Friday, October 15th was our final day of Harvest 2004, with Riesling from all sites harvested within a day. It was a harvest of long duration, beginning the earliest since 1992 with first picking on September 11th and with our last fruit brought in 34 days later. Even Pinot noir covered more than a month, from September 11th to October 14th.

At the outset we planned for a condensed harvest, which would have taxed our limited fermentor space, since some tanks need to be used twice. However, a combination of reduced croploads (under even estimates) and cooler weather with sporadic rain served to extend the season.

Quality of fruit benefited from longer hangtimes and incremental ripening stages. Only very early fruit that was too ripe to endure the cooling rains without splitting and desiccating was compromised, and even that looks surprisingly promising in barrel. Later ripening sites like Ridgecrest fared well, with rain moving nitrogen in the plants, adjusting chemistries and allowing optimal flavor development. Lower croploads, caused by damp and cool weather at an untimely early flowering, especially at Stoller and Ridgecrest, will be felt in significantly limited Pinot noir and Pinot gris volumes. However, as is usually the case, the other edge of the sword will likely give us more concentration in final wines.

	Javier picking Riesling on the last Harvest day, October 15th.

As we grow our Riesling volume, this year promises to be stellar for Riesling, with more site diversity and increased levels of botrytis this year from the occasional rain, followed by 70-80s sunshine. Chardonnay quality also should be excellent, making this a very high quality white year, possibly similar to 2002.

Pinot noir for us and throughout the valley I expect to be slightly more variable than normal, with good wines from fruit harvested early and stellar, pinnacle wines from the low crop, long hanging late vineyards. Ridgecrest, as a case study, showed early vineyard growth from an early Spring, with bud break April 4th (normally 4/14-25th, over the last 5 years) and flowering June 11 (normally 6/17-23), but had extended hangtime due to cooling in late harvest to a luxurious 125 days bloom-to-harvest (normally 108-114 days). And this hangtime on Pinot noir croploads that averaged 1.47 tons per acre (2.53 average in prior four years) at Ridgecrest. Average cropload for Pinot noir across vineyards is 1.96 tons per acre.

Pinot noir freefalling into the destemmer.

It's over--we did a good job in the vineyard, we played the weather correctly at Harvest and now it's up to us to not screw up the fruit in the winery. Stay tuned for an assessment as fermentors are pressed to barrel.