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.
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.
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.