After seeing a few bits of color at Hirschy Vineyard on Monday (thanks again, John & Linda for hosting all of us) and after looking at the sunny, warm forecast for the rest of Sept, you might think that my mood might be buoyed....and then I drove out to vineyards again yesterday for a reality check and a dose of winemaker angst.
I hit higher elevation sites and cooler sites and saw a sea of green berries. This IS NOT surprising, as we pick at hot sites like Hirschy usually 3-10 days ahead of sites like our Walnut Hill vyineyard (below).
Still, there's something unnerving about driving in the Willamette Valley on Sept 8th and not seeing any fully colored Pinot Noir. At Stoller Vineyard, things seem equally behind our normal schedule. Stoller Vineyard is a very counter-intuitive site to me. It is fairly low elevation, and the vineyard is on the South tip of the Dundee Hills, with dead-on South facing. However, it's always one of the last sites we pick each year - My theory is that it cools off more quickly in the evening as the cool air from the nearby Willamette River banks up the sides of the vineyard. This slow finish is what makes it one of my favorite sites, but in cool years like this, it's one of the sites that makes me nervous. If we have dry weather into November, I can easily see waiting until Nov 3-5 to pick here.
We really are headed for an Oct 25 + harvest window, even with this bit of spectacular Sept weather. Nothing to do now, but sit back and enjoy the beautiful weather while we wait. No worries - I'm very optimistic about another slow cool finish delivering delicate, beautiful flavors this fall.
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