Harvest report: Cool weather slows harvest
It seems that everyone is waiting for some heat to further push the sugar and flavor development in the red varieties, including cabernet sauvignon. The weather continues to play havoc with grapegrowers — in Chiles Valley, some vineyard managers turned on their wind machines as temperatures dipped to 32-33 degrees.
Paul Smith, OnThEdge Winery, “Cooler days and a moist night or two has slowed dehydration while ripening continues. Most zin, merlot, gamay, syrah, grenache and charbono are in the tank along with perhaps 75 percent of the region’s cabernet sauvignon, franc and merlot. Some growers will continue to hang their CS, CF, PV and even merlot during the predicted warming, dry weather over the next several days. Zin has been light with reported shortfalls up to 50-60 percent while cab sauv, cab franc and merlot are down 20-30 percent. All varieties have smaller than normal clusters and berries which destem extremely clean. Some wineries report sluggish fermentations. I have seen neither botrytis nor rot and cannot recall a cleaner harvest.”
Diamond Mountain District
Dawnine Dyer, Dyer Vineyards, “Not much to report ... as Jim Munk at Sterling put it ‘Things have pretty much come to a halt due to the cooler weather.’ While grapes have been coming in on the mountain for almost a month, most of the reds are still out. Mid-mountain J. Schram reports a scant 5 percent in, AGV and Seaver began tentatively harvesting this week and many of us, including Diamond Creek have yet to pick a thing. As the day length shortens, maturation continues, but slower and with less sugar accumulation ... really perfect conditions for cabernet. With a few warm days early this week, growers are watching the vineyards closely, but things are holding steady.”
Howell Mountain
Pat Stotesbery, Ladera Vineyards, “This time last year we were coming off rain so the cool is much better. It has slowed everyone down and very little fruit was picked the week of Sept. 15. Most folks have something on the schedule for this week and it will all hinge on the amount of heat mid-week. If that materializes there will likely be more picking by the end of the week and into next week; if not, then we wait more and watch for shriveling.”
Chiles Valley District
Volker Eisele, Eisele Family Vineyards, “In spite of the very cool weather, picking has begun on the valley floor. About 25 percent of the zinfandel has been picked with the familiar results: Fabulous quality and dismal quantity. The cabernet is profiting from this cool weather. Color development is outstanding. Picking will not begin before the first of October. The weather turned so cool that at least one ranch ran wind machines on Wednesday morning. The low was between 32 and 33 degrees. Subsequent nights were fairly similar, i.e. 36 to 39 degrees. This week should bring near perfect conditions for ripening.”
Spring Mountain District
Stuart Smith, Smith-Madrone, “Not much harvest activity this past week. The cool weather slowed ripening even to the point that some blocks went backwards in sugar. While more cool weather is predicted later this week, many wineries are finding blocks to harvest. Keenan is harvesting cabernet sauvignon and letting the merlot sit, Paloma is harvesting merlot and letting the cabernet sit. Schweiger and Smith-Madrone will be harvesting merlot and letting the cabernet sit. Guilliams and Terra Valentine likely will start some reds later this week. Just another unusual harvest that we’ve all come to expect as being the norm.”
St. Helena
Mark Porembski, winemaker, Anomaly Vineyards and Charnu Winery, “St. Helena continues to experience a relative holding pattern when it comes to harvest. Most whites, merlot and zinfandel have been picked, yet cabernet sauvignon was really only trickling in this past week. With the recent weeks of cool and overcast conditions, growers and winemakers are tending to hold out for full physiological ripening. If yields for all the varietals are any indication, cabernet sauvignon will also be well under average this vintage. Early word in the vineyards and wineries is that quality is high, even if yields are down.”
Rutherford
Jeffrey Stambor, director of winemaking, Beaulieu Vineyards, “The recent ‘warm wave’ has nudged cabernet sauvignon in Rutherford to harvestable levels. A steady supply of fruit is arriving at the main winery and the newly designed winery dedicated to the production of Georges de Latour. Sugar levels are in balance with flavor development and all other measures of maturity — soft skins and brown, crunchy seeds. Berries are smaller than average which means great color and more intense, concentrated flavors.”
Oakville
Pat Garvey, vineyard manager, Flora Springs Winery, “Monday was the first day of fall and the cool early morning temperatures validated that. The grapes seemed to have taken the prior week off as daytime temperatures remained cool. This week, we will see the berries begin to sweeten again as daytime temperatures increase. Even though we have this temperature variation from week to week our collection of vineyard data from bud break to flowering to veraison to harvest points to a Oct. 6 harvest for merlot and Oct. 10 harvest for cabernet sauvignon. This also is a reminder that we will have accumulated 145 days from flowering to harvest which will be five days more than 2007.”
Stags Leap District
Elizabeth Vianna, winemaker, Chimney Rock Winery, “The recent cool down caused our grapes to behave a bit like Wall Street this past week — sugars actually went down! This change in the weather propelled Chimney Rock into a continued lull so there was time to focus on the wines that have come in thus far. Two of our small hillside blocks were harvested, but not much of anything else. By the time this prints, we all hope more Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon will be pouring in again. Elena Franceschi at Silverado and Stacy Clark at Pine Ridge report similar holding patterns and the lowering of sugars as well. It looks like it won’t be such a compressed harvest for us after all.”
Atlas Peak
Jan Krupp, Stagecoach Vineyards, “The weather has been unseasonably cool this past week in Atlas Peak. Harvest has been very slow. The expected warm weather should continue the ripening process at a normal pace.”
Mount Veeder
Brian Nuss, Vinoce Vineyards, “The weather has slowed things down a bit. The cab franc is sitting at 23 Brix, the last block of cabernet sauvignon in the lower vineyard will be picked on Thursday. We will move into the upper elevations next week to pick the rest of the merlot and the Solar Hill cab. Clusters are holding up fine and the flavors are just about there.”
Oak Knoll District
Steve & Betsy Moulds, Moulds Family Vineyard, “All quiet on the western front! Sugars have gone back down a bit. Cool temps have us in a typical fall holding pattern. Flavors are continuing to develop while the moderate temps slow the evapo-transpiration. Canopy is holding well, but water is getting low. What’s new on Dry Creek! Same song as the rest of the Valley … short crop but looks to be excellent quality so far.”
Walt Brooks, Brooks Family Vineyard, “The grapes have recovered from the previous heat and are now back on their normal ripening schedule, sugars are a bit high but there is plenty of acid to support further development and flavors are developing nicely, from the plum flavors of a few weeks ago we are moving to darker berry flavors. A little raisining on the sun-exposed shoulders but with small cluster with small berries, all I can say is — so far so good. It looks like we are several weeks away from harvest.”
Doug Burnett, “R&D vineyards and Epp’s Estate vineyards on the valley floor against the western bench of the Oak Knoll District are both sources of cabernet sauvignon. Although this year has been a roller coaster of weather extremes, our area has produced normal to heavy loads with nicely developing fruit. As of Sept. 22, Brix are at 23 degrees with normal seed and juice development. Based upon these parameters and with the return of cool weather, we anticipate our harvest will be during the last week of October or first part of November.”
Wild Horse Valley
John Newmeyer, Heron Lake Vineyard, “All the chardonnay is now in. Yields are about one-quarter below the 2000-’07 average. Our vineyard escaped ice (April) and fire (June), but not drought: There simply were no rains after the first of March, so that our reservoir had the second-lowest summer levels in 23 years of observation.”