Hang on to your hats

Here's the time of the year when every grape grower in the Willamette Valley gets nervous.  It's the time of impending weather system change.

Here's the snapshot at 4:30 pm from the NOAA satellite.  This shows the water vapor over the Eastern Pacific ocean.

Note that the big patch of clear high pressure off the Northern CA coast is starting to disintegrate.  If you watch the animated set of images, you can see that the weather systems are still being shunted up to B.C., but weather is starting to encroach, wholesale, on Oregon now.  THIS IS NOT a reason to panic. 

In 2008, we saw this sort of threatening weather pattern sitting around for 3 1/2 weeks before the rains finally came.  We'll certainly get some showers, but the vineyards are ready to take a bit of moisture (leaves pulled out of the fruit zone, last sprays on).   I'll just focus on getting the winery ready to go, and see what happens. It'll be fine.

Final prep-work nip and tuck in vyd

Last Friday, I made one last swing through sites to make decisions on the last tweaks to crop loads, leaf removal, and canopy management before the "Great Wait 2011". The pix below were taken on Sept 16th at four of our vineyards.

Barring a little leaf removal and some light thinning passes that happened yesterday and today, the vineyards are in pristine shape to just sit in the sun and slowly ripen and develop flavor over the next 6 weeks.

Tasting through the 2010 wines last week got me excited for another late fall. Even without calendar days between bloom and harvest, there's something about the late picking years that produces dark, layered, interesting flavors!

Above: The Walnut Hill site high in the Eola-Amity Hills (~550 ft, okay, so it's high for Oregon). Color change at 50-60%. Best guess harvest date Oct 27th.

Above: Stoller Vineyard at the South tip of the Dundee Hills. This block is on the West side of the vineyard. Planted to 667 clone. Maybe 40% color here.

Above: The block of 115 clone at Stoller Vineyard. Much better color progression here. Probably 60-75% on average.

Above: Hirschy Vineyard in Yamhill-Carlton. This is our block of 114 clone Pinot Noir. This was about 95% colored up. This will likely be our first pick of 2011...Oct 23rd?

 Above: Wadenswil block at Shea Vineyard. Maybe 50% color. Would expect nothing less from the aromatrically beautiful, but late ripening, clone.

Above: Block 11 at Shea Vineyard (Dijon 115 clone). Note how the clusters are hanging out in the breeze after an excellent round of leaf removal. The airflow in and around the clusters will help the fruit dry out and resist the development of rot if/when we get rain before harvest.

Below: Sometimes I have to defocus a bit and realize the beauty of where I'm standing. This was taken from the middle of one of our blocks at Stoller Vineyard.
 

Not easy been green - fighting the waves of angst

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.



Why this one photo makes me happy

Oh, so this is a little over the top, but that one pink berry in the photo below brings a smile to my face and a huge rush of relief, angst, and anticipation all rolled into one.

That little pink berry was the first Pinot Noir berry I saw with some color this year.  For those of you thinking to yourselves, "Wait. I thought they were harvesting in Burgundy?", you're correct.  France was very warm and early this year - about as early as we are late.  This picture was taken on 9/1.  By today, this same cluster should be a mottled harlequin with mostly dark berries and just a few green ones left.  Using the standard rule of ~ 50 days from veraison (color change) to harvest, that means Boedecker Cellars will likely start picking on October 25th.

Yes. October 23-25th is likely the start of Pinot Noir harvest in Oregon this year.  For those of you, like us, who grew up in the Pacific Northwest, I bet you can count the number of dry, warm Halloweens you've experienced on one hand.  Even with the exceptionally nice September weather it looks like we'll enjoy, this year will be a nail-biter in Oregon. 

Keep in mind, 2008 (the Oregon "Vintage of the decade") was almost as late, and with the same dry weather this year, we can get the same result - complex, deep flavors combined with fantastic texture.  We just need the Jet Stream to keep those Pacific storms pointed at our friends in B.C. (sorry guys) for an extra few weeks this year.

For those who want to watch the developing weather patterns with me, I highly recommend NOAA's satellite website. This is millions of dollars of U.S. tax money at work for you - cool stuff! Below is the current snapshot of water vapor patterns in the Eastern Pacific.