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Our Day at Nicholas Estate Vineyard, Home of Anam Cara Cellars, Nick and Sheila Nicholas, owners.
It all started with a phone call from my sister Lisa, who is very involved with the Chehalem Water Polo Club.  Her kids have played in the club over the years (as well as the Newberg schools) and she got to know Nick and Sheila because their daughter also played.  When the club has done auctions to earn money for travel to tournaments, Nick and Sheila have donated generously

So this year, Lisa called me to let me know about the auction and whether I was interested in any of the wine items that might get donated.  Chehalem in "smack" in the middle of the North Willamette Valley where so much of the Oregon wine is "created".  I said sure, let me know what comes up.  Well, I was in Bend, OR when the final call came in, Lisa asked if I wanted to bid on a "lot" of red wine, I said sure, what kinds of wine are in it? "oh, just some cabs, some Italian, just a  mix of bottles".  Sounded right up my alley, so I said yeah, bid on it for me.  Then she called and asked, "what about a chance to work in a winery, have them cook you dinner and some of their wine?"  I said, "which winery?", she said, "Anam Cara, owned by Nick and Sheila". I said "sure why not, I have never heard of them, but should be fun, go for it".

Lisa did a great job of bidding, I donated quite a bit for the privilege of drinking a lot of wine and getting to know a new winery and their owners and what it is like to do it all.  This was back in March and finally, it was time to get to know "what I won" :)

The words Anam Cara are Celtic for “friend of my soul”

Nick and Sheila  Nicholas
Sheila got in touch to let me know that we wouldn't be doing anything until fall, that way we could be a part of the harvest.  I said sure, sounds good to me.  I waited and waited, I didn't want summer to end, but I sure did want September or October to get here so that I could experience what it was like to own a vineyard and to make your own wine. 

The weather was tricky this fall, Sheila called a couple of times saying it was getting close, but not quite yet.  Jim and I headed over to Idaho for September, knowing we were going to be in Oregon for October.  That was to be the right move because it was finally time to pick!  On October 5th, Jim and I got up early, ate breakfast, got dressed for a day in the vineyards.  I was so excited, I don't think I slept much that night.

We headed over to the their house. Sheila was watching for us, as we drove up through the vineyard, the vineyard manager Buddy was working with a crew chief of grape pickers already at work.  Big bins of beautiful deep purple pinot noir grapes were already sitting in bins to be sent to the winery for sorting and de-stemming.

We got to know each other a little, had a cup of coffee and then we were off!  As you go through the pictures, you get a chance to follow along on our day.  After the harvesting of the grapes, we went back to the kitchen to have some lunch, then it was off to the winery to sort & watch the de-stemming.  Nick was our tour guide for this part of the day.  Enjoy the day with us, it was a special treat and worth the price we paid for the auction.

 
Luscious, yummy, ready to pick, Pinot Noir grapes.  These are going to make an awesome bottle of wine, you better hope that you are going to find this bottle.  I tasted a few of these, WOW, they pack a punch of intense fruit. Be glad that Nick's style is to show off the grape and not the barrel.     Be so VERY GLAD ;) 
Trellised vines, Pinot Noir vines to be exact.  Look carefully, you can see the grapes hanging on the bottom.  There is so much to know, so much to learn  about how certain grapes grow and how they need to be trellised to get the right sun, wind, and protection. It all means whether the grape will grow up to be wine or to end up on the ground for bird food or fertilizer. 

