Sunday, December 29, 2013

the great press piles up and the barn comes down!!

We got a couple great christmas gifts from the press...

First Eric Asimov of The York Times wrote an article featuring the top 10 Oregon wines of the 2011 vintage! We were honored to be included in this stellar review and this great line up!!  

congrats to our neighbors too   -  Beaux Frères, Bethel Heights, Big Table Farm, Brick House, Evening Land, The Eyrie Vineyards, Erath Vineyard, St. Innocent, Soléna

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A super nice video review from the Wine is Serious Buisness guys  : )
http://www.wineisseriousbusiness.com/?p=390
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A nice review  from Sarah Egeland on the serious eats web site  - Ask a Sommelier: The Best Wines to Pair With a Holiday Roast : ) love that the riesling got some air time... I love this wine!!

Something rich, but with lots of acid. Big Table Farm has a really great unfine/unfiltered Riesling that would be outstanding with this. —Sarah Egeland (Smallwares)


While all those nice things were being said we've been busy little beavers around the farm. We got a ton of help from our friends Duane and Chuck who have been deconstructing our old barn ...

 

I say de-constructing not demolishing... this is a much slower less fun process that is very labor intensive and requires much more care and thought in order to save every last savable nail and piece of wood and scrap of tin from the roof. We hope to save, re-use and upcycle everything we possibly can. While this has been happening we've also been doing a ton of clean up and purging as well as getting all the winery plans ready for county submission and into engineering!! things are moving ... it's overwhelming and great  all at the same time!!




 










thanks again duane and chuck!! 



Monday, December 9, 2013

the 'official' start of the winery project

So Brian and I have been working closely with Jonathan Orpin of New Energy Works for almost a year now on the design and plan of our winery project. Jonathan and his team have helped us develop the designs and drawings for both the barn (in process) and the winery soon to be started!

Today we signed a contract for the timber frame and put down the earnest money so jonathan can order the wood and get the shop drawings started! I think my pen was shaking today with anticipation, excitement and fear as we take this next big leap!

Thank you Jonathan for your patience with us thus far and all your enthusiasm and dedication to our winery project! Your belief in us and friendship means so much! 



Our founders cuvee label along with our other 2012 labels are being printed in the coming week!!

I think this is one of the prettiest wines brian has ever made!! The Drawing of the hand tools on the label is a homage to timber frame construction - and to things made beautiful by creative hands!



Sunday, December 8, 2013

love each other and drink good wine this holiday season

thanks for yet another beautiful photo Jeremy!! 


a little cold snap ain't nothin'


farm livin is the thing for me!
thawin’ pipes and shootin coons outta the tree
breaking ice or drianin’ hoses which will it be

oh the choices on a sunday afternoon
stokin’ the fire and howlin’ at the moon
loving my man and hoping the thaw comes soon

and even if my toes are cold
I love this farm and I’m totally sold
I’m livin’ the dream no need to be paroled!

Saturday, November 30, 2013

BTF Willamette Valley makes the top 100 wines!! - SF Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/wine/article/Top-100-Wines-of-2013-5023413.php?cmpid=twitter#page-7

2011 Big Table Farm Willamette Valley Pinot Noir (sold out): Clare Carver and Brian Marcy's property in Gaston takes "farm to table" to its apotheosis, down to the animal-filled letterpress labels. This blended bottle is tangy and complex, full of cassia, oregano and black olive accents to its generous strawberry flavors.

Monday, November 25, 2013

our fall video !!

... a little snap shot of the 2013 harvest!! another great one for Big Table Farm! 
thanks to everyone that was part of the team this year! 

https://vimeo.com/79595282


big huge thanks to Jeremy Fenski for his beautiful work once again

Monday, November 11, 2013

some more paintings are coming out of my studio!



(sold 11/12/13)



(sold 12/2/13)



so see all my current work u can visit  http://clarecarver.com/

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Some photos from august -


Sometimes summer gets so busy amazing things happen and I don't even have time to put them up on the blog... It's funny to be posting this as we start having a full time fire in the wood stove and I look out on the misty rainey fall morning... but it's also nice to remember what an amazing summer we had!

