Weather  
Today

The promise remains firm for dry, sunny and cool. This is perfect late season ripening.

We're into high 60s to low 70s highs and mid 30s to low 40s lows.

The forecast is rain staying away until at least next Saturday or Sunday.

Harvest to-date:
Total: 128 tons
(50% of forecast)

Pinot noir: 70 tons
(50% of forecast)
Pinot gris: 28 tons
(58% of forecast)
Chardonnay: 27 tons
(54% of forecast)
Riesling: 2.4 tons
(35% of forecast)

Luis washing bins (2/3 of winemaking seems to be washing things!)

Calm Before the Storm

	John and Greg sort Pinot noir on conveyor
	Nicky and Michael filling Chardonnay barrel

We're bringing in remnants of Corral Creek and Stoller Vineyards over the next couple days, just to keep our hand in it. But the big slug of work yet to come is Ridgecrest Vineyards, from which we've harvested nothing so far. Over the next 6 days we will bring in 90-100 tons of fruit from Ridgecrest, which is poised to be one of the best harvests from there to-date. The extra week of clear, cool, dry hangtime has made the fruit very complex in flavors and impeccably ripe.

Besides Michael Davies and Mike Eyres helping Cheryl and me coordinate campaign acitivities, the energy and focus of the harvest interns helps make this an easy Harvest, so far. In order of arrival, we are pleased to introduce Shane Thurston, a New Zealander who after graduating from Lincoln's viticulture and enology bachelor's program has worked with our friends Matt and Lynette (who, by the way, are getting married next February); Nicky Parish, also a Lincoln graduate, her family owns a vineyard in the Waipara area near Canterbury and she has worked at Mission; Greg Brown, also a Kiwi, has spent time in Australia wine business, after making a career change from the fine dairy farms of NZ; and Luis Montiveros, an Argentinean with excellent English skills, who is going to school in Mendoza in Agricultural Engineering. A very strong crew and yet needed, considering Cheryl is away all but a couple hours per day now, prior to the birth of her first baby.

	Mike Eyres in Vineyard with Near Infrared (NIR) and Pressure Bomb instruments

In addition to Cheryl's absence, we need a little extra time because of interesting experimental work we are performing in collaboration with a spectrometer manufacturing company, Brimrose, from Baltimore. We have also brought Oregon State University in on the work, with their Chemistry and Food Sciences departments also interested in the potential applications of the technology we are trying to advance. The work involves calibrating Brimrose's equipment and existing technology used in other industries to help control processes, to grapegrowing and winemaking. The potential is for a portable instrument that can use near infrared (NIR) spectrum data from fruit, leaves and wine to correlate to maturity, need for irrigation, status of photosynthesis, constituent concentration, development of problem compounds, etc. Possibly far-reaching or possibly just an expensive way to do things we currently do. Mike Eyres has helped coordinate this work in the lab and vineyard. More later as feasibility is determined.

We have begun to finish fermentations aplenty and the results look very promising, with deep, dark, relatively problem-free ferments. A bit soft and fleshy, they should be interesting to watch for development and comparison to higher elevation fruit being brought-in from Ridgecrest. Here's to number 5 Vintage in a Row!

Regards,

Harry