Buddy, the vineyard manager, makes sure all is going, growing well in the vineyard.
The Nicholas Estate Vineyards, with contract workers doing what they do best, harvesting the Pinot Noir grapes.  They are amazing to watch, for this contract, they get paid $1.00 per bucket and we were told those that really hustled and knew what they were doing could do 12 buckets an hour.  Once the bucket was full, they ran, literally ran to dump their buckets and ran back to where they were starting to fill the next bucket.  They would carry two buckets per person, to minimize the trips to the grape bin where they dumped them.
A bin of Pinot Noir grapes, destined for a beautiful bottle of Anam Cara Pinot Noir.  Jim and I were lucky enough to get 3 bottles of 2003 Pinot and WOW (love the word right now), fruit, lots of wonderful, chewy, warm, dark, red fruit.  We enjoyed two of the bottles by ourselves, we shared the last with friends (it was hard, but we wanted others to know about the wine) with a wonderful dinner prepared by friends (more on that later).
One of our tasks was to help Sheila move the "squawk" boxes from the blocks of the vineyard that had already been picked to other blocks that had not been picked.  The boxes make a noise of a BIG predatory bird to frighten the smaller birds away from the grapes.  When the grapes are so close to harvest, the birds can be a really big issue.  This year it was the Cedar Waxwing that was attacking the fruit.
After we got done moving the bird squawk boxes, we headed over to learn how to pick grapes.  I am not sure that pick is the right word, harvest might be a better term, since you don't pick them, you actually cut the stalk to get the full cluster of grapes.  Here is Sheila giving Jim a lesson in where/how/when to pick the cluster of grapes.
Here we are working the same row, Jim towards the end, one of the contract workers in-between us, then me.  I want to bring to your attention the yellow bins that we are using.  These are bins for Domaine Drouhin.  What a coup for Nick and Sheila!  She called on Monday to verify that we were coming on Tuesday and mentioned that Veronique Drouhin called and wanted 2 tons of their grapes!  What a feather in their cap! and so very exciting.  Jim and I were excited that we were going to be able to say that we helped to harvest grapes for the 2005 vintage of Domain Drouhin Pinot Noir.  Only thing better is that we also supported the Anam Cara Pinot Noir 2005 vintage too!
Here we are harvesting more grapes, we are up and down, stooping and squatting.  I really appreciate those that do this for a living, they harvest the grapes, I drink the wine!  It was so much fun, but a lot of work!
Jim finished his section, so he is passing me by to start on another section beyond me.  The other "pickers" were not quite sure of us, but once they realized that we were absolutely no threat to their lively hood, they were very friendly and helpful.
Sheila says "look this way", so we do and here we are :) Jim and I really enjoyed the lesson in picking/harvesting grapes.  Between the two  of us, in about 2 hours we did about 8 buckets of grapes, we would have earned 8 dollars between the two of us if I hadn't already paid for the fun of enjoying the day working/playing with Sheila and Nick.
A full bin of Pinot Noir grapes, these are heading over to the sorting table for Anam Cara Cellars.  Jim and I helped with about 1 1/2 buckets of grapes for this harvest.  You would be so lucky to get the bottle that has our grapes in it!  It was a lot of work, but someone had to do it and I have much more appreciation for the whole process.  I knew it was a lot of work, but now I know from first hand experience!
Sheila made lunch for us after a hard 2 hours of harvesting grapes, She made wonderful homemade pizza, there was one that was vegetarian (which I love) and the other had some meat on it (it was wonderful too).  It was a great way to refuel our "engines" to finish the day.  To celebrate the purchase of the grapes by Domaine Drouhin, Sheila opened a bottle of Domaine Drouhin chardonnay, Arthur.  What a lovely chardonnay, not too oaky, which is what I prefer.  What a nice way to enjoy a wonderful lunch with Nick and Sheila.  Nick had to run, the grapes were being delivered to August Cellars to be sorted, de-stemmed and crushed.
Here is the grape sorting conveyor belt, prior to going into the de-stemmer.  These are workers for August Cellars, Nick & Sheila rent space there until they have a chance to build their own winery.  Jim and I stepped in to give them some help, well, mostly to learn.  I am not sure that we were a big help, but we sure learned a lot.  We are removing stems, leaves, un-ripened grapes, anything that we would not like to end up in our bottle of wine.  It was hard work, again, we did this for a couple of hours before Nick rescued us.  This is hard work and again, thank you to those that do it because it makes for a much better wine.
Aron Hess, winemaker for Anam Cara and Sheila taking a look at the grapes as they come down the belt.  I am sure they are discussing how the grapes look, taste, and how they will work out for the 2005 vintage.  The winemaker overlooks all the processes, the planting, the growing, the harvesting, the crushing of the grapes.  The grapes are everything.  The winemaker just makes the wine better.  Sorry Aron, if you don't have good grapes, you can't make great wine.
Nick and Jim having a discussion on some aspect of winemaking.  Nick gave us a tour of the area that he has rented to support the Anam Cara Cellars wine making process.  We could ask any questions we wanted, Nick was so willing to explain anything that we wanted to know about.  He has such enthusiasm about the wine making process.  It was great to meet him and learn from him.
Nick showing off his barrels :) He was explaining about how he prefers to use "already used" barrels versus new barrels, and what a difference it makes to the wine.  Lots of new oak can influence the wine in one direction, while using barrels that have already been used one vintage can give an entire different depth to the wine.  It allows more of the fruit to come forward instead of the tannins I think.  We had a great conversation about tannins and the use of oak on wine.
Jim and I left the winery to head back to Nick & Sheila's house to have a relaxing cup of tea before we call it a day.  This is another vineyard that we passed by on the way.  This whole area had vineyards everywhere, if there is a south facing hill, there is a good chance there are grapes growing on it.
The view from the front porch of the Nicholas's home.  What a view, I would  never get tired of looking at it, no matter the season.  There is so much life in the vineyard, it is an amazing thing to feel, watch, and enjoy.

