Four days of 100-degree weather during the second week of July (the mercury reached 106 in the town of Sonoma on Tuesday the 8th) marked the fourth heat spike of the 2008 vintage. The first spike came in mid-May, accelerating the bloom period, and two others occurred on June 9th and 21st.

Fires continued to burn around the state of California, and the polluted air combined with the heat wave made working outside seem like standing in front of a blow dryer.

Just north of Sonoma on the Fourth of July, a hillside grass fire started with a spark from a mower and threatened residences as well as Hanzell Winery. Thanks to the swift response of firefighters, fixed-wing aircraft dropping slurry and a helicopter dropping water, the fire was put out after burning only seven acres with no harm done to homes, winery or venerable vineyards.

Remarkably, with all this heat in a dry year, our vineyards are not showing stress. There’s hardly any sunburn on the fruit. There’s some virus showing up, but water pressure is ok. As cooler weather returned last week, the vines just cruised along.

This somewhat surprising lack of effects from extreme weather could be due to the light crop load this year created by the frost. I estimate that our yields will be at least 20% less than normal, and that will mean a short crop for the second year in a row.  Given the state of the economy, if we’re going to have short years, this would be the time.

Another positive factor for the vines is that the humidity did not get super low. It just dipped below the 30% range. When it gets really low, that just sucks moisture out of the vines.

One effect of the July heat was to push grapes into color  – especially the Calera and Martini Pinot Noir selections – about three weeks early. Our old Martini in the Ferguson Block showed up to 15% color, but then didn’t move any further along last week. We expect 50% veraison (when grapes soften and change color) in the first week of August.

I don’t think this will be a late year. The last three vintages have seen slow ripening with lots of hang time. The 2008 growing season reminds me more of 2003 and 2004 when we cruised right into harvest. But you never know for sure with the weather.

I’ve been paying particular attention to berry counts – berries per cluster, undersized berries and shot berries. I’ve noticed there are not a lot of wings hanging off the side of the main clusters. That’s a plus for quality, because the berries on the wings often ripen later. That can have a significant effect, because while the main cluster may contain from 100 to 120 berries, the wings carry 40 to 50.

My berry count is more anecdotal than scientific, but it gives me a feel for the vintage. The heat that pushed the vines through bloom rapidly produced some shot berries – non-fertilized grapes. There are also a considerable number of under-sized berries that were fertilized but did not size up fully. I estimate the total of smaller berries at about one-third. Again, that can be a plus in terms of preventing rot because the clusters are looser and air can circulate.

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