The way too early look at 2020 in Willamette Valley

I feel like I’ve been spending a lot of time on contrarian posts lately, and thought I would try to improve my karma by posting some photos and thoughts on the vintage so far.

Early season in the Willamette Valley can cover a wide range of weather. But while we saw some quirks, early season was mostly worry free. We, speaking just for Goodfellow, saw no frost pressure this spring. March ended rainy and blustery, but April was dry, mostly sunny and bud break was, in beautiful weather, second week at Durant, mid-month at Whistling Ridge and Fir Crest, and a week to ten days later at Temperance Hill.

The sunshine gave the vines a nice early boost, and kept leaf size moderate(perhaps counterintuitively, when skies are overcast the early growth from stored energy will produce bigger leaves).

May was one of the wettest on record and the combination of early sun and plentiful moisture produced remarkable green growth. We’re no-till, and the vineyard floor was as lush and emerald green as I have seen in a long time. We utilize no-till for a number of reasons such as: maintaining soil microbe populations and mycrorrhizal fungi, minimizing soil compaction, and creating competition for soil Nitrogen in early spring. This spring it was like walking on pillows down the rows(this is unusual). Cane growth was even and nicely balanced, not too vigorous and not too challenged.
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As May wound down, the cool rainy period extended into the first two weeks of June. For the natives and long time residents in Oregon, this was a return to “normal”. As a kid growing up, every year in the first and second week of June we would go to Rose Festival in Portland, and every year it would be a drizzly mess at Naito Park that would last right up until a day or two after the Grand parade. Like clockwork. Growing up I knew that summer didn’t begin until Rose Festival ended.

And this year, with Rose Festival cancelled for Covid-19, the rain stopped a few days after the time the Navy ships and carnival workers would have left.

So far, so good. Vine health looked excellent, and soils were a max for moisture heading into what is typically a three month drought. But bloom is also typically a June event. And Durant went into bloom around the 10th, Whistling Ridge around the 15th, and only Temperance Hill on the 25th was dry weather. The Willamette Valley doesn’t do monsoons or even typically see heavy rains in the late spring. Just on and off drizzle, but temps were cool and my worry was not.

With fingers crossed we waited out the cool, cloudy end of “Junuary”. As we crossed into July, the weather stayed cooler for the first week. July is usually a warmer month and we have only recently reached days consistently above 80F. Walking the vineyards on the 2nd, it was cloudy if not overcast. Bloom was at the tail end at Whistling Ridge, Fir Crest, and finished at Durant.
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We knew clusters would be modest in size, berries are loose, with significant amounts of hens and chicks. Yields for us, will be down significantly. But I am very excited for the vintage so far. The weather has been cool enough to allow lower yields, but plant energy and canopy are in excellent shape. The vintages with characteristics ssomewhat similar to this are 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010, and 2012. I’m sure some of the other winemakers will feel differently and are welcome to contradict me at their leisure.

Almost two weeks later, someone has finally turned on the sunshine and we’ve had a week of beautiful days. The breeze has also been turned on, cooling the vines, hopefully keeping mildew at bay, and making the walk through the vines downright enjoyable. Nights are still cool, easily into the 50s.
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Thanks for the report. Color me excited for the vintage, while enjoying a more typical PNW summer - first since 2011!

My kind of summer weather!

Thanks for the post. Generally speaking, it sounds like if you have an ideal August and September you’ll have wines that are nicely savory and structured.

Definitely some necrotic conditions out there. Spotty situations where very few berries remain in clusters. Even in areas where this is not prevalent the clusters are not going to be dense. Tonnages/acre likely to be moderate with some places being okay and some being down. Depends. I dislike both 2004 and 2010 and am hopeful this is not in any way a vintage like those two. Maybe 2012 where spotty tonnages were normal and the harvest was incredible. That is the upside.

2011 was atypical across the board. There was no reference point at all to it. Literally the latest harvest ever in Oregon. This is not 2011. The comparison is laughable. At this point in 2011 we were likely still in flowering. We are nearing bunch close right now. This is not 2011 by any measure, thankfully, at all.

That is definitely my hope. We’ll see what Mother Nature offers. And, in my opinion, because of the cool start I feel like we even have a little margin with the heat.

