Big Thank you!!!

Wowzers - what a weekend - puppies, pinot and pork... thank you one and all who came out and tasted and took home wine!!

The Riesling is all gone and folks put a sizable dent in the inventory of reds as well...

We are grateful and tired.. so without further ado I present the warm fuzzy puppies to help sooth you into your post thanksgiving week!

come share thanksgiving weekend at the farm...

We'd love to see you this weekend ... as would the cows.

Friday Saturday & Sunday 11 - 5pm

This Thanksgiving weekend we are celebrating the 2010 harvest, all the wines being in barrel and some great reviews and press that came our way this fall.



there's a great winery map here
and directions to the farm are on our web site





All our current releases will be available to taste. This is one of only two weekends in the year when you can come out to the farm without an appointment and taste the wines and take some home for the holidays. Brian will have the smoker fired up and we will be pairing the wines with his irresistible fresh smoked pork belly, homemade bread and an assortment of beautiful cheese.








hope to see you this weekend - Clare and Brian



Here's a snipit of just some of the reviews out there.. I've posted more press and reviews on our web site...

94 points - Robert Parker's The Wine Advocates Oct 2010 - 2008 Pinot Noir - Resonance Vineyard

94 Points and Top 100 Wines of the year - Nov 2010 – Wine and Spirits - Wine and Spirits names it's picks for top 100 wines internationally for 2010 -- yup Big Table Farm Pinot Noir !! not bad company .... Williams Selyem, Flowers, Evening Land...

93 points - Robert Parker's The Wine Advocates Oct 2010 - 2008 Pinot Noir - Willamette Valley

94 Points and Best Buy - Oct 2010– Wine and Spirits Big Table Farm Willamette Valley Pinot Noir

The Pinot File - "truly exceptional"- Pinot Geek Icon

The San Francisco Chronicle - (one of 13 wines chosen out of 80 Oregon Pinot Noirs)

The Oregonian - Nov '10 - 2009 Big Table Farm Brooks Vineyard Riesling - "One of the best white releases I've tasted from Oregon is this bottle of bone-dry Riesling from Big Table Farm."

The 2008's are all sold out but the 2009's are beautiful and now's the time to get them before they're gone - For those of you on this list that live out of town of course you can order wines and we can ship them to you.

we got a light dusting of snow today

the farm was peaceful ... and the puppies snug by the fire and those cows are working the 'full fuzz'

family and more pups

I know you will be totally sick of puppy pictures after about a month so I will try not to post too many ... this pile was hard to resist...



My cousin peter and his lovely wife Jerrilyn and some very good friends of thier's came out last weekend for a lovey visit!! Miss Clementine who was days away from giving birth was a saint I think she was practicing being a patient mom with these sweet babies!!


Clementine --- "ummm Jer PLEEZE DON'T move your leg "
Jack "I like this guy we could get into some real trouble together!!"


Jack "humm how can I get my mom to get me a dog"
Clementine --- " oh man how many pups I'm gonna have to give birth to... sigh"


Jack "oh what pretty ears you have -- what happens when I pull on it"
Clementine --- "those pups are going to be way worse at least he's pulling my ear they will be pulling my tits"



Jack "ummm soft dog soft mom this life is pretty nice"
Clementine --- " how can I work her so I can just stay on this couch all weekend"
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We took a short walk around the farm and despite the wet weather ....



Kaoru - being very brave for having never been around a cow came into the pasture and gave the bull a pat :)

PUPPIES!

Miss Clementine featured in several magazines and on countless videos had her main show today!! 4 beuatiful puppies!!

This is the beautiful sire

And the 4 beautiful pups!!!

She's nursing the pups as I type this and I can hear them sucking... sooo cute!!!









nice job mama!!



note on pups - after they have all been vet checked and tested a few pups will be for sale more info on that will be coming soon ... if you'd like to see miss clementines pedigree and some info on the breeding it can be found on her and her sires breeder page El Dorado Catahoulas...

