2003 VINTAGE MAY BE FINE.

Byline: Joe Harwood The Register-Guard

In winemaking, the trick is knowing when to pull the fruit off the vine.

This year, the Willamette Valley's hot, dry summer ripened grapes faster than usual, and most vineyards kicked off their 2003 harvest in late September, a week or two earlier than normal.

"They came in early and in beautiful shape and we got them off (the vine) before the rains hit," said Ron Chappel, co-owner of Secret House Vineyards Winery in Veneta.

With the harvest wrapped up and the crush complete, early indications point to 2003 as a good, if not excellent, year for Oregon wine.

"Everything is just about as groovy as it can get," Chappel said.

At the King Estate Winery in Lorane, picking started on Sept. 22, about a week early, and finished by Oct. 14.

"This is the sixth year in a row where we've had really good weather during harvest," said King Estate winemaker Bill Kremer. "We had very ripe fruit at the beginning of harvest, so it should be a good year for Oregon," he said.

The handful of rain showers that teased the area in late September and early October did little more than dampen the parched soil, so there was no worry that the fruit would take on too much water and burst, Kremer said. And there wasn't enough moisture to create any mold or mildew problems.

One concern vinters had was extreme heat in early September when temperatures hit the mid-90s. That type of continued heat can ripen grapes too fast, raising the sugar levels but not leaving the fruit enough hang time on the vine for flavor development, said Ray Walsh, another King Estate winemaker.

But more moderate weather prevailed, leading Walsh and others to label the harvest as "pretty good." Walsh has already placed the "reserve" tag on two batches of the King Estate pinot noir.

But pulling the grapes at the right time is only part of the equation. There's also the winemaking process. Only when the wines are released in 2004 and 2005 will their flavor tell the true tale of 2003.

Betty O'Brien, executive director of the Oregon Wine Board, said that thus far Willamette Valley vineyards are reporting 2003 as a good year.

Projections for the state peg the yield at about 25,000 tons of wine grapes this year, up 14 percent from 2002. O'Brien said that's not because of higher yields, but because young vineyards planted in previous years are now producing.

Kremer said King Estate's yield was about average, while Chappel said his yields were up slightly from last year.

The most widely grown varietal remains pinot noir, followed by pinot gris and then chardonnay, according to the Oregon Agricultural Statistics Service.

And the final element for winemakers is selling the stuff and making a profit - and that's been increasingly difficult because of overproduction nationwide.

Demand for wine surged in the early 1990s, and wineries responded by boosting production. The growth curve continued until 2000, when excess production swamped the market and sent prices downward - to the benefit of consumers.

Hardest hit was California, which accounted for the bulk of the additional grape and wine production. Cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay and merlot - the dominant California varieties - suffered most in the downturn that hit the nation in 2001, said Miles Johnson, director of marketing for King Estate.

Though Oregon producers felt the sting, the pain was nowhere near that experienced by California firms.

"Oregon has been successful because we specialize in pinot noir and pinot gris," Johnson said.

Western Oregon sports excellent growing conditions for those wine grapes. Pinot noir grows well only in Oregon, the Burgundy region of France, the central coastal region of California and New Zealand.

Oregon's 217 wineries had combined 2002 sales of $200 million, up 401 percent from a decade earlier.

CAPTION(S):

Grape leaves have turned yellow after harvest at King Estate. W i n e m a k i n g