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Winemakers Harvest Update September 17, 2004 Joel Peterson, Ravenswood Winemaker We were 35% done with harvest when the searing, unrelenting heat set in.
Winemakers Harvest Update
September 17, 2004
Joel Peterson, Ravenswood Winemaker
We were 35% done with harvest when the searing, unrelenting heat set in. Grapes that were on the verge of ripeness started verging on over-ripeness. We are picking and crushing grapes at lightening speed. Fortunately we got nearly all of the Lodi fruit in and fermented before the heat started. (and my, the wine does look good) We are well into Sonoma county grapes including Zinfandel, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The flavors are intense and the colors are deep. This is not entirely surprising because the crop is rather small. It looks as if the Dry Creek Zinfandel could be down as much as 40 percent. Other regions are also coming in with short crop, but so far none are as shy bearing as Dry Creek. We have just begun to harvest in Mendocino, but expect to be in it over our heads by the end of the week. If this continues, we will be finished by the end of September. I don't believe that I have ever been able to relax in October as long as I have been in the wine business. Octoberfest here I come! Joel
Steve Reeder, Simi winemaker
Simi Harvest 2004 - Week #5 - This is the year of the jackrabbit. Not only have I seen more rabbits in the vineyards than ever before but I feel like one. We started on August 10th, got off to a running start and then cool weather stopped us cold. A warm spell and we're off to the races; another cooling trend and we're slowed to a trickle. Actually, this has been a very good year so far. We have finished all Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, have put a big dent into Chardonnay and have started with Merlot and a few young Cabernet vineyards. Flavors for are excellent. The reds that are coming in now have their sugar a little ahead of the flavor curve but maturity seems good. We are anticipating a cooling trend toward the end of the week. If this materializes and the fog and cool temps return, we'll be in a very good spot. In the first 4 weeks we did about 25% of our total tons. This week, along with next, will represent about 50% of our total input. The projected cooling trend will be welcomed from a picker's viewpoint, grape maturity viewpoint and the cellar worker's viewpoint. As Jerry would sing...Fire, Fire on the Mountain! We could see the flames from the Geyserville wildfire back behind the old Gauer Ranch and the smoke was thick. They were pulling water out of our Red Fan Vineyard reservoir with the helicopters to quell the fires. I was in a vineyard near Jimtown, there was a red/orange tint to everything due to the smoke and it was snowing, ash that is. A very surreal aspect to the last few days.
Simi Harvest 2004 - Week #6 - Into our 6th week of harvest, the fire has been doused but the heat remains. An unprecedented 7 days of over 100 F temps have us running like the proverbial jackrabbit. Over the last week we have brought in virtually all of our Chardonnay and most of our Merlot. For the most part we are still looking at a quality harvest. The heat has caused stress in a number of our Cabernet vineyards causing some dehydration and slowing the flavor curve. Many of our vineyards, especially our estate fruit, survived in good shape and is still on the vine. Hopes of cooling into the 80's has us pushing fruit off until next week, or later, to see if we can bring this harvest home in high fashion.
Larry Levin, Franciscan Oakville Estate, Mount Veeder Winery winemaker
We have just come off of a heat wave, which lasted over a week. It was more severe than any we have had in many years. For most vineyard blocks we were able to either develop great maturity and flavors or let them mature further and wait for temperatures to drop. For those we waited on, in many cases the sugar dropped after the heat wave and have been building in flavors fine since. In rare cases some blocks could not survive the heat, were harvested and were very close to full maturity.
We have completed harvesting all of the Chardonnay. Overall yields were close to normal and flavors excellent. For the reds we have harvested or about to harvest through the weekend will bring us to 65% finished for Merlot and 25% finished for Cabernet bringing us to 48% through harvest overall. Mount Veeder will begin with some small lots including Malbec and tiny blocks of Merlot.
Oakville Merlot began last week with a few blocks at each end of the vineyard. More Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot will come off in the next couple of days. Towards the end of next week we expect to continue to work our way through the vineyard. The weather this week has been fair and warm. This weekend will be cool and things will not move much.
Aaron Pott, Quinetssa winemaker, Rutherford, Napa Valley
Harvest started at Quintessa with Merlot from the Lake Terraces blocks on Tuesday, September 7. Since then, it's been moving very quickly, with two and three crews at a time harvesting by hand, under the light of the stars and battery powered headlamps in the very early morning hours. We'll continue our 3 a.m. pickings through next week when nearly all of the grapes at Quintessa will be off the vines.