We hosted a day at the farm with a really super family the Gardners from North Carolina as part of the TWE wine auction - brian and I totally enjoyed the day and chef Jessica did a great job! : ) 










Wednesday, November 6, 2013

the woods have been very generous this fall...


brian had his first real day off on sunday -- not only a day off from the winery but he stayed outta the office too!! and we went for a long hike in the woods for the first half of the day it was magical... we came home with heaps of chanterells and enjoyed our quiet peacful time together so much!!  Finally feeling somewhat back to normal!!  These  mushrooms are HUGE btw the ones in the front are fist sized!


Friday, November 1, 2013

some very nice reviews from Parker's wine advocate and the pinot file!!

Thanks! Rusty the pinot file!

2011 Big Table Farm Wirtz Vineyard Willamette Valley Pinot Noir

12.6% alc., 119 cases, $45. This vineyard is old by Oregon standards as it was planted in the early 1970s. Brian likes to say he was still wearing diapers when the vines went into the ground in this vineyard. · Moderate reddish-purple color in the glass. This wine reminds of cherry pie baking day at cooking school. Deliciously flavored with ripe cherries and baking spices with a hint of sandalwood and wintergreen. Crisp and juicy with a long, spirited finish. Hard to put your finger on the reasons for it, but this wine grabs your interest and holds on. An old vine treasure. Score:
94pts

2011 Big Table Farm Resonance Vineyard Yamhill-Carlton Willamette Valley Pinot Noir

12.9% alc., 287 cases, $48. This vineyard is the warmest site in the Big Table Farm lineup. Typically this wine needs a few years to mature and this is evident in this vintage as well despite spending a year in barrel and a year in bottle. · Moderately deep reddish-purple color in the glass. A well-mannered wine with aromas of dark cherry, marionberry and spice that fill the glass. While the core of black cherry fruit is delicious now, the wine is relatively primary at this stage. Still, it is obviously a classy and sophisticated offering. The tannins are firm but balanced and the finish is juicy and well-endowed with grandiose fruit flavor. Hold for 2-3 years or decant if you must drink now. Score
: 93 - 94pts
2011 Big Table Farm Brooks Estate Vineyard Eola-Amity Hills Willamette Valley Riesling

11.4% alc., 91 cases, $28. Barrel fermented to dryness with native yeasts and complete malolactic fermentation. · Moderate golden yellow color and slight haze (unfiltered) in the glass. Lovely aromas of lemon zest, wet stone, buttered brioche and paraffin. Very flavorful with pleasing notes of lemon and grapefruit with a touch of spice and a subtle petrol note. Slightly creamy in the mouth with a firm grip of lemony acidity on the bright finish. I don’t drink much Riesling, but I know a great one when I taste it. Score:
90pts
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 And some excellent reviews and scores by david schildknecht - from robert parkers wine advocate... : )
2011 Big Table Farm Pinot Noir Cattrall Brothers Vineyard
93pts- David Schildknecht Drink: 2013 - 2022

An extraordinarily Volnay-like nose and palate of porcini and morels steeped in fresh red fruits and tinged with spices characterizes Big Table's 2011 Pinot Noir Cattrall Brothers Vineyard. The alliance displayed here of textural tenderness and underlying richness with levity and sheer refreshment is irresistible. Moss, wet stone, and mineral salts lend further mouthwatering intrigue to a lusciously as well as invigoratingly lingering finish. Many growers advised me that any of their colleagues who claimed not to have chaptalized in 2011 were lying; but I'm quite sure the 11.9% alcohol in this late October-harvested Pinot from immaculately and organically tended vines is "natural"! Expect this umami-rich, delightfully distinctive elixir to perform with dazzling versatility through at least 2022. ("Brothers" is new to the label this year, incidentally, but the vineyard is none other than that described at greater length in my Issue 202 review of the 2010 Big Table Cattrall as well as of Ransom Wines- rendition.)

2011 Big Table Farm Pinot Noir Wirtz Vineyard
93pts - David Schildknecht- Drink: 2013 - 2022


Wild ginger-, sassafras-, walnut- and lemon rind-inflected red berries scent and flavor Carver and Marcy's 2011 Pinot Noir Wirtz Vineyard whose infectiously juicy brightness, incisive spiciness, zesty piquancy, red raspberry seed-crunch and cyanic cherry-pit glow are further augmented by a sharp and subsequently musky bite uncannily akin to rose radish. I imagined a significant contribution of stems in the fermenter given the great support, complexity, the vibrancy that attends the tannins here, but it turns out that nearly all of the fruit for this bottling was de-stemmed. Finishing with vibrant and invigorating persistence, this buoyant (12.6% alcohol) beauty ought to perform gloriously through at least 2022.


