Harvest  1999  October 15, 1999

Hectic. The weather is making this not just a good year, but a great year!

We are pulling off all but the last two pinot noir blocks at Corral Creek Thursday and beginning on our first picking at Ridgecrest Vineyards Friday--picking our Babies Block of almost 14 acres as quickly as we can get picking bins back-and-forth.

Although "Babies," this block was planted in 1989, so is in its 11th leaf and is mature by non-Burgundy standards. Sampling fruit yesterday, Cheryl and I finally saw ultimate flavors, sugars over 24 brix, and physiologically soft fruit.

Winery activities are now full-bore, as we prepare to press-out our first two finished pinot noir fermentors.

Their fermentations were very rapid, which is not necessarily what we want, since time before and during fermentation helps to extract flavors and color.

However, the ferments smell, look, and taste very nice. We are readying barrels and malolactic inoculum for the day after pressing out these two 8-ton batches, giving us approximately 40 barrels, or 1000 cases, worth.

Harry