Portland, Ho!

( Hand laid stone walkways at the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland, OR)

With a little under four months to go until the 2012 North American WineBloggers Conference (#WBC12) in Portland, Oregon I’ve only begun thinking about any expectations and my usual research into options for post-conference touring into wine country and beyond.

I’ve only been to Portland once and it was for all of about four hours. It was 2010 and my wife and I were on a post-WineMaker Magazine conference vacation to Seattle. The conference had been in Stevenson, WA and the trip to Seattle would take us through Portland so we planned a short side trip to take in a little of the city.

It was a cloudy, rainy day and while that wasn’t a positive facet of the jaunt, we made the best of it as we always do. We found a Sunday market and craft fair down the along the river and wandered through the stalls to get a sense of the place. With coffees in hand we powered our way through the business district which was justifiably quiet for a weekend day. What little of the city we saw was friendly, walkable and full of vendors offering all manner of food and drink that could keep gastro-explorers like us busy. Coming back has always been on the short list.

( Lan Su Chinese Garden )

The highlight of the trip was a visit to the Lan Su Chinese Garden. Nestled in between blocks of commercial buildings the Lan Su garden is an incredible oasis from the bustle of the city. The high walls ringing the garden and tea house remove visitors from most of the city, although the taller buildings on the adjoining streets are visible and the sounds of traffic do creep in. Margot and I spent the remainder of our time in Portland taking in the flowers and ornate decorations of the garden, finishing our visit with tea and dim sum. By the time we left we had properly transitioned to vacation mode (from conference mode which feels like work sometimes) and were sporting big smiles with the expectations of a few days in Seattle at the fore.

I got thinking about Portland and Oregon wine this week from #winechat, hosted by Frank Morgan and Tamara Belgard, that was focussed on Oregon wines as a bit of pre-gaming for #WBC12. There was a diverse selection of wines being tasted from broadly known names like Sokol Blosser, Willamette Valley Vineyards and Domaine Serene to many smaller labels, R. Stuart, WillaKenzie and Helioterra to name a couple, that I and others had and have yet to experience firsthand.

I went with the Domaine Serene 2007 Yamhill Cuvee Pinot Noir. My experience with Oregon Pinot (only a little mind you) is that it typically straddles two worlds. The presentation of the fruit is soundly New World, but it is often restrained from what people may be used to in say Sonoma or Santa Barbara Pinot. For the earthy component, which is typically fully accessible, it channels more of the Old World. Is this experience legitimate? Until I taste through a few more labels and sub-regions I can only say that I’ve had confirmation of this offered by a few folks with more exposure to the wines, so I think I’ve got a decent context.

The Serene Yamhill Cuvee fit my experience well. Ruby red with no hints of purple or youthful color. The nose on the wine is moderate and a blend of fruit and earth. Dark red cherries and raspberries were my immediate fruit notes. I then picked up graphite (minerality in a specific form I think), some spices and a bit of dry earth, leaves and maybe even some tobacco. The oak was there, but not abundant. This wine is very smooth with cleansing acidity. This is definitely a Pinot that will shine on the dinner table and as yet I haven’t considered how I might pair it to better understand its character.

Beyond Pinot Noir most of my Oregon wine experience is with Pinot Gris. I reviewed a few wines from the state in a trip report from the2010 vacation. I didn’t make it into OR wine country on that trip so I have no visual context for what it might look like from any other wine-making area I’ve been.

So my limited experience and desire to better understand what I think I know about Oregon wine sets up a few expectations for the upcoming trip to Portland and the Willamette Valley.

• I need to taste many more wines, both Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris
• I need to explore the other styles that are made there that aren't on my radar
• I need to get a feel for the food and other local beverages including the beer and distilled spirits
• I need to get out into wine country and learn more about the geography, soil, climate, grape growing methods and winemaking practices
• And I need to have fun doing all of that so I will be sure to want to come back and delve even further

My wife and I have a couple extra days after the conference on the calendar and while we plan to hit wine country one of the days we are also hoping to go see the Oregon coast, visit the Rogue Brewery and go on a self-guided tour of Portland hitting some of the food and beverage hotspots like Distillery Row, Voodoo Donuts and the Urban Wine Trail.

