Belated vineyard posts from Aug 16/17

I am sooooo late posting these. I took a quick run through three of our vineyards on August 16th and 17th. Everything's progressing nicely, although seeing these places made me realize that I only have a few more weeks to prep for harvest. Stop by the tasting room now if you want to see me...


Holmes Gap

This is my first trip of the year down to Holmes Gap vineyard (just North of Rickreall). Owner Jack LaRue was just putting on the last spray of the season as I drove up, so I don't have any conversations with him on this video. Next time Jack.

Stoller

Back to Stoller for another quick visit after the first round of cluster thinning. Even at one cluster per shoot, we're still at ~ 3.5 tons/acre, too high to guarantee optimal flavor development. We're taking a second thinning pass through the vineyard later this week to get the crop load down to closer to 2.5 tons/acre. I'm very excited about this fruit, as it's some of the most delicious wine in barrel from 2008.

Hirschy
A first walk-through of Hirschy Vineyard. This is a new vineyard owned by our friends John and Linda Hirschy. This is going to be a SPECTACULAR site! Check out the color in these clusters. John's place is a good 3-5 days ahead of everyone else at this point, ensuring that his will be the first Pinot Noir into the winery this fall.