. As usual we have some updates to our portfolio - including some that you might not expect.
A refreshing change from the past few years of high prolonged heat, unpredictable weather, and severe wildfires, the 2022 vintage is an exciting one for Pét Project. Due to a wetter and cooler growing season, yields were higher than 2021, but without compromising quality. Better for us- more wine! Many of our staple wines like Syrah, Chenin Blanc, and of course piquettes are returning in this years’ line-up with the personality of 2022, however we are also introducing a few novelties that are new to us in the cellar.
Inspired by our trip to France this summer, we decided to harvest a few new varietals and have started to rethink our approach to aging. After trying 12+ year old pét-nats in the Loire Valley, it inspired us to consider what our wines would taste like after aging on the lees. So this year, we are holding onto a few varietals that we have typically released in the Spring allowing them to live, grow, and develop in bottle. We look forward to sharing with the US how more time in the bottle will positively affect these wines- trust us, the patience pays off.
One of the wines we are the most excited about, is our second vintage of our estate rosé. Because our limited production 2021 Estate Rosé magnums were so well received, and the young vines have had another year to establish and develop, we are increasing production, and releasing 750ml bottles in addition to a limited run of the coveted 1.5Ls. A stunning rosé, and a perfect representation of Stonemarker fruit, it is not a wine to miss. Equally exciting is the new vintage of the ever-popular Orange Cuvée. This second vintage includes Gewürztraminer in addition to the Riesling, Pinot Gris and Muscat- completing the superfecta of the four noble grapes of Alsace. Alsacian wine is all about bright acidity balanced by floral and peachy aromas and full, rich palates. Typically, the producers in Alsace do not use oak aging to add spice and richness, instead they rely on a balance of ripeness and alcohol to fill out the flavor. This year’s Orange Cuvée will be an ode to this style.
Now for the least expected new wine this year. In lieu of a cider, I brought in organic pears from one of our favorite partner vineyards, Pear Ridge in the Columbia Gorge. A co-ferment of grapes and pears, this hybrid is perfect for easy drinking and was a ton of fun to play with in the cellar. Not giving away too much now- so stay tuned for more this Spring.
harvest 2021
oct 2021
After a few of the most challenging vintage years we've seen in Washington, 2021 was a great vintage year for us, even with the record breaking heat.
The 2021 vintage has been particularly intense- with all our grapes picked and processed by the end of September, almost an entire month earlier than last year. Despite high, prolonged heat beginning early in the summer (the temp was hanging out at and above 100 degrees for almost a month), we had a great harvest with all the recent changes at the winery finally coming to fruition. Though wildfires and smoke were still important factors over the course of the growing season, smoke levels were minimal compared to last year. We are excited to be able to use a little more skin contact on a few of our pét-nats this vintage without fear of smoke impact.
Our entire 2021 vintage came from certified organic vineyards. We sourced from a few new vineyards: Red Boar, just outside of Walla Walla, and Foundry Vineyard’s very own estate vineyard, Stonemarker.
Now that the vineyard has been certified, we are able to source from our estate for a Pét Project wine. At Stonemarker we try to go above and beyond certified organic standards and this year we were actually aided by the dry season. Arid conditions created very little mildew pressure and because of this, we only sprayed 5 times this season which is about half as much as is usually needed. We also opted not to use sulfur and instead made organic neem oil our primary spray, supplemented by some homemade compost tea,infused with fermented horsetail and fermented nettle teas (herbs that grow wild at the creek and wetland area just at the base of the vineyard). Stay tuned to learn more about our vineyard management and future plans for Stonemarker.
As we have in the past few years, we are also adding new wines to our 2021 portfolio but we kept a few familiar favorites around. The Chenin Blanc from Arete Vineyard, Conley Syrah, and Pinot Gris from Pear Ridge (formerly Acadia Vineyard)- all crowd favorites from last year- will make reappearances. New to the lineup will be a Muscat Ottonel from Red Boar Vineyard. For this single varietal, we will do various degrees of skin contact on this grape to feel out it’s potential. It’s an exciting and lively grape that will make an amazing addition to the array of colors, textures and flavors that we offer. We are also ramping up production on piquettes, the ever popular wine-like beverages which means we will be “re-cycling” more of our byproducts from the winemaking process.
harvest 2020
nov 2020
Fires. Drought. Climate change. Vineyards were not exempt from the environmental hardships of 2020. See how we took on the challenges of this year to produce an incredible line up of wines.
The 2020 vintage was a big year of changes at the winery. We made the decision to go full tilt on organic certifications for all of our wines. This lets you know you can trust that everything made under the pét project label came from vetted sources and contains no SO2 (check out the section on organic practices for more info on the certification process in the US). The growing season was relatively predictable, however as harvest approached, severe smoke from fires in California and parts of the Pacific Northwest created a lot of uncertainty. Because of potential smoke taint, we avoided the use of any skin contact on our whites this year, which saved us from serious smoke impact.
We purchased fruit from Arete Vineyard this year, a new (to us) vineyard in the Columbia Valley AVA near the town of Othello, WA. This vineyard has some of the oldest Chenin Blanc and Gewürztraminer in Washington State (38 years old!). Also joining the line-up: Riesling and Syrah. Along with the new wines we tried a few new wine-making techniques (both during fermentation and in the cellar) in an effort to continually push for more complexity and diversity of flavor in our pet-nats.
Both the Syrah and the Gewürztraminer were started using carbonic maceration to naturally boost aromatics and fruit intensity. This process is most famously used in Beaujolais to produce lively, fruit-forward wines. For us the process begins by adding the grapes to a tank with a little pied de cuve and some dry ice to purge the tanks of oxygen (see our notes on native fermentation to learn more about pied de cuve). The tank is closed off with a fermentation lock which allows gas to escape without letting oxygen enter. The absence of oxygen allows the fruit to begin an anaerobic fermentation and over the course of several days the fruit begins fermenting from the inside out. The Gewürztraminer spent one week in these conditions while the Syrah spent about 10 days.
Also new this year, we utilized more pressure tanks in our production. Typically, with our hand-disgorged pet-nats we bottle just before fermentation completes followed by 3-4 months of lees aging, then disgorging. With this new method we add the fermenting wine into a pressure tank at about the same time it would typically go into bottle. The tank is locked down and the wine completes its fermentation, building CO2. After a settling period we bottle the wine under pressure off a higher racking port, leaving the sediment behind. This process does two things: it gives the wine less time on the lees, and it allows us to bypass the disgorging process while maintaining a naturally sparkling wine without filtration or additives.