Now that I’ve gotten started thinking about #WBC12 I have realized there is a healthy task list out in front of me. One of the first items is to put together my Twitter list of attendees so I can get to know some of the other folks who will be in town for the conference. I’m sure I will get plenty of recommendations from locals and folks with regional experience to fill in some of my “what to do” slots.

With this trip to look forward to getting through the circus at the office and the manual labor in the garden at home will be just that much easier. If you will be in Portland for #WBC12 I look forward to meeting you, seeing you again and spending some quality time getting to better know the wines or Oregon.

Cheers!

Jason

Prone to Experiment

( Pinot Noir fermenting.)

I get asked all the time “when are you going to open your own winery?” Well, I’m not sure, and maybe never.

There are a couple of reasons for this. First, launching your own winery is capital intensive, weather dependent with dynamic cash flows. You start (and start over if you work in another industry like me) poor and can’t expect to do better than be comfortable in the long run. Oh, and you work all the time. Those are the truths and realities that every small winery owner has shared with me when I ask about it. There are options in bringing investors on or ramping up production of average quality plonk and trying to grab market share with it, but neither offer the owner anymore true benefits and of course come with their own headaches. All of this amounts to a potentially scary leap, but one that I would take when and if the time was right.

The bigger reason, and it is one I have come to more recently, that I haven’t made this leap yet is because I tend to be very “creative” in my beverage making. I am prone to experiment, and that isn’t as bankable as developing a line of products that you can make consistently and develop a following for. That’s not to say my tendencies aren't bankable, but the path to growth is more difficult when you are mixing it up all the time. Right or wrong many potential customers want to become familiar with your products so that they may return to them frequently, and distribution channels are going to look to place orders for successful products consistently. With my experimental bent that isn’t going to be so easy.

( The krausen on a Wit beer. )

I’m not bothered by any of this. Why? Because I have fun doing what I do without the commercial hangups. Here is a perfect example. Every Spring I pick dandelions in Vermont. This year I have two experimental batches going, one a wine and the other a mead. Both batches were made with new or modified recipes so they are by no means sure things. The safety of the small batch is on my side, and I learn a lot this way; so I keep doing it. It is worth noting that dandelion wine isn’t as commercially viable as other types of both standard and non-standard wines due to labor intensive processes, and it isn’t a fan favorite either.

This wide open experimentation is simply me riffing on the inspiration I get form a variety of sources. Commercial tastings are great source of inspiration; new styles and flavors tend to stick with me. Any time spent with the homebrew club I joined in 2011 is guaranteed to expose me to new techniques, styles and provide lots of opportunity for feedback on my own creations. Tastings held at home or at friend’s houses provide even more opportunity to engage new people on what they like to drink and how they go about discovering new beverages. I am particularly excited for the WineMaker Magazine Annual Conference in a few weeks. We can drive this year which means we can cart along a whole lot of bottles to share. The feedback I will get, much of it brutally objective from people who are more talented than I, will be worth much more than the wine I will see disappear from my cellar.

( Dry Creek Chardonnay undergoing lees aging and battonage. )

This year will be littered with experiments, meads made with tea, hops and herbs, new styles of beer that we’ve (my wife is on the beer tangent with me) never made before and some wine, but what exactly hasn’t even been considered. Another great example can be found in the preceding sentence. I will make more beer and mead in 2012 than wine. My experimentation is taking me away from wine for a bit, something I couldn’t do as easily in a commercial setting. I am finding significant learning opportunities in these projects, both in the process of making them but also about how they are perceived when I share them. That learning is just too good to pass up by making the same things as I did last year.

