The 2006 vintage was our second year of extended hang time. The unusual heat spike in July produced some kind of stress or damage to the canopy or vine that we didn’t recognize at the time. A cool August and September slowed ripening considerably.

How can flavors just go away? It’s difficult to evaluate because it’s so objective – high acids can hide flavors. At 20 or 21 Brix, it’s not critical; we know the flavors will develop again.

Early in the year, we pull off shoots to get a more uniform canopy so we have to manipulate less later in the season. In doing so, we lose yields that we can’t make up. Then this year, we had a tight set that was hard to understand.

Big seeds make big berries. Instead of weighing a normal 1.0 gram, the berries averaged from 1.2 to 1.3 grams. Our cluster counts were not … More…

I think the 2006 vintage is unique among at least the last 20 years in California. It was generally cool, very spread out and sporadic, producing wines in a style somewhat similar to 2004.

After a heat wave in July, flavors started to show in the high ‘teens of degrees Brix (scale of sugar content). Then, rather mysteriously, the flavors flat-lined and almost disappeared. The vintage became a game of “let it hang.”

I think the heat slowed the canopy in its work, making us wait for flavors. Usually we harvest between 24.5 and 25.0 degrees Brix. This year we were closer to 26.0.

Normally we harvest all of our vineyards within a week. This year our picks were a month apart. As a result, we have an array of different wines and styles in the cellar. In general, the acids seem a little higher, as you would expect with … More…

I’m long overdue for a blog posting. Normally we pick in a week to ten days and our harvest is over. This vintage will be drawn out for over a month, a long time for a small Pinot Noir specialist. The biggest topic has been botrytis, but there’s a lot of misinformation about it. The botrytis was already there – it was not caused by the rain in early October. It had been there and just grew more.

The rain actually refreshed the vines, and we didn’t see any big drops in sugars. Sugar levels have just risen by very small increments this year due to the long, cool season. We had a wet spring, but we didn’t see much early botrytis. The shoots were clean, growth was good, and bloom and set was wonderful. With ample water in the ground and a good set, we saw more and bigger … More…

I’m making my first posting to this blog on the run. It’s been a rollercoaster harvest, frustrating because everything is so spread out due to the cool weather. The second half of September was mild, and the first week of October cold, cloudy and misty with half an inch of rain. We’re just holding out for flavors.

On the bright side, we did get good flavors in many blocks, and we got the majority of our harvest in before the rain. It’s the fruit in blocks that we usually pick at the end anyway that is still out there. We brought in what needed picking, like some Martini selection Pinot Noir that is thin-skinned and might have fallen apart after enduring the rain.

The occurrence of botrytis this year … More…

This morning I walked the Nugent Vineyard with our winemaker, Kenneth Juhasz, accompanied by our eminent consultants, Dr. Phil Freese and his wife, Zelma Long. Phil is a born teacher (he taught at the University of California) who headed up viticultural research at the Robert Mondavi Winery for many years. Zelma is a legendary winemaker who also began at Mondavi and achieved renown at Simi Winery and beyond.

We found Botrytis cinerea, the so-called “noble rot,” in some of our Dijon 667 Pinot Noir blocks. In Pinot, botrytis is far from noble. This just reminds you that, in farming, if it’s not one thing, it’s another. It caught us a bit by surprise, ironically, because with the wet spring, we had anticipated possible problems and taken appropriate measures, opening canopies and applying some material (Pristine) before the bunches closed.

Despite our sophisticated tools, nothing substitutes for what Phil calls … More…