We can let the fruit hang as long as we want. The window to pick is a week or more long. It’s almost silly – we can do whatever we want without fear. With great flavors and everything truly ripe, I’m taking advantage. I’m being a little more extractive in my winemaking, given the great condition of the crop, but I’m mindful of balance.

There’s no rush at the winery to get lots out of tanks. There’s plenty of time to do the work, so we’re crossing t’s and dotting i’s. For normally high alcohol producers, this year will be considerably lower. Our alcohols aren’t normally that high so they won’t be down very dramatically. Acids are not high, but certainly not low. Nothing tastes over-ripe. It’s all concentrated … More…

We keep checking our refractometers (devices that measure sugar content by refraction of light) and comparing results, because nothing seems to be happening. But they all read the same.

The flavors are there now, in most cases. The seeds and skins are mature. All the numbers are good except the sugars are low. The canopies are nearing the end of their cycle, so we will have to pick soon.

This has been a dry year, so there should be less chance of mildew or botrytis mold. Yet I have seen more mildew than last year. This puzzles me, and I’m sure the guys from the universities are puzzled, too.

I’m noticing symptoms of leaf roll virus (margins of the leaf blade roll downward; areas between major veins turn red) quite a … More…

We’re still waiting. Our Calera Pinot Noir clone has ripe skins, the acids are starting to drop and the sugars haven’t moved much, so we’re waiting for a “pop” in the fruit, a flavor shift. Will it still come?

It doesn’t always happen. We may not get a flavor shift in the vineyard, but then it will eventually come out in the wine. Or we can have beautiful ripe fruit flavors, but the skins are still green.

Last year we had flavors appear early, disappear and then reappear. We really don’t have that much experience with long hang time. Kenneth probably has more from his winemaking in Oregon.

Because our moderate weather has persisted, the question is, if you don’t really need to pick, at what point … More…

Kenneth and I walked the vineyards yesterday and the sugars are slowly moving upward. There are no green tannins left and the berries seem poised to undergo a shift to full maturity. There’s a moment when the berries jump from being ever so slightly bland to just popping with flavors.

This morning we sampled what we’ve brought in to the winery so far. First we tasted the Dijon 115 Pinot Noir clone from Nugent Vineyard in the Russian River Valley, which we farm. This fruit was harvested last Thursday, September 13, and inoculated yesterday, so it’s like, as Kenneth said, “kid’s juice.” I noticed its nice weight and delicious fruit, and Kenneth thought it had purity and focus, great fruit with good length.

Then we sampled another lot picked the … More…

Kenneth, Nabor and I walked our Donum and Ferguson Block vineyards today with Dr. Phil Freese, our viticultural consultant. It was cool and overcast until noon. Phil remarked that while it’s been a mild summer, there has been virtually no fog. Cool evenings have kept acid levels up.

Even with clouds overhead today and temperatures barely in the 70s, Phil commented that enough sunlight gets through for photosynthesis (vines won’t grow in full shade). He said photosynthesis will “max out” in the high 70s and low 80s. Even the morning breeze aids the process of ripening by circulating fresh carbon dioxide among the leaves. Phil recalled being in the Nahe Valley in Germany one year for the last 30 days before harvest; even when three out of the four weeks were … More…