( A room full of fermenters. More experiments that need attention! )

My thanks go out to all the people who ask me about going pro, and when this is the immediate reaction to tasting my wines it really does feel good, but I don’t think it is going to happen anytime soon. What I can tell you is that I am developing a treasure trove of information on how to successfully make good beverages at home, how to use them in your dining and entertaining and a lot about what people like and don’t like in a beverage. No matter what I end up doing I expect the knowledge I can develop from all of that will be a huge asset.

Cheers!

Jason

How Your Support Makes a Difference

( Education is a big part of engaging people to fight back against cancer. )

One person can make a difference. It helps if that person has lots of other people backing and supporting them, but fighting back starts with a single individual and the hope of being able to make an impact. This is the fifth part in an ongoing series about fighting back against cancer. Check out installments one, two, three and four.

Last week I thanked a lot of people for supporting me. I always get a huge shot in the arm from the support I get each year when I go around banging on doors for donations to Relay and Making Strides. Without that support I would not have been able to accomplish even a small part of what has been attributed to me in my Mass General One Hundred profile (the last week reference for new readers). It started with me and my personal story, but now there is an army of us fighting back.

( Just some of the people who deserve my thanks. )

I want to help others make a difference, and to know exactly how they are doing that. Have you ever wondered where your donations go? I don’t often get asked how the American Cancer Society uses the funds we raise, but in fairness I frequently include information about where the money goes when I request support. I want people to know what they are part of and exactly how their support is making a difference.

The basic facts I try to lay out for supporters are these:

• 79 cents of every dollar raised supports the mission (programs, services, research) of the American Cancer Society (ACS). The remaining 21 cents goes to cover event expenses and administration for the ACS at large. It takes money to raise money, and 79 cents out of every dollar ain’t bad. (See below for thoughts on charitable accountability and choosing who to support)
• The Relay For Life is a big event, raising over $350 million dollars annually.
• Second only to the Federal Government, the ACS is the largest funding source of cancer research.
• The majority of the money raised in the New England region where I live stays in the region. These funds are used to pay for programs and services available to my family, friends and neighbors. Making an impact, and a local one at that, feels really good.
• The organizers of local Relay For Life events try as hard as they can to procure donations of goods, services and cash from sponsors to keep the event costs as low as possible.

( While we are celebrating, remembering and fighting back we also honor those who risk their lives to defend the freedoms we enjoy. Marines get cancer too and being their for them is a way to pay them back. )

How we doing so far? Do you feel like your dollars are in good hands? Let’s take a close look at how some of the money raised in New Hampshire in 2011 was used:

• Look Good, Feel Better - 310 attendees. This program provides female cancer survivors with information and instruction pertaining to issues of physical appearance during and after treatment. The value of looking in the mirror and not seeing all the damage from treatment can’t be understated.
• Wig Bank - 225 wigs from the wig bank were provided to survivors who had lost their hair due to treatment. 
• Road to Recovery - 5957 rides for 311 different people were provided. This program matches volunteer drivers with patients needing transportation to treatment. The following quote was passed along to me from my local ACS staff partner. “Even the best treatment is useless unless patients can get to it....”  Road to Recovery is the most utilized ACS program in New Hampshire. On a personal note I dream of the day when I have enough free time to volunteer to drive. I’ve met drivers who have shared stories of the friends they have made through their service. That’s really living!
• Hope Lodge - 141 nights for 37 different people were provided at no cost to the participants. The Hope Lodges (there are 3 in NewEngland) provide comfortable accommodations for families who do not live near the facility where family members are being treated. Eliminating transportation costs and ensuring the support of family is near is huge.
• Overall, 1630 newly diagnosed cancer patients (and 3072 people total) were provided information, programs, and or services in NH in FY11.

Are you still with me? Those are some pretty incredible stats. And that is just in NH, and just for one year.  If you think about the states in New England with larger populations and more funds raised annually it is quite clear that our efforts are making a significant impact throughout the region.

