Genius, Moron Or Dumb Luck
This evening I borrowed 24 yellow stacking lugs (affectionately known as "FBY's") from my neighbor Don Van Staaveren at Three Sticks and took them up to the vineyard. My 22nd harvest officially starts tomorrow, with a tiny pick planned from our youngest blocks of Pinot – the clone 777 and clone 943.The winery I co-habit with is already done harvesting Pinot for the year, and I have yet to pick grape one. This is in part because our Estate is in a very cool location, but also because I waited until the end of April to prune the vineyard. This was late – very late. Could be that after this vintage is done I am going to see myself as a genius – or as a total moron.
Driving up and down Highway 12 this evening to deliver the lugs, I was astonished to see how much fruit has come off the vineyards in the valley floor in the last couple of days. Whites and reds both. To my thinking all this fruit was harvested earlier than it should have been. I mean, bud break was not that early, nor was flowering. Or veraison. I ask – where's the hang time?
Our Estate fruit is getting hang time. So far it is looking as though the extra leaf removal our guys did in the Pinot is helping to slow the rate of sugar accumulation in these Dijon clones compared to earlier years. We are experienceing a long stretch of cooler weather, which is helping too. I'm seeing small clusters and small berries, and I'm getting maybe 3 weeks more hang time than other local Pinot. I'm expecting to make some of the most concentrated and balanced wines of the vintage. Choosing to prune late looks like genius.
After the crew finishes picking tomorrow they are moving into the Rhone varietals to drop any clusters that are not well-colored yet. It looks like the Grenache and Counoise are finally at about 75%-85% color. Not a chance that I am going to pick any of those grapes before November 1 – in the normal course of things. Unless rain forces my hand.
See, this morning the forecast talked about the possibility of a cold trough dropping in from the Gulf of Alaska in 7-8 days, and mentioned that this would be unusually early for this type of storm system to reach our area. Suddenly my prescient delay in pruning until after the last big frost of the year looks like it may come up against an early wet season. Moron!
Or maybe its just dumb luck. I will know for sure by early November.
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