Dinner at Nick & Sheila's

Dinner was part of the deal, not just a day at the vineyard, but also a specially home cooked meal by Nick and Sheila.  We picked a date where it wasn't so close to all of the harvesting so that we could enjoy the time and not be rushed.  Of course, I took my camera along to take a few pictures of the time spent with Nick and Sheila.  It was a wonderful time, so come along again, enjoy a wonder fall evening with us.

 
These are Gewurztraminer grapes, they are still hanging on the vine.  This style of grape is picked late, they take a little longer to ripen, but you also want to get the sugar content built up.  They have a light purple tinge to the skins and oh do they taste wonderful.  I snitched a few berries while taking the picture.  Gewurzt is my Mom's favorite wine :)  The birds love the Gewurzt too!  as you can see, there is netting around all of the white grapes, but yet those dang birds have just about demolished the first five rows of the Gewurzt, Sheila has even moved all of the squawk boxes down here!  I am with them, I would do anything for a great Gewurzt! 
These are Riesling grapes, they too are still hanging, for the same reason as the Gewurztraminer.  Both of these grapes are white grapes, but the skins are such different colors.  The Riesling is a beautiful golden-green with a hint of amber color to them.  They grow and hang so differently than the Gewurzt. I couldn't resist a try of these either, it is amazing how different they taste as a grape, and how they can make such wonderful wine.  Riesling is one of the most food friendly white wines there is.
From the time we were there helping to harvest to the evening we came over for dinner, the colors have changed dramatically! What a view, out over the brilliantly changing leaves to look out towards Sherwood, OR
I love looking up the meticulous rows of vines, they are so orderly, just waiting to take the winter off after giving their all for the grapes that will make so much wonderful wine.  30 acres of color, greens, golds, russets, the colors of fall.
This is Nick and Sheila's home, looking over the top of the vineyard.  They have a beautiful, warm, welcoming home.  The kitchen is to die for!  They come from the restaurant industry in Napa Valley, the kitchen reflects that they love to cook and enjoy entertaining around that fact.  They may not have had a lot of time yet because of getting the vineyard and the winery going, but the day will come.  
This is my sister Heidi and "me", behind us is the vineyard and the hills on the other side of the valley.  Heidi joined us for the dinner, she happened to have the time off from work.  Thanks for joining us Heidi!
As you can tell, I can't get enough of the fall colors and the vines.  Just be thankful that I didn't put ALL of the pictures I took on the website ;)  The colors are just so vibrant, so rich, so inviting to just stay and watch.
We were just a "tad" early to dinner, Nick said we could come an take a few pictures, little did he know what he was getting into.  Nick mentioned that we could drive up the other side of the valley and find a good spot to take a picture of the vineyard, and was he ever right.  You can see the varying colors of the blocks of vines and you look close, you can see the house at the top of the two most top blocks of vines, about the middle of the picture.  There was a great view from up there, we checked out several of the other neighboring vineyards too.

Nick and Sheila had been working on the dinner for almost 24 hours!  Nick did a superb braised lamb shank, it just melted in your mouth, you touched it with a fork and it just fell off the bone.  This is one of the appetizers that Sheila fixed, it was Heidi's first taste of caviar.  It was a simple dish, but wonderful and well matched with the sparkling wine (darn, how did they know I love sparkling?).  There was another smoked salmon and cream cheese with dill that was just yummy too!
Jim and Nick are waiting for dinner for the ladies (Sheila and Heidi) to come out of the kitchen to get started.  This as the next course, butternut squash soup, with stir-fried sage as the garnish.  It was so very yummy too.  The meal was a wonderful fall dinner and perfect for the day.  Thank you Nick and Sheila, it was so much fun, the food was excellent, the wine was superb, but the best part was that you made us feel so welcome.  We did enjoy a bottle of Anam Cara 2003 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, with the big fruit, it was wonderful with the lamb.
After dinner, we enjoyed a little night cap while sitting on the front porch, looking at the wonderful night sky.  They have a huge telescope that we were checking the moon out on along with anything else that we could see up there.  What a beautiful end to a great evening.

