Weather  
Today

Crisp mornings, sunny and clear, mid-to-high 70s from now to Monday, when there are Cassandran warnings of rain starting and continuing through the week, building 1.5 inches over that time.

Of course, that's far in the future to be accurate and conservative is better than optimistic.

All pinot noir at Corral Creek will be off by then. Stoller Vineyards harvest is beginning today with Pinot gris, continuing daily with Pinot noir, Pinot gris, Pinot blanc and Chardonnay blocks until Monday, when there will likely be only a little Chardonnay left.

Harvest  2000  October 4, 2000

Finally, The Race is On

There is Pinot gris in press, so this must be "press time."

Michael into his Work, Cleaning the Press

Weather is in the lower 70s today, in as perfect a Fall day as you could want.

Brisk in the morning and lazily warm in the afternoon, fruit is ripening perfectly now.
-- Acids are still bright this year due to malic acid levels being moderate to high.
-- Sugars are high and, with the firmness of berries softening, indicate full ripeness is very close.

Cheryl Sampling Pinot at Ridgecrest

Pinot Gris on Deck

In general, perfectly photogenic clusters of fruit are not ripe clusters. Not until you can shake a cluster and have numbers of berries fall to the ground, or until the turgid purple berry turns limp and black, do you have great Pinot noir ripeness.

Over the next four days we will harvest 98 tons of fruit. With good sun and moderate temperatures, ripeness should be perfect. We will have half our fruit in, with Chardonnay and Pinot gris left from Corral Creek and Stoller, and half of our Pinot noir and everything else left to weather a little rain at Ridgecrest. It means three great vintages in-a-row for Corral Creek and Stoller, with Ridgecrest almost home, but dependent on what happens next week for its most mature Pinot noir blocks. They are not hurt yet by being in a fragile, late ripening stage. Stay tuned.

Early AM Truck at Corral Creek

Trees are beginning to turn orange, yellow and red. Vines just picked begin to turn yellow as soon as the fruit is off, so it is interesting to view from a distance a vineyard that is partially picked.

The anxiety of a relay runner waiting for the baton to come around is very similar to a harvest crew awaiting the first onslaught of fruit. Now we're running.

Harry