It was a hectic harvest season, with home and commercial harvests extending over 5 consecutive weekends.  However, with over 95% of the grapes in, it looks like we survived.  We are blessed with reliable clients who stayed on top of the ripening situation, adapted plans as necessary, and came to pick up their grapes with clock-like precision.  The region’s grapes generally experienced a spike in sugars from prolonged high heat and arid conditions beginning in late August, capping off what had been a fairly well-behaved season after the unexpected late spring frost.  We think the grapes turned out quite well, but the proof will be in the pudding, and we look forward to tasting the efforts of our client winemakers.  We were excited to receive samples of some of those efforts from the fabulous 2007 vintage, and will be popping the cork on those in the coming weeks.

Out in the vineyard, we have small quantities of barbera and primitivo best suited for dessert wines still hanging, as well as a late-ripening Portugese varietal in our experimental plot.  We look forward to some quiet weekends and hopefully plenty of winter rain as we turn to the arduous task (but somebody has to do it!) of frequent tasting of this year’s developing wines to make sure they are progressing suitably….