What We Know About Harvest 2021 So Far

We are amidst harvest 2021 and have brought in our sparkling wine, rosé, viognier, and some of our Pinot Noir so far, with the balance to be brought into the winery this week. It’s shaping up to be a beautiful, high quality vintage and there are four things we know so far:

1) The summer’s extreme heat had a minimal impact on the grapes. Why is this when it ruined many fruit and vegetable gardens? First, we had a lot of rain in early June, which meant that the ground was saturated and could allow a thick canopy to grow which shielded the grapes in the latter half of summer. Second, our vineyards are between 14-51 years old, which means they have deep roots that go down far enough to access water even in the heat of summer. Third, vines shut down when the temperature exceeds 90 degrees, which means they conserve their energy at extreme temperatures.

2) The rains in June impacted fruit set at some of my vineyard sites, which means that some sites had lower crop loads than average, while some were the same. This means that rather than our crews dropping crop by hand to improve quality, Mother Nature did it for us. We can expect high quality and concentration from this vintage, though there may be less of it.

3) The dryness resulted in minimal disease pressure, which means that lack of rain did not create an opportunity for microbial activity to enter berries or create an environment for mold or mildew to grow, which is good.

4) We are feeling the impact of labor shortages for hand harvesters. It used to be that crews required 48 hours notice to pick, whereas this year some crews were booking up 5-7 days in advance.

At this point, we are feeling very optimistic!