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Earth Day at Helvetia

by | Apr 15, 2016 | Events, Food

Earth Day Dinner Menu

Appetizer

crostini

duck prosciutto and confit with arugula

shrimp egg salad with parsley, capers, and scallion

white bean puree with caramelized leek

salad

stoneboat greens with radishes and hazelnuts with sesame/rice wine vinaigrette

main

paella with mussels, clams, fish, sausage and salami

chili-rubbed beef in mole’

rapini with chili

leek with egg

vegetarian fish option

dessert

fruit cobbler with whipped cream

 

Helvetia to bring together CSAs and movie makers for an incredible Earth Day celebration.

Local CSAs will be on hand with demos and fresh products for sale.

Local CSAs will be on hand with demos and fresh products for sale.

Helvetia Winery will celebrate the 46th anniversary of Earth Day with local farmers CSA demonstration, a discussion on sustainable agriculture and a Farm to Plate dinner. The events will take place on April 23rd at the Winery from noon until 8pm.

Community Supported Agriculture farmers will be on hand for Helvetia Winery’s first CSA demonstration from noon until 5. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become a popular way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer.

Gaining Ground: The Making of the documentary

Gaining Ground: A documentary on the feeding of local communities .

Gaining Ground: A documentary on the feeding of local communities .

Elaine Velazquez and Barbara Bernstein will be in the Jakob Yungen House to discuss their award­winning documentary, Gaining Ground, which tells the story of farmers making extraordinary changes in their farming practices in order to feed their local communities sustainably grown produce and grains. The food documentary explores the problems of our food system through personal stories and illustrates what we can do to seek solutions. A screening of the trailer of the movie, along with an open discussion with the two filmmakers is planned.

GAINING GROUND is a feature-length documentary film by Elaine Velazquez and Barbara Bernstein that tells the stories of farmers making extraordinary changes in their farming practices so they can feed their local communities sustainably grown produce and grains. From farms in Oregon’s fertile Willamette Valley to underserved communities of color in Richmond, California, GAINING GROUND reveals the tenacity and courage of these diverse urban and rural farmers, committed to serving and empowering their communities.

SONY DSC

A Winemaker’s Dinner inspired by regional and seasonal foods will be paired with wines.

Farm to Plate Dinner: Eating Locally

A special farm to plate dinner will be prepared by CSA farmer Aaron Nichols with locally sourced foods paired with Helvetia Winery’s selection of library wines. Tickets to the farm to plate dinner are $50 a person, and available online. All other Earth Day events at Helvetia Winery are free. Tasting fee for Helvetia wines is $15, and waived with the purchase of a bottle of wine. As always, tasting fees are waived for members of our Wine Club.

We hope you plan on celebrating Earth Day with us, and look forward to your visit.

 

 

 

 

Helvetia Winery takes Sliver

by | Mar 23, 2016 | Events, Winery Photos

Helvetia Winery’s 2014 Estate Pinot Noir receives Silver Honors at Cascadia Wine Competition

Yashar Shayan is owner of Impulse Wine in Seattle and is a judge at the Great Northwest Invitational Wine Competition.

Yashar Shayan, owner of Impulse Wine, an online retailer in the Seattle area, judges at the annual Cascadia Wine Competition in Hood River, Ore. (Photo by Andy Perdue/Great Northwest Wine)

HOOD RIVER, Ore. – The fourth annual Cascadia Wine Competition took place this month and we are honored to announce that Helvetia Winery was awarded a silver medal for our 2014 Estate Pinot Noir.

The judging attracted more than 1,000 entries from Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Idaho. Twenty-two wine professionals from across the Pacific Northwest served as judges.

silver winner squareThe Cascadia Wine Competition is sponsored by CascadiaNow!, a nonprofit organization formed to foster awareness of the Cascadia bioregion.

Our 2014 Estate Pinot Noir was harvested on October 8, our earliest harvest until 2015. This wine is a robust, fruit-forward pinot with aromas of black cherry, vanilla, tobacco and black pepper and flavors of blackberry, current, and hints of cacao. Its lingering finish pairs well with salmon, beef or pork tenderloin or a meat dish with mole’.

