A good reason then to stop buying? 
This summer has also offered the best tomatoes I’ve ever tasted here in the PNW. So there’s that.
Hope the weather holds til all the grapes are in. Folks are going to need a good harvest after last year.
I didn’t find that to be the case up north of you (east Puget Sound Cascade foothills). Good, but nothing special. And we definitely had some blueberries, raspberries, and plums cook from the heat dome.
On our watch, poor guardians, say I, regardless of how I conserve.
Future generations will no doubt conclude "What were they thinking?
Quick answer “$”. Where is a chunk of our current coal production going? They do not give a shit! Choke on it, by the hundred of millions!
Y’all get used to this and prepare for worse environmental crises, including flambe en masse.
Mercifully, I will be gone before most of you.
Sage.
No. A good reason to buy fine Napa Cabernet while it still exists… of course, not a current prices ![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}
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Dan Kravitz
Blackberries and blueberries here are intense with thick skins and for blackberries, bigger seeds.
I just got back from walking the vineyard at Whistling Ridge. Skins are very thick and tannins are significant. There are fewer seeds than normal, but they are also bigger seeds than typical. I only had two grapes of about a hundred that had three seeds.
Fruit isn’t ready yet, so it’s early to make predictions, but we have no dehydration, in a dry farmed vineyard. We have little to no sunburn in a vineyard with a severely restricted canopy. Young vines are struggling, and next spring we’ll probably break with out normal practice of no-till, and cultivate every other row in much of the vineyard. But right now leaf angles are good, we’re getting lots of sun on the skins, and things are developing well. Probably 10 days to two weeks to picking. I’m guessing Durant will be sooner, so we’ll probably start around the 7th.
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That is good news Marcus. Our raspberries got so hot, the fruit turned white and some stalks just gave up all together. Some fruit turned out OK. The blueberries suffered mostly from burnt leaves, but we did get some “raisins.” Some of the plum skins burnt. But after my last post, I went to check on them. Not a bad after dinner harvest from one tree.
We’ve picked about 10 tons so far. Start picking. The Estate today (it will be in the 90s today). Have no less than 70 tons on the books for the next 5 days and will assuredly add to that total and easily schedule that much more for the 5 days after. I would expect to have everything in other than super old vine/higher elevation/both by the 18th and finish before the end of the month.
We’re taking the warmer sites this weekend(Durant and Shea). We sampled Whistling Ridge yesterday about 5:00pm. Everything is about 20 Brix, with plentiful acidity. With the cool weather the last 3 weeks and the upcoming cooler weather after today, we are coasting in and probably 7-10 days away from beginning to pick there. Probably around 22-22.5, and with 100 days on the vine(that is the 13-15th of September). Flavors are still evolving, and the vineyard definitely needs a few more days.
Heat is less the issue than the dry conditions, and skins are thick and skin tannins are plentiful.
Things have been ripening quickly in Walla Walla and by the end of the week we’ll be about 2/3’s in by tonnage. We’ll definitely be done before October, which will be a first. The Cab harvest has already begun at a number of sites, which is by far the earliest ever, and we’ll be bringing ours in from Southwind at the end of the week. We’re not only harvesting earlier, but also at higher ripeness since the physical ripeness of the grapes hasn’t been able to keep up with rapidly rising sugars. It’ll be a tough vintage for those who try to harvest based on the numbers.
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Interesting. We haven’t seen that. Yet, anyway. Still picking in the 21s and 22s. I expect that will change soon.
We’re about 65% in, and nothing has cracked 23 Brix. Shea at 22.7 and Durant at 22.6 Brix are the high sugars in the cellar.
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Wow, that’s great.
Update Jim?
About 65% in. Picking a tiny amount of Pinot today and our Tempranillo. Had a big day yesterday and our bin dumper went on the fritz so a good thing it’s largely not needed today. Then a couple day hiatus while it rains over the weekend. After that probably pick everything else in 6-7 days. Fermentations smell great. White wine ferments are super-floral. We have had stuff over 23 as warm afternoon breezes over the past week did their thing, but nothing over 24. Still have stuff hanging at 22. Grapes are crazy juicy. Everything you would presume this vintage to be based upon weather reports is largely not what is happening. I don’t have time now to develop a theory on that topic but it is a thing and it will be interesting trying to explain this phenomenon to folks as we start showing the 2021 wines.
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Yes…
A lot of chicken little running around saying the “sky is blazing” when the last 6 weeks have been cool, and August ranks very high on the list of mildest Augusts in my memory.
Drive for show, putt for dough. While I don’t completely agree with this, it’s not like the last 6 weeks before picking aren’t important.
If I sound crabby, it’s because I had to tell one of my growers that I wasn’t taking fruit if they didn’t pull West side leaves for me as requested. Their issue…worries about heat in late August as days are barely over 12 hours long and the 10 day forecast showed nothing over 82F. Utterly ridiculous cowardice in the face all the available information. Not a single worry about phenolic development in a vintage that many people are picking well ahead of normal hang time.
There’s more Kaolin clay sprayed on fruit in the Valley than I’ve ever seen, all in a vintage that hasn’t seen a day 95 since the fruit was anywhere near veraison. But I have yet to hear one person fretting about development of tannins and anthocyanins in a compressed vintage…
Just utter stupid nonsense…
As Jim said, the reality is nothing as one would guess. So the person spending the least time guessing and the most time looking at the fruit to see what’s really there will probably make the best wines…
Also, it makes sense that the fruit is very juicy. These plants were in constant need of water until August 1. Their root systems were probably scavenging every drop they could find. Suddenly the pressure disappears…wouldn’t you still take a big drink after that? And no need to transpire that big drink because it hasn’t been hot…
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I got a “And why would I pull leaves on the west/south side of the plants?” Felt like it took a lot to not be like, “Because I fucking asked you to and I’m the one making the wine.” Was much more polite, believe it or not. Just pointed out what Marcus stated above.
The building smells GREAT each morning when I open it up and the CO2 subsides. Can’t wait until the big tank of Tempranillo gets going in a couple of days. It’s going to be outlandish. Could sell tickets for people to just hang out by the tank.
Structured low alcohol Oregon pinot? yum
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For sure. 100% of the ferments smell fantastic.