( Organizing a Relay takes a lot of volunteers. I help setup every year! )

From all of New England Relay For Life events we raised nearly $24 million dollars in 2011! Some quick math on the back of the envelope says that as a region we raised over 6% of the total raised through Relay nationwide each year. That 5% is from six little New England states. We roll, and we roll hard! Hey cancer, we’re coming for you!

( Margot clowning around in the morning. Her mix of business 

and fun is a great example of how to make a difference. )

I need to get serious and a little less lively for a moment. There are organizations that get better ratings (and many with much worse to be fair) than the ACS on how they spend their money, their affiliations with the pharmaceutical industry, assets in the bank, etc, etc. I’m not ignorant of any of that and won’t argue the points with anyone. The bottom line is that I want everyone to get involved in something and that means making a choice. The choice that I made (with the support of my family and friends) was to support the American Cancer Society. This choice was based on both how the money is spent AND the ability to get directly involved in our communities. We are making a difference and we are doing at home where we are best able to be involved for the long term. We made a reasoned and informed choice and that choice has allowed us to make a huge difference.

( Advocay is another big part of the fight. The ACS Cancer Action Network gets involved in shaping policy and holding government accountable for their obligation to fund this battle. It's our money and we have a right to see it go where we think it can make a difference. 

Research is the other area where funds raised by the American Cancer Society are used.

As of April 2012 the breakdown of active ACS research grants (140 grants to 31 institutions for a total of $60 million) in New England was:

• 23 grants totaling $9.8 million in Connecticut
• 1 grant totaling $720,000 in Maine
• 102 grants totaling $41.5 million in Massachusetts
• 6 grants totaling $2.9 million in New Hampshire
• 6 grants totaling $4.1 million in Rhode Island
• 2 grants totaling $865,000 $1 in Vermont 

New Hampshire sees a nice share of research funding and with good cause. Some of that funding goes to Dartmouth Hitchcock and the NorrisCotton Cancer Center, nationally recognized as leaders in cancer care and research. I am always proud to know that my support of the ACS funds jobs and research in my own state, and research that undoubtedly will result in breakthroughs that will reduce suffering and save lives.

( Two more people who deserve thanks for busting their asses in this fight year after year. )

May it not be said that one person raising one dollar at a time can’t make a difference. I know this isn’t true, because I’m doing it. And you are helping me. That makes you a hero. You may never meet the people who have been directly affected and feel that way, but trust me, they are out there. You should be proud of that. Tell your family, tell your friends, and then ask them if they would like to support the cause as well. I owe you a hug or a handshake and don’t be afraid to ask for it when you see me. I am truly grateful for the support and I would not be the person I am today without it.

( We celebrate, we remember but most of all we FIGHT BACK! )

I’d like to thank Brigit Ryan at the local American Cancer Society office for helping me with the information provided here. I met Brigit six years ago and she has been a vital partner for me, my team and many of the Relays in the state of New Hampshire. Fighting back is hard work and Brigit is always there to help figure out how to make the best use of the resources we have available to do that. Her tireless work in the battle against cancer is a key part of our mutual success. I asked Brigit to share something she thought new or potential supporters of the American Cancer Society should know about how their support can help. This is what she said:

“You really are going to be making a difference in someone's life. Whether it is to help a patient get to treatment or to get a mother a wig so that her children are not scared about her head being bald, your support makes a real difference. From information for a college student away from home after learning that her father has been diagnosed with cancer (accessed by calling 800-ACS-2345 24 hours a day) to dollars to fund a researcher who is just starting off and has an "idea" that leads to the cure! Your support will make a real difference. “

In closing I ask for your support. Every dollar counts. Whether it is $5, $20 or $50 we need every dollar we can muster in this fight. Your tax-free donation can be made directly from my event page online.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story and supporting the battle against cancer. We are here, we are fighting and we will win. WE MUST HAVE HOPE!

Cheers!

Jason