Our friends Adam and Dianna Lee of Siduri/Novy just sent us a great harvest update. I thought you'd be interested in reading it, too:“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
-- Marcus Aurelius
Harvest is a moving target, and one that we are so intimately involved with, that putting any proper perspective on it, while in the midst of it, is tremendously difficult. Having said that, sometimes it is important for us to take a step back, even while in the eye of the maelstrom, and make certain that we are charting what we believe to be the correct course. We hope you don’t mind our sharing these reflections on where the 2010 Harvest has taken us thus far.
Much Has Already Been Written About the Weather in 2010:
Various wine writers have already weighed in so thoroughly about the unusual weather in 2010 that we don’t know if there is much to add. You can read Jim Laube’s comments here, while Steve Heimoff has shared his perspective here.
The only area that seems to have been overlooked is Oregon, where California’s cooler-than normal summer seems downright balmy compared to the weather in the Willamette Valley.
Some Commentators Have Speculated that there will be a “Before the September Heat-Spike” vs. “After the September Heat Spike” dichotomy in the wines from 2010: This is a distinction which we will buy into….somewhat. Certainly the grapes we picked before the mid-to-late September heat were generally ripe at lower levels of sugar. And the fruit after the heat was at higher levels of sugar. But, like most things in life, there is more complexity to the situation. Picking grapes before the heat might have assured you lower sugars and lower alcohols, but if the fruit wasn’t ready….then it wasn’t ready. Waiting until after the heat was good for those grapes. But waiting too long had its downsides as well as, in some cases, the vines themselves gave up and stopped providing the grapes with the nutrients necessary to continue maturing. The real answer, as is almost always the case, is that there is no substitute to spending time in the vineyards and examining the health of the vines and the condition of the fruit.
The Grapes Tell A Story that Is All Their Own:
While the weather provides the formative environment for the fruit, grapes – much like some people – can break away from their upbringing and become something quite distinct. While the 2010 growing season was tumultuous, the Pinot Noir grapes that we have brought in thus far look shockingly good. Almost uniformly, the colors on the juice and wine are dark, black even. The sugars at times ended up high, but the acids also stayed high, and the nutrient levels in the must stayed quite high – which has led to some rocket-like fermentations. And the wines that we have pressed to barrel thus far are rich and intense, reminding us a bit of the 2004 Pinot Noirs.
Oregon Grapes May Tell A Different Story:
We are picking all of our Oregon fruit this week. We visited the vineyards last week and the grape juice tasted good, the fruit (what little of it there is) was in good shape (surprisingly little botrytis but lots of bird damage which will not even be picked), the acids had fallen, but there just wasn’t much sugar. Count on the Oregon-California difference being particularly pronounced in 2010.
Syrah – Sorry We’re Not There Yet:
But we will be soon. This week, in fact, all of our North Coast Syrah is scheduled to be picked – leaving us with only Syrah from the Santa Lucia Highlands and Nebbiolo from Santa Ynez (and a touch of late harvest Viognier) waiting to be picked. Not coincidentally, the weather looks like it is going down the tubes this weekend, at least for the North Bay, and we want to get the fruit in during the pre-deluvian period. Dianna is going to be checking on the fruit down south on Thursday and will be making any picking decisions on it shortly thereafter.
What’s New?
Oh, there are some new things this year – exciting things, we think. Things such as, a Russian River Valley Sauvignon Blanc that is already downright tasty. A new Pinot Noir Vineyard (Soberanes) from the famed Gary and Gary duo (you can check it out at www.soberanesvineyard.com). A new source in the Santa Rita Hills called the John Sebastiano Vineyard. A new Russian River Valley Zinfandel. And a really interesting (at least to us winedweebs) experiment taking fruit from the Van der Kamp Vineyard and fermenting some of it according to the tenants espoused by one-time famed Burgundian consultant Guy Accad. You can read more about his work here.
Finally:
It is time to get back to the fruit – a busy week awaits. But we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention to work of our fantastic harvest crew – Ryan Zepaltas, our Assistant Winemaker, Luke Henderson, our Cellarmaster, and our incredible group of harvest interns: Mike, Ross, Troy, and Jason. Without these guys we wouldn’t be doing what we are doing – or at the very least we’d be doing it very poorly.
Cheers,
Adam & Dianna Lee