"Water is the driving force of all nature," Leonardo di Vinci
Surely 2004 will be remembered as a vintage where irrigation was the key. Before the heat of the Labor Day weekend everything seemed ideal and all of us winemakers were anticipating harvest of the most perfect fruit. When one day of high heat turned into five, grapes in many areas of Napa Valley began dehydrating and sugars soared. Luckily at Quintessa we judiciously watered the vineyards before and during the weekend saving us from picking only raisins as many have this year.
"When it is dark enough you can see the stars," Ralph Waldo Emerson
The red must has colored up almost immediately to a dark purple sparkling black, precisely what Chilean poet Pablo Neruda must have meant by "jet black wines." The intense color foreshadowing wines of dense structure and as the fermentations continue the intensity and rusticity of the tannins tells us that there is more work to be done.
"Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure," Benjamin Disraeli
The ambiance at Quintessa is one of bliss. Young interns from Chile, France, New Zealand, Mexico and India with their many languages create an almost Tower of Babel meets the United Nations feel. The atmosphere is charged with energy, adrenaline and desire. Desire not only to make great wine, but also to make every gesture a work of art that will add to the ultimate work of art, Quintessa!
David Lake, Columbia Winery winemaker
Shortly after Midnight on Wednesday September 8th Columbia's harvest swung into action at the Red Willow vineyard. Lightly cropped Gewurztraminer (3.8tons/acre) narrowly beat out Merlot for first grapes of the season honors. Flavors in this fruit were floral, spicy and remarkably developed for the moderate 22.2 Brix sugar levels. It is a characteristic of this vintage that we are seeing good development of fruit character in grapes at lower sugar levels than sometimes happens in warm years. This is a welcome scenario, which should enable us to achieve ripe flavors at moderate alcohol levels. Our opening day this year was just 4 days ahead of the average start of my 25 years, September 12th. Providentially, Columbia's vineyards were largely spared the extreme winter cold that damaged vines in other areas like Walla Walla and Red Mountain.
After a very warm July and early August, temperatures have cooled over the last 3 weeks and some cloud cover and even light rain have slowed the ripening process. Precipitation at Red Willow was a bare 0.4'' and seems to have been entirely beneficial. Hand harvesters gathered at Red Willow on Thursday September 9th to pick the two vineyard blocks of Merlot, which for the past 9 years have consistently ripened first. The fruit is flawless, well colored, small-berried and has good ripe flavors. At Red Willow the fruit is brought down from the hillsides in shallow 4' by 4' bins and stored in a refrigerated cold-room before it is loaded that evening into a truck for the drive to the Woodinville winery. We are in at 6 a.m. to receive the fruit. The entire crush-team was here for the first grapes. There was a sense of homecoming in the early dawn of our first crush of 2004 as we fired up the crusher and old friends greeted each other. We continued to harvest Red Willow Merlot blocks through the end of the week and beginning of this week. Some of the 8 blocks of Red Willow Syrah look as if they may follow right on the heels of the Merlots.
Chris Todd, Estancia associate winemaker-white wines, Zinfandel
We have just wrapped up picking Zinfandel from our Paso Robles ranches. The Chardonnay action is in full tilt with projected finishing of the Pinnacles Ranch by mid next week. Bright deep, intense flavors across the board...could this be a repeat of the awesome '97 vintage? We'll see. But it looks and tastes very promising early on. The Pinot Grigio had its last straggler finally show and we are starting to pre blend the lots that are dry, looking for a repeat of the '03 in terms of depth and flavor, with perhaps a bit more texture. It's possible that harvest will end for us at the beginning of October.
Robert Cook, Estancia associate winemaker-red wines, Monterey and Paso Robles
Pinot Noir was officially 100% picked as of September 9th. Quality overall is superb. The heat wave beginning Labor Day weekend forced us to pick the last blocks of Stonewall Vineyard in Santa Lucia Highlands a few days earlier than we had expected. Complete lack of fog and temperatures hitting triple digits with no sign of cooling had the entire Estancia team working around the clock to get the fruit off the vine and into tank. We have been merrily draining, basket pressing and filling barrels to accommodate the earliest and fastest Pinot harvest to date here at Estancia. If our Monterey vineyards are any indication of how the Paso Robles harvest will be we could have all the fruit in the winery by mid October. It doesn't look to be particularly early this year, but it does appear to be rather compacted per sugar maturity.