Lol…I hope you noted that I did not mention 2011 in my list of similar vintages. We started bloom on July 5th at Whistling Ridge in 2011. Picking started last week of October. This year we’ll be picking by end of September.

And clusters in 2011 were big and so tightly packed that I saw berries popping off of them at Durant.

I think Scott was just saying that this summer has been cooler.

It’s my feeling that having early season cover crop helps to absorb both excess nitrogen and water, two of the factors that seem to come into play with necrosis.(key word is helps) I don’t have any situations with necrotic conditions, but berries are not dense at any of our sites. I’m hoping to see 2-2.3 tons per acre, without thinning anything other than thirds, and disease vectors. But I may be optimistic in tonnage, the key word is hope.

2004 was a strange vintage late summer. Very hot July and August, lots of 90-95. Then a thunderstorm(1.5” of rain) and back to 95F the next day. 5-6 days later, another big thunderstorm and back to 95F. Berries were dry. Then swelled drastically with the first storm. A week of hot shrunk them back to normal, then the second rainstorm swelled them again. Vineyards had as much as 40% of crop with split skins. While it was too hot fpr botrytis, yellowjackets cleaned out much of the split berries and already low yields became miniscule for some vineyards. Easiest punchdowns of my career bar none. Skins split, ferments were juicy, and yeast ripped through ferment. Ferment temps peaked between 90-94. I opened a magnum of 2004 Souris for the Roanoke Valley WC crew in 2018 and was extremely proud of it. The Hommage was mostly young vine McMinnville fruit. Nothing I love all that much. I’ve had 04 PGC wines(Paley’s dinner with Ramesh) and they were my favorites that night.

2010 was much later and cooler, but some of the best wines of my middle career in the early stages. Soundly shut down now.

2012…I like about 10 wineries offerings so far, but you had to pull quickly or they got over ripe. That vintage taught me to be ready to pick early and make sure you have a crew.

Def not a comment about vintages. Merely observing that this is the first of what I would consider a cooler NW summer since 2011, although not anywhere near as cool as that year. With that said, as a consumer I’ll happily take a vintage like 2011 or 2010 again, although I’m sure many winemakers would prefer not to deal with those conditions.

I love 2010.

After working the few days of harvest I did in 2010 and 2011 and it being very rainy, I bought a bunch of rain gear specifically to use during harvest. I haven’t needed it since then. Very challenging harvests, but some very interesting wines.

Thanks Marcus! Hoping for a steady rest of the summer and harvest.

After 3 days of 85-90 Cool Summer says, “Hold my beer.”
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Still a ways to go but we are nearing bunch close. In 2017 we had bunch close right at the end of July. We picked the first fruit on 9/10. If we have some heat with the generally looser clusters and lower tonnages we might even beat that. I have bottling on 9/13-15. And I’m only hiring 1 harvest employee instead of 5-6 to be able to have it as safe as possible. Could use a little cooperation from Mother Nature.

Historically, years with their hottest day being in August are my favorites.

Great posts and pictures, Marcus, thank you (and appreciate the other Oregonians chiming in as well)

Now, please get Canadian distribution, though I’m sure you don’t need it to sell through.

Thanks for the behind the scenes look. Very interesting.

Nice to hear from the troops on the ground. The cycle of growth. The whims of weather. Good luck to all of you grape growers and wine makers in OR this year. Cheers.

thank you for the informative posts (and the pictures).

Are wine grapes similar to table grapes in that the “chicks” are more bitter? If so, is there a ratio of chicks you all hope for/shoot for to achieve your desired taste profile, or are they considered detrimental and culled as much as practical?

Thanks for the update! I’m always wondering how the weather I’m experiencing in Portland is translating in the vineyards.

Speaking of contrarianism, I saw where Jason Lett said a few weeks ago, in response to a comment about a potential “classic vintage in the making,” that, “Summer weather is 5-10% of vintage expression. Pray for a cool dry fall!”

Anyone have their own hot take on how much of the vintage’s character (in terms of the final wines) has taken shape?

I always tell people that it’s the last 30 days that mean anything.

Drive for show, putt for dough.