Washington Update From Covey Run

Covey Run Winery

November 1, 2002

Periodically over the last several weeks, Covey Run winemaker Kerry Norton has provided updates on Harvest 2002 in Washington. This is his final report.

Is it winter where you are? It sure feels like winter here. The mercury fell to 4 degrees in Yakima yesterday morning, making it the coldest October day here since they started keeping records in 1909. You can probably guess what that means: Harvest is over!

Actually, we've still got our ice-wine Riesling to pick, but with low temperatures not expected to rise out of the 20s for a while, that's sure to happen soon. Folks up here are already starting to wonder what this fall's early freeze might mean for the 2003 growing season. But before we start worrying about that, we ought to summarize 2002.

To put it simply, this is a wonderful vintage all-around, and an incredible vintage for reds. There are several reasons I'm so excited about the reds. First, the color is extraordinary. Second, the aromas are as beautiful as I've seen in years. And third, we're seeing all this color and aroma without excessive tannins. In 1999 we had tremendous color and aroma, but keeping the tannins in balance was a challenge. This year, everything has come together perfectly. The result: the wines appear to be powerful and soft at the same time.

The other thing I'll remember this harvest for is the unusual order of the ripening. I mentioned in an earlier report that the Merlot, instead of ripening at vastly different times according to site, all ripened in a small time frame. And that's how all our reds came in--clustered together, regardless of whether it was a "warmer site" or a "cooler site." This made tank management easier in the winery, and allowed us to really concentrate on each variety as it was harvested.

As for the whites, we had a weather scare in early October--a much lighter freeze than the current one--but that didn't stop us from waiting to pick our Chardonnay and Riesling until they were at optimum ripeness. The reds may be the stars of this vintage, but the whites are no slouches: Flavors are excellent and with the Riesling, the acidities are really zippy. I think people will like these wines a lot.

Frankly, my biggest challenge with this vintage is going to come later in the process. The quality of the wine we're seeing is so consistently high, it's going to be hard to separate our upper-level Barrel Select wines from the core Quail line! Not that I'm complaining, mind you.