At the beginning of October we were looking at a disaster and right now at the beginning of November we are looking at a triumph. We were blessed with weeks of beautiful weather, low yields and fruit (for those who were patient) that will make some truly beautiful wines. This was a long harvest (picking began on September 25th and stopped on Halloween); it is also one of the finest.
Tanks are at all points of readiness from going to barrel, fermenting, just starting and cold soaking. We picked uniformly colored fruit this year anywhere from 23 – 27 brix and all had very balanced acids. The weather was perfect (50 – 70 degrees and sunny every day) making this is a vintage very much about the vineyard, not the weather. Although all the wines are concentrated, deep and easily extracted, every tank is different and each vineyard really shows their pedigree and heritage.
After the cold soaks we backed down to only one punch down or less per tank, down from the normal three or four. The wines have plenty of stuffing and tannin. We have, however, for the first time in years, felt that we could wait to press until the cap fell, maybe 20 to 25 days in tank. The wines build in a balanced way with the extra time on the skins as the fermentation finishes out. Also for the first time in years, the natural acids are balanced, pure and give focus to the wines. Unfortunately, we are down 15% – 20% in quantity as we had yields of 1.5 to 2 tons per acre almost everywhere and in some cases less.
The vintage seems to be a cross between 1999, 2000 and 2002. The wines have all the lush fruit and elegance of the 1999 vintage, the structure and concentration of the 2000 vintage and the natural balance, acidity and sense of place that so characterized the 2002 vintage.