According to the sponsors, all wines were tasted blind by a panel made up of 12 women and 10 men including winemakers, sommeliers, journalists, retailers and marketers. Ken Robertson, longtime columnist for Wine Press Northwest magazine, served as chief judge. The judges do not know the winery or the price while they are evaluating the wines.

The competition is managed by Great Northwest Wine, an award-winning news and information company owned by Degerman and Perdue. Between them, the two have more than 35 years of combined experience writing about the wines, vineyards and chefs of Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Idaho. They founded Wine Press Northwest magazine in 1997 for the Tri-City (Wash.) Herald and edited the quarterly glossy consumer magazine through 2012.

backroom

More than 3,000 bottles of Northwest wine are set up in the backroom at the 2016 Cascadia Wine Competition, held at the Columbia Gorge Hotel in Hood River, Ore. The wines are poured in the backroom, then served to judges in another room so they cannot see which wines are being evaluated. (Photo by Andy Perdue/Great Northwest Wine)

Cascadia Wine Competition judges

The judges for the fourth annual Cascadia Wine Competition were:

 

Helvetia’s Holiday Hours- Extended through the New Year

by | Dec 28, 2015 | Events, Winery Photos

Join Us Every Afternoon through the New Year

With Christmas and Hanukkah in the past, and New Years Eve around the corner, this week is the perfect  time to come out to Helvetia Vineyards and Winery. Just 25 minutes from Portland, but a world away from the Holiday hustle and bustle. We have extended Helvetia’s Holiday Hours through the New Year.

Join us in our tasting room, and relax by our wood stove while enjoying a tasting of our artisan wines while taking advantage of our after Christmas sales on gifts and wines. Or call ahead and schedule a tour. Our proprietor John Platt would love to show you around, and tell you what makes Helvetia Winery so special. A Helvetia Winery tour is the perfect way to give your out of town guests an Oregon experience. And if you take advantage of our Groupon Offer, you can save 50%.

Recharge your spirit while taking in the breathtaking vistas that our wine farm has to offer.

Our hours through the New Year are 12-5pm every day. We are closed on New Years Day, but open the remainder of the weekend. We look forward to serving you.

Thanksgiving In the Vineyards and At the Winery.

by | Nov 24, 2015 | Events

vines

Helvetia Winery Pinot Noir Grapes Just before Fall Harvest

Thanksgiving has special meaning for our winery as well as for wineries throughout the United States. It truly marks a time of thanks and celebration as a new wine vintage settles down for the winter.

Unlike most farming operations, harvest is only the beginning of the end of the growing season at a winery that grows its own fruit. Following harvest, the grapes used for white wines are pressed and the juice is allowed to settle before yeast is added.

Fermentation then begins, converting sugar to alcohol and the juice to a wine preserved from spoilage by its acidity and alcohol. For red wines, the grapes are crushed and the juice ferments on the skins with the pulp and seeds for up to three weeks extracting colors and flavors. At some time before or during the fermentation process, last year’s wine is moved from barrel to bottle or another container in order to free up space to cellar the new wines.

Inside the Helvetia Winery

Our Tranquil Winery

Towards the middle of November (2011 being an exception), active fermentation has either halted or slowed to the point where the wine is still and the winery is quiet except, perhaps, for the dull pop of a bung sent to the ceiling by the yeasts’ last gasps.

By Thanksgiving, we of the wine business move out of the cellar to the lights of the holidays where we can greet our guests with wine released from the cellar, news of the vintage and prospects for the upcoming year. We look forward to welcoming you to our tasting room, and sharing our bounty with you. This year’s releases include 2014 Estate Pinot Noir, 2014 Gewurztraminer, and 2014 Chardonnay. 2014 was the warmest year of the decade and the fruit was ripe yielding intense fruit but not quite the complexity that comes from a cool year’s hangtime because the ripening period was shorter than in cooler years.