2011 Big Table Farm Pinot Noir Resonance Vineyard

91pts - David Schildknecht Drink: 2013 - 2020

Representing Carver's and Marcy's largest as well as (at 12.9%) highest alcohol lot of its vintage, their 2011 Pinot Noir Resonance Vineyard features a luscious strawberry and red raspberry melange subtly marked by oak resin and caramel. The tannins here are noticeable but well-integrated, and musky allusions to peony and narcissus waft all the way through to the wine's long, lip-smacking finish. I imagine that this will perform well through at least 2020 and may well gain complexity along the way. (I learned just before going to press that next year's will be the last Big Table Resonance Pinot, now that the vineyard has been purchased by Jadot.)

2011 Big Table Farm Pinot Noir Sunnyside Vineyard
91pts - David Schildknecht - Drink: 2013 - 2020

Carver and Marcy's 2011 Pinot Noir Sunnyside Vineyard issues from a site southeast of Salem planted with Wadenswil already in 1970, that they have tapped here for the first time and report being meticulously and tirelessly farmed by the same family since the 1980s. Red currant and sour cherry give a juicy, tangy, berry-crunching vintage-typical account of themselves on a polished buoyant palate, with invigorating notes of cress and a mouthwatering lick of salt adding to the refreshing and sustained finishing appeal. This may well gain complexity with some time in bottle and ought surely to perform admirably through at least 2020.


2011 Big Table Farm Pinot Noir - Willamette Valley

90pts - David Schildknecht - Drink: 2013 - 2018

Bringing together fruit from numerous sites including those also subjected to single-vineyard bottlings, the generic Big Table 2011 Pinot Noir reflects a roughly 50% share of whole clusters in the fermenter. Juicy wild cherry tinged with rose hip, hibiscus, geranium, mint and orange rind make for a refreshing and metaphorically cooling performance that's also delightfully buoyant (at 12.6% alcohol) and texturally tender. This exemplifies not just its vintage's delicious peculiarities but also virtues that - among red wines, at least - only Pinot Noir can deliver. I suspect this will delight through 2018.

2011 Big Table Farm Chardonnay
90pts
- David Schildknecht - Drink: 2013 - 2016

Representing a new wine for them, Carver and Marcy's 2011 Chardonnay comprises two barrels from old vines at Wirtz assembled with three from the first crop off of a new vineyard neighboring to, and shared with, Seven Springs. Silken in texture, and delicate in both its (under 13% alcohol) weight and its evocations of lemon oil, apple blossom, fresh lime and raw hazelnut, this lingers soothingly as well as refreshingly. It will be fascinating to follow for at least 2-3 years, though potential owners should bear in mind that it has been neither filtered nor cold-stabilized. (The barrels for this cuvee, incidentally - like many of those employed at Big Table as well as at Coleen Clemens - are ones first utilized by Marcassin.)

Friday, October 25, 2013

loved this photo I had to post it...

this shot was featured in virtuosolife magazine nov/dec issue with a nice write up on big table farm  : ) it just captures summer to me   : )

here's the link to the article

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/virtuosolife/20131112/index.php?startid=92#/100


and the photo is by brown cannon -  www.browncannon3.com 




Tuesday, October 22, 2013

a thank you...

Harvest is wrapping up... are we done? .... well not quite yet.. Brian still hasn't had a day off yet but the days are not quite so long... 

We had our annual thank you harvest dinner this past Saturday.. and quite frankly there are a few more folks I still need to thank  but I needed to call it at 25 people... perhaps next year we'll have to have it up in our new hopefully soon to be built winery to make more room : ) ... It was a beautiful feast thanks chef Alex and the beautiful Kia for doing such a great job with the meal..  thanks Tiffany and Michael for sharing your photos... : )



beautiful handmade pasta


chanterelles and porcini I found in the woods


the tables ready for the party


the prep ...


our chefs : ) 









Friday, October 18, 2013

a beautiful day - a few weeks back

We hosted a great group of folks for a day at the farm of food and wine it was a really special day and our friend chef Alex did a beautiful job with all farm fare - everything for the meal came from the woods, pasture and garden of big table farm