Weather  
Today

Pouring down, trees golden and red and every other shade, adjacent hillsides only faintly there through the fog.

Only 0.40 inches of rain and moderate temperatures on all fruit harvested prior to the 20th, which is everything but the Riesling, which came in yesterday, dry, ripe and botrytised.

We couldn't have asked for more.

FINAL Harvest Scorecard:
Total: 221 tons (97% of forecast), to yield approximately 13,900 cases

Pinot noir: 122 tons (96% of forecast)
Pinot gris: 45 tons (79% of forecast)
Chardonnay: 42 tons (124% of forecast)
Gamay noir: 3 tons (67% of forecast)
Pinot blanc: 6 tons (213% of forecast)
Riesling: 3 tons (115% of forecast)

Pamela Dressed for the Cold

Harvest  2001 October 27 , 2001

Two Thousand One, Another Great One

	Managing Vigorous, Frothy Pinot Noir Ferments

If I wanted to complain about this harvest, I couldn't. We have an excellent set of fermentations going or complete -- with excellent Pinot noir concentration and structure, delicate fruit aromatics on Pinot gris and Chardonnay and, as of yesterday's harvest, excellent flavors on Riesling.

Barreling Down in the Rain

Overall, the acids are relatively soft, the fruit lovely and round, and there is no significant trace of wine faults either from diseased fruit, faulty fermentations, or our screwups.

Riesling did get harvested Friday, with 3.16 tons of exceptional fruit.

Elsewhere, fermentors are emptying out, with all Stoller Vineyards cuvees now in barrel, half of Corral Creek and the beginnings of Ridgecrest being pressed today or tomorrow. Pressing and barreling dominate those times when we aren't punching down or pumping over Pinot noir and Gamay noir ferments.

Last Day of Harvest, Picking Riesling

We have time for shuffling a few papers, creating summary spreadsheets, working on financial projections for the bank for next year and new plantings, rounding out sales for our Fiscal Year and taking regular days off. Except for late night punchdown, we're now getting out of here by 7:00 pm these days. Soon we will be able to escape as a group for R&R at the coast, the harvest crew will one-by-one return to impending summer downunder (Christmas at the beach is still hard to grasp!), and our thoughts will shift to bottling a couple remaining 2000s and getting back out to see many of you.

I look forward to having you try what 2001 has given us.

Regards,