Well I have been informed by Tara, our new internet whiz, that the blog is essential so I am starting it again. I am sure she will help also.
Wow was this harvest topsy turvy. First we had a very late spring and start of summer. Then we had a cooler than normal summer(inspite of global warming). The late spring caused our vines to bud out late and then bloom late. This caused verasion(the start of ripening) to be late. The cool fall caused the grapes to ripen slower than normal.
When something did get ripe it was not Chardonnay which is normally the first grape we pick. It was Roussanne that is normally the last grape we pick. The second grape to ripen was Mourvedre which is usually next to last. Some years are very hectic with all grapes harvested in three weeks and I expected that this year but we were pleasantly fooled. Some days we harvested nothing.
Somewhere in there we got a small rain that did nothing more than dampen the dust. But then the weather channel said we would get a large storm starting on a Saturday. Luckily the last of our grapes were ready to harvest. So Friday and Saturday we started picking. The last block we picked was Chardonnay(normally the first as mentioned above). We cleaned the press for the last time and just as we were getting the open topped fermenters covered the rain started: slowly at first. We had 6 inches of rain in that storm that would have been devastating.
Our yield was a little lower than normal but the quality is excellent.
So until next week signing off.
John
