Harvest report: The rush to crush
The heat is on, with reds starting and yields low
Recent triple-digit temperatures quickly brought some varietals to sugary maturity and led to a rush to harvest, which would have been more of a problem if yields weren’t so disappointing, according to the Star’s vineyard correspondents. With the harvesting of whites mostly finished, growers are shifting their focus this week to early reds like merlot and some cabernet sauvignon.
By AVAs (American Viticultural Areas), from north to south, the reports are as follows:
Still pending Calistoga AVA — Paul Smith, OnThEdge Winery, “Acids still a bit high and pH’s still a bit low, but sugars up and rising so many wineries are crushing. Many varieties including zin, merlot, syrah, cab franc are inbound this week. Zinfandel reports by several to be very light and of irregular maturity with small, shoulderless clusters with firm, immature berries adjacent to clusters that are shriveling. Other varieties showing lighter crops with normal maturity across a block. The cooler weather is appreciated.”
Diamond Mountain District — Dawnine Dyer, Dyer Vineyards, “Last week’s heat pushed the earliest varieties and most exposed vineyards on Diamond Mountain into action and by the end of the week Reverie, von Strasser, and Graeser were bringing in fruit. Reverie reported 30-50 percent below 2007 crop levels in a few blocks and everyone is saying it’s light. The challenge last week was water, and maintaining leaf water potentials during the heat was the name of the game at J. Schram where they will bring in their first grapes this week — malbec. Most of the cabernet is still out and if our normal weather pattern returns, should stay on the vine for a few more weeks.
Howell Mountain — Pat Stotesbery, Ladera Vineyards, “By the time this is read there will have been a lot of fruit picked on Howell Mountain and across most varietals. Everyone seems surprised by the rush to crush but the weather finally caught up with us and it is off to the races. Picking will have been seen from Outpost and the Dragon vineyard near the top and on down to the 1,400-foot level. Cabernet, zin, petite syrah and merlot and if the weather forecast is correct picking will go through the weekend and beyond. The challenge may be tank space but the fruit and plants all look healthy.”
Chiles Valley District — Volker Eisele, Eisele Vineyards, “What a difference a week makes. The enormous heat and the small crop caused sugars to jump. By Sept. 8 all whites as well as a lot of early reds like zinfandel and syrah have been picked. The yields are dismal. In most cases sauvignon blanc was down 90 percent from last year. Other whites such as chardonnay and semillon did a lot better. It is clear that some locations were hit hard by the frost in April and some were not. Cordons did worse than canes and sauvignon blanc was devastated the most because it was out the furthest at the time.”
Spring Mountain District — Stuart Smith, Smith-Madrone, “This week began with a lovely cool respite from last week’s oppressive heat. With the cool weather harvesting has slowed to a crawl. Many of us have brought in small lots of merlot and cabernet sauvignon last week and were fearful of a repeat of the 1984 harvest which, because of the heat, was compressed into a few short weeks. These initial forays into reds seem to confirm the expected short crop. Will the cool weather continue like 2007 or will heat return? With such dry soils can the vines continue to mature their fruit or will they just shut down and collapse? Do we gamble on a few more days or even several weeks for more varietal flavor and risk dehydration and over-ripe raisin-like flavors? Aw, the joys of another harvest.”
St. Helena — Rudy Zuidema, winemaker, Ehlers Estate — “Ehlers Estate is just sneaking into the ‘08 harvest this week. The sauvignon blanc is happily fermenting and the first of the estate merlot was picked last Friday. We are pleased with the balance and intensity of the fruit so far. Waking up to overcast Monday morning was fantastic! A few more of these cooler nights will set up another great year for St. Helena. Good luck to all.”
Rutherford — Jeffrey Stambor, director of winemaking, Beaulieu Vineyards, “The warm temperatures and dry air of last week really pushed merlot, young cabernet blocks and cabernet on poorer soils to super-ripe maturity. The fruit was harvested in great condition but at yields below our expectations. Cabernet on richer ground is maturing according to a more “normal” progression. Early fermenting juice samples are deep dark in color with a full spectrum of ripe aromas.”
