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 has necessitated a lot of thinning. Actually, we have a three-step process. First, we drop affected fruit in the vineyard. Then we sort as we pick. Finally, we sort again on tables, pulling out any affected clusters. So, with this added effort and expense, the fruit we get at the winemaking end is clean. Fortunately, we had an abundant vintage, so we aren’t getting shorted badly on quantity.

At my end, fermentations are proceeding nicely, although that cool first week of October affected them. Ambient temperatures were so cool that we had to warm the tanks to get them going. Native yeast fermentations, for whatever reason, have been more difficult. Anne suggests it could be due to botrytis.

This has been a bizarre year for fruit maturity. You may walk a block and ask, “Where are the flavors?” And one day they are there, but maybe not in the next block. This is especially annoying because earlier in the vintage, the flavors were really evident at lower sugars, and we said, “Wow!” We had very high hopes, then flavors diminished, and it’s been a long wait for sugars. As late as we have gone, we will still be picking Pinot Noir next week.

The fruit is not at all tired, however. The Roederer Pinot Noir clone from block 490 that goes into Donum is par for the course with its thick, ripe skin.
Everything is completely ripe, seeds as well, and we could leave that in the tank as long as we wish. It’s just odd to have some wine already in barrel, some still juice and some fruit still hanging out there for another week.

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