9.13.21

Harvest is officially in full swing. I tend to get overwhelmed around this time of year, but that’s my indication to know we’re in the thick of it. Luckily, we have a great team in place who is all prepared to handle whatever they get thrown their way! Speaking of that, over the last ~10 days since I “blogged” last, we’ve harvested some Pinot Noir for our Rose program, 943 clone Pinot Noir from Escolle Vineyard and Calera clone Pinot Noir from Eden Rift Vineyard for some high end Pinot Noir, Malbec and Chardonnay from Massa, and today some Verdejo from Heringer. The Chardonnay was destemmed and will ferment in a concrete tank to be a component of this years portion of the NV solara orange, and the Verdejo will be a new program – making a vino verde style light and spritzy porch pounder. We’re trying to keep our heads on straight with lots of other vineyards getting close and on our horizon. We have filled all but 2 of our fermentation bins, and if you’ve ever wanted to do a punchdown, now’s your chance – we have 26 bins full and a crew with some sore muscles…!

In the cellar, we are planning on emptying some of those bins this week by pressing the skins and sending the wine to barrel. We should be at least pressing 4 different lots of grapes, and potentially more as fermentations race towards completion. This weeks weather will be a drastic cool down, with well below average temperatures expected for a few days later this week before warming back to normal temperatures. These cool temperatures can be troublesome for botrytis growth, a mold that tends to hit thin skinned varieties like Pinot Noir extra hard. The cool weather can help balance acid/sugars, as acid continues to drop but sugars don’t climb nearly as quickly as warmer weather. Sometimes this helps balance things, and sometimes it pushes grapes further out of balance, so it’s not always a positive thing. Grapes coming in this week: Cabernet Franc, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir.

Tons: 42.9

Tons to go: 137.1

23.8% complete