Weather Today
We have continued to have bright, classic, football weekend sort of weather for the last two weeks plus. It came with sunshine and 60s highs/upper 30s lows in time to push Riesling into near perfection, although not in time to reduce the challenge of 4 inches of rain during harvest.

Harvest to-date
Total:
360 tons
(97% of forecast)
Pinot Noir: 156 tons
(92% of forecast)
Pinot Gris: 54 tons
(91% of forecast)
Chardonnay: 121 tons
(105% of forecast)
Riesling: 16 tons
(101% of forecast)
Gamay noir: 3 tons
(52% of forecast)
Pinot blanc: 9 tons
(170% of forecast)

A perfect botrytised Riesling cluster at Corral Creek, with another 5 days or more of dry and sun to "rot," nobly of course.

Harry, pleased with the harvest and life in general (photo: Mary Hinckley).

November 2, 2007

Click images to enlarge

Nov 1st, bright sunshiine, electric colors and Riesling harvested.

Ridgecrest's Babies Block bronzed and overlooking the layers of valley hillsides to the south, indicative of two weeks of Indian summer at the end of Harvest 2007.

Ridgecrest on clear, dry, warm days after Harvest, yellow, bronze and green.

Mike and Miti checking out last pick of the year, Corral Creek Lower Riesling on Nov 1st.

Early morning at the Harvest Crew meeting, at the end of Harvest, at the first coffee.

Toasting the finish of Harvest in both Vineyard and Marketing worlds.

Putting Things Away

Harvest 2007 ended on Thursday (Nov. 1), as we brought in our last block of Riesling from Corral Creek Lower, the third day in a row of riesling harvested in sunshine, with wispy fog tatters burned away by a warming day. A perfect Indian Summer, as many of us were convinced we would have, taking the botrytised beginnings in almost ripe clusters and propelling them into nobility. We even did a two-phase pick on the warmer and more botrytised Stoller block, sending pickers through for a preliminary, careful picking of the ugly, soft and rotting or raisined clusters, in hopes of a luscious auslese version of hyper ripe fruit, before we picked for our Dry Riesling.

In Summary

In summary, we think this may be a fantastic white vintage and a surprisingly good red vintage, despite the rain which many times might lead to less intense wines. With rain in the range of 2005 and much less than the last really rainy harvest season of 1997, most winemakers in the valley know how to adapt and take advantage of some of the attributes of such a vintage, such as lower sugars (and therefore alcohols) and higher acids. So long as botrytis is kept from reds or sorted out, and winemaking slight of hand used to provide physical therapy to the intensity shortcomings, such as saignee, tannin adds, chaptalization/ acidulation and the like, the vintage will have stellar wines, just perhaps with more variability.

"Earlier vineyards," "warmer sites," "early picks," and "before the rain" descriptors will be important phrases this vintage. The most important predictor of quality in 2007 will, of course, be winery and winemaker names. Buy whites in general, buy reds from trusted names.

We look forward to showing whites in the spring and having you taste reds from barrel in early summer. Our mid-harvest wet and cool working conditions will be forgotten with our nose in a glass.

Fond regards and a toast to 2007 Harvest.

Regards,
Harry