Well, obviously, 2008 was a strange vintage — not too hot, but with some frost, fire and smoke and drought thrown in.
In our Russian River Valley vineyard, where yields were a third of normal due to frost damage, the sugars in our Dijon (early ripening) Pinot Noir clones were at a sensitive stage when the heat hit over Labor Day weekend. The heat was compounded by single digit humidity. We decided to push through the hot weather and ignore the Brix (approximate percentage of sugar) readings. We felt we didn’t have quite the concentration of flavors we wanted and that the tannins and skins were still a little green. To compromise matters further, we had some variability in ripening because of the frost. We picked in the second week of September.
We made only a very small quantity of wine and we experienced a little difficulty getting a few fermentations to completion. I’ve heard there were a number of stuck fermentations this year, probably because heat can interfere with micronutrients needed to finish. But I’m happy to report that we have very concentrated and ripe wine that should be spectacular. I found it hard to sleep for a few nights wondering if we had made the wrong decision, but had we picked earlier, I’m convinced the wines would have been a little lean and green.
The situation in Carneros was also a little weird, but good. We went into the heat there with lower sugars, probably due to a combination of clones and selections, older vines and some virus. Then we saw the numbers spike. Anne took it all in. Normally, she pours over the numbers, but last fall she decided not to look at them. She had great intuition and her decision was helpful to the rest of us. We waited.
Moderate weather came on September 7th and soon the numbers plummeted, with Brix readings dropping as much as four points. I’ve never seen that before. The sugars remained fairly low throughout a month of hang time. We completed harvest on the October 3rd.
The wines are thoroughly ripe with fresh, concentrated fruit and great color. They have behaved like cooler vintage wines in the cellar, slower to develop and unfold as they ultimately were slow to develop in the vineyard. They are very solid, beautiful wines. There are no dogs in the winery.
My big fear is having bad wine in the cellar that I have to try to fix. But in the vineyard, I would rather push the limits and make the best decision to pick on the right day. Our interns were going nuts standing around waiting for us to pull the trigger. They looked at the numbers we were getting and scratched their heads, but the development we wanted just wasn’t there. In the end,
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February 13th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Interesting that you guys have virus issues too. Are we talking leaf roll or something else?
Vintage was looking great down here- still is from a seasonal perspective- with the one caveat being what the fires of the last few days will do with regard to smoke taint. Fingers crossed.
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:56 am
It really does involve so many risks. It is so hard to know when the best time to act is.
As for getting the word out there I came across this great service that helps you keep in touch with customers and all your supporters. They provide a magazine about fine wines, where you get to customize the cover pages – to make it your own. You then send it off, where it becomes a lasting mouth piece for your company. I found it at: http://www.swirlandsip.com/index.html and I just thought it was worth sharing.