Four critics choose the best bottles for the holiday!!

The Oregonian featured our riesling today! : ) feeling pretty darn grateful AGAIN!!

2009 Big Table Farm Brooks Vineyard Riesling ($28): I always enjoy having a richer-style white wine on the table for Thanksgiving, as it seems to pair well with all of the side dishes but, more important, really allows the turkey itself to shine. One of the best white releases I've tasted from Oregon is this bottle of bone-dry riesling from Big Table Farm. Frankly, they had me with the gorgeous chanterelle drawing on the label, but I really wasn't prepared for what was inside the bottle. Winemaker Brian Marcy likes to push the envelope with his winemaking. By using long maceration on the skins, he's extracted amber colors and textures that those enamored by off-beat whites might appreciate. But the wine isn't oxidized, even if it tends toward an orange hue. It offers hazelnut and pine, apricot and honey. There must be some magic in those Eola-Amity hills adjacent to the Brooks winery, where the old-vine fruit for this bottling was procured. -- Darryl Joannides

http://www.oregonlive.com/wine/index.ssf/2010/11/seasonal_selections.html



and just in case you were worried about next years Riesling label .... this is not even all of the mother load of chanterelles that our friend David came out of our woods with while he was here at the farm hunting it was an embarrassment of riches and gives me plenty of fodder!!

Houdini and "A.F.L.E." (that's for you michael)

This morning was 'another ____ learning experience' on the farm!

We headed out at about 6am to the pasture where we had set up round pen panels a few days before for the bull and have been feeding hay in there to get the cows all accustomed to the panels .. so we could have a nice easy load when it this morning came and the time for us to move red boy off the farm ... now I will say this is NOT the first time we have loaded a cow in a trailer in fact we where feeling like we were pretty darn prepared ...

- had the trailer backed up to the panels - check
- had the doors set just right so we could close them as soon as the bull loaed up -check
- had the holding pen lashed down with t-posts just in case the bull tried to go under the panels - check
- had hay in there so everybody was calm and comfortable- check...

so not once, not twice, but three times we got the bull in the holding pen the other cows sorted out and three friggin' times he decided that going under the panels that are lashed to t-post pounded into the ground was better than going into the trailer! ... hummm -(still not sure how that guy fit under there and manged to lift up the whole darn pen and get under) ...



.... after that last time red boy wasn't going anywhere near the holding pen and was giving us some serious stink eye... and Brian and I needed to walk away and calm down and think... being amped up around cows is just a bad idea they are sooo sensitive you need to be very calm... so we thought about things.. and went back and flipped the panels upside down!! nice thinking brian - it was pure genius!! this way that top bar was on the ground and he couldn't get his nose under there and lift up the pen like he was doing! and there's no more spot for that bull to squeeze his big head ... and so this time with in a very short time we got he and haley into the trailer .. now she was not invited to prineville with the bull so with a little luck and good timing we sorted her out of the trailer with out loosing red boy who's new name is Houdini! so by 8:55 am one bull in the trailer!!! and I was ready for a drink!

an evening walk...

So I went out side to do the evening chores and that same elk heard was in that same field having there evening snack... see them back those little dots there in that back field???...so I decided to finish throwing hay and take a walk in there general direction to see if I could get a little closer to take better look and maybe snap a photo ..... that being said the fact that I'm using a marco lense in low light my hopes were not high... so forgive the bad photos and just imigine me in full rain gear trying to sneek up on these creatures.. oh and with a dog at my side.. NOT!!!



so I head down the fence line of the cow pasture -- swish swish swish go the rain pants .. and the dog who I've told to heal is whining of course as she would LOVE to chase them!!



so it's only matter of time they see me and decide to head for higher ground...



there are some very pretty bulls in the bunch



so I head up a very steep hill to catch another peek now it's swish swish swish and pant pant pant... oh the dog well she's still whining...



I think they might just maybe have seen me : )



yup there they go...



so I turned back and headed home where there was a warm fire and dinner that is a little easier to get my hands on.