OREGON