 

Another Day with Nick & Sheila at the winery

Sheila and Nick mentioned that they had to work the next day at the winery, they had to start racking (putting wine into barrels) and pressing some more of the grapes.  They opened themselves up, I quickly asked if they needed any help and the gracious people that they are, they said sure, you can help.  I really hope we did help and not hinder, but Jim and I had such a great time, learning more about the wine industry, hands on.  You both earned Angel Wings for letting us help out!

So once again, follow along for the day as we get to be a part of Anam Cara Cellars...

 
The morning started out pretty foggy, this is a walnut orchard right behind the winery that Nick & Sheila rent space from until they build their own.  It was pretty neat to see the trees all lined up, fading into the fog the further back you looked.  The day turned glorious, it ended up being 70 degrees in the afternoon.
One of the winery helpers punching down the cap (the pinot noir berries that have floated to the top of the juice in the fermentation tank).  This is one of the tanks of Anam Cara Pinot Noir.  They punch down the cap 3 times a day until the grapes are all pressed and racked. 
Jim and Sheila are clamping hoses together to gravity feed the wine juice from the top floor where it has been pressed and fermented down to the storing cellar.  To the left are wine barrels that are being filled to the right are some full and some empty barrels.  They share this space with another winery.
Jim, Nick and Sheila watching the wine go into the barrel.  You want to fill it as fast as you can without having it rush out the top of the barrel, they are watching the level of the juice in the barrel to know when to stop the flow.  It is pretty tricky, fun to learn, but the apparatus you see in Jim's hands is pretty heavy from the valve that is used to manage the flow.
Here I am helping fill barrels that have been stacked two high.  Jim and Nick muscled the 2 level of barrels up by hand.  We helped fill 12 barrels of wine, some of it was free run juice (juice naturally pressed out of the grapes during fermentation and sitting in the bottom of the tank) or gently pressed wine from the berries.
Taking a much needed break, observing the work that has been done to this point.  It was very rewarding to me, I loved every minute of it.  It "almost" makes me want to go into the business, but I still think I will stay on the other side of the glass ;)  We are hungry and waiting for lunch to show up (their daughter Heather went to go get it for us).  We enjoyed a young bottle of the 2004 Anam Cara Pinot Noir, it was lovely,, so elegant, different than the 2003, but in a good way.  It will probably be released next spring and you are going to want to try a bottle of it.
Here is the press, it was working all day long while we were there.  There are several wineries that share this facility, so some grapes of one of the other wineries was being pressed earlier in the morning and then it came time for Anam Cara grapes to get the gentle press to become some great wine.  You can see the great Pinot Noir color on the drum, the juice drops to the bottom bin and then is pumped out to a tank to let the lees settle and for the final fermentation.
Here's Nick on the middle level, the bin in the front of the picture (empty) is one that we put into barrels, the one behind the hoses is getting the pressed juice for the last stage.  The other two bins are also Anam Cara wine that is in various stages of either being racked or just filled from the press.  In the background, that is the bottle labeler I think.
On the left, you can see the hose clamped to the bin, that is the juice flowing from the press.  It smells SO GOOD in the winery as you get the chance to smell the various stages of wine making.
Nick and Jim pumping out the bottoms of various tanks into one tank so that it can be racked later.  Look at the color of that juice!
Sheila is checking up on the boys, making sure they have everything they need.  It was pretty crazy, there were 4 different wineries doing their thing during this time, so there was always something going on, something to be done, cleaning equipment, finding the right stuff for the right job.  It's a great way to get started, but I am sure Nick and Sheila are counting the days until they have their own winery and crush facility.

GOT WINE???  We do and We LOVE IT!

Our most sincere thanks to Nick and Sheila for taking the time to let us enjoy the experience and be a part of Anam Cara Cellars, we will remember it always. You are definitely "friends of our souls".