Weather  
Today

Beautiful, bright, blue skies and a light breeze. Perfect Fall ripening weather.

Expected high today is low 70s, with temperatures building over the last few days (64, 67, 71F).

A rain event that could extend a couple days and presage next week also is expected early tomorrow morning. The extent of the rainfall has been downgraded, however, with a quarter-inch predicted for the next two days, rather than the three-quarters predicted earlier.

Harvest Scorecard:
Total: 177 tons (79% of forecast)

Pinot noir: 107 tons (88% of forecast)
Pinot gris: 35 tons (61% of forecast)
Chardonnay: 35 tons (100% of forecast)

Destemming Ridgecrest Pinot into a portable 4 Ton fermentor

Harvest  2001 October 15 , 2001

Winning the Race

	How Do You Translate "Up To Here In Barrels"?
	Michael and John Barreling Pinot noir

Almost there!

And, despite slightly improving weather forecasts, we are still working to bring in all fruit today, except a couple less significant blocks.

The last two days have been frenzied, with white and red fruit coming interchangeably from all three vineyards, requiring meticulous accounting for seemingly mundane items such as picking bins -- making sure 30 picker crews picking simultaneously at two sites can pick without interruption.

Fermentors are opening up just in the nick of time, two presses are running late into the night and the crew is beefed up with experienced temporary help -- John Matzinger, Steven Jackson, Jim Holzgraf, Nelle Bauer, and my daughter Wynne (home from Bryn Mawr for a week's Fall break).

	Pressing Chardonnay Late Into the Night		Jim Holzgraf, Helping Over The Weekend

Speaking of bringing fruit in, a load of Ridgecrest 5 Acre Pommard Pinot noir has just cruised in, so I have to break off and receive it. Back soon to let you know how we finished.........

	Enduring a Power Outage by Flashlight

As if the rain and lots of fruit to harvest weren't enough with which to contend, Saturday night we lost power to the winery, the electric company having to replace a transformer in the wee hours to get presses back to rolling. Down at 8:30 p.m., with two to three hours more work planned, we had to pick it up the next morning and catch back up. And we did. Thanks, PGE.