Looks like mid-week temps in the Willamette Valley will be 108’-110’ for a few days. Just curious if those high temps will be a problem for our Pinot Grower friends? Sure hope not.
I haven’t heard of veraison starting anywhere yet, but my concern would be sunburn.
Never can tell. In 2009 and 15 we had similar type temps at similar times of year with little impact but in 2001 sunburn was a major problem. Wait and see.
What about the poor wine tourists? I’m going to Walla Walla in 4 days. Am i nuts or what?
Jim, is it possible/viable to try to work up some type of shade netting for vineyards? Would this even help in temps like this?
I would assume that was good canopy management, there would be few clusters that would be wide open to direct sunlight at this point. I could be wrong though.
Is it better that the heat is still relatively early…ie. not in August?
Going to be there next week with temps in Newburg of 103-108 for 3 days. I’m sure none of the growers are looking forward to that though these kind of temps seem to occur every 2-3 years.
No. Canopy is the protectant.
Napa uses shade nets in the fruit zones but I haven’t seen that here. I’d imagine it’s crazy labor intensive/expensive.
Bingo.
Jim,
There have been years when many of the Oregon Pinots were more fruit forward and the reps here say it’s because it was a “hot” year. I’ve always assumed it was higher temps early, early veraison followed by real high temps driving up brix before the grapes are ripe enough to pick. 2005 comes to mind. Would that be the case?
Heat is later than normal as IPNC will be over when it hits. ![[basic-smile.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/83717c74df9b0ce202453063bc4f11baf0ee6b8a.gif "smile"){kind=small}
Adam Lee
2005 was not a hot vintage. 2006 had late heat. 2003 as well. I would take earlier heat over heat leading up to/during harvest. We will see if this heat has problematic stuff associated with it soon enough. We did have a spate of 100+ degree heat in 2015 early in July (along with the regular 90+ heat of that summer) and that seemed to have little impact. There is no guarantees of course. It’s nature and we shall see.
Good Luck to all, let us know how things look once the Heat Wave subsides…
Forecast says 108’ today in the Valley, same as yesterday. And mid-90’s for the next 7-days. Good Luck to all
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It is so hazy due to winds pulling smoke from the east that it may not get as hot as imagined today. Hot for sure but possibly not 110. Sorry, tried to edit the inverted one but no luck. Tilt your head.
Its all part of the vintage. Good farmers know what to do to cause the least stress to the vines.
My preference is a year when the hottest day of the year is in August. 1993, 08, 10 to name a few.
I think we hit 102F in Portland anyway in August 2002. Not a bad year…
(though that heat wave was much shorter than we’re looking at)