Oakville — Pat Garvey, vineyard manager, Flora Springs Winery, “Completed harvesting pinot grigio and sauvignon blanc. Because of the last week’s heat most of our fruit was picked by 9 a.m. each day. Tracking phenology data from bud break to harvest we are able to anticipate harvest dates. Even with the warm weather we were only two days off in the pinot grigio but 10 days earlier with our chardonnay. The cooling off trend this week should give us a chance to harvest under normal conditions. But unless we have a two-week cold period like last September we should have an earlier harvest for both reds and whites. So far labor has not been an issue.”
Stags Leap District — Elizabeth Vianna, winemaker, Chimney Rock Winery, “The heat is on — the recent heat spike caused a flash flood of fruit in the Stags Leap District crush pads this week. At Chimney Rock, I didn’t think we’d be picking merlot until next week and suddenly we have merlot fermenting in our cellar. The merlot is exquisite this year — small berries, dense color — although yields are low. Elena Franceschi at Silverado tells me some of their SLD cabernet sauvignon has rolled in and they should be finished with merlot very soon. Michelle Edwards has finished her merlot in the Stags Leap District. Stacy Clark has brought in SLD hillside cabernet sauvignon as well. Compressed and early seem to be the buzzwords for the vintage.”
Atlas Peak — Jan Krupp, Stagecoach Vineyards, “The vines on Atlas Peak endured a second week of temperatures that rose to 100 degrees. Most of them came through undamaged, although a few of the rocky areas lost some leaves. Last week’s heat had the growers of Atlas Peak picking white in earnest and seeing rapid sugar accumulation in some of their reds. The current cool down should slow or stop the brix rise and let the flavors catch up.
“The harvested whites have been delicious and the cab shows great promise. The Cab, Cab franc and merlot will all benefit from the coming cooler weather and more hang time.”
Mount Veeder — Brian Nuss, Vinoce Vineyards, “The harvest has started for us. Tuesday we picked some merlot in the lower vineyard. Thursday and Friday we will start on the cabernet sauvignon and finish up on the lower vineyard by the end of next week. The upper elevations are still at least two weeks out depending of course on the weather.”
Oak Knoll District — Randy Wulff, Lobo Wines, “We picked 27 tons of pinot noir at our vineyard on Salvador for Mumm. Chardonnay set to be picked next Monday, and I expect the syrah to be ready next week as well. Cab will wait a bit longer.”
Steve and Betsy Moulds, Moulds Family Vineyards, “Our cab is chugging along toward maturity. The current heat spell is driving sugars ahead of flavors at this point. Canopy holding with basal senescence just beginning. Don’t anticipate harvest for several weeks yet. North block at 50 percent yield due to shatter at bloom. No home wine this year.”
Michael Crane, Crane Brothers Winery, “Our merlot harvest is anticipated in about one week. The sugars are almost there, but flavors are still developing in the unusually small berry clusters. We are continuing the drip irrigation to allow a little longer hang time.”
Carneros — Lee Hudson, Hudson Vineyards, “With a week of heat a slow-starting harvest has shifted into high gear. Carneros pinot seem to be nearing the end and chardonnay is about a third done. It’s moving at dizzying speeds. We knew were looking at a light crop due to localized April frost and variable bloom conditions in May, but whoa, there seems to be a hole in the bucket. Some blocks are picking low to normal but others are at a third to normal. This harvest seems to define the old saying “Big crops only get bigger; small ones just get smaller. On the upside the quality of the pinots and chardonnays is excellent, great concentration with bright fresh flavors; there just won’t be a lot of it. Merlot and the syrah should be starting next week.”
Wild Horse Valley — John Newmeyer, Heron Lake Vineyard, “Pinot noir has ripened fast and was brought in on Monday the 8th at 24-26 Brix. Surprisingly, the crop was a third smaller than last year’s but appears to be of excellent quality. Chardonnay is at 24 Brix and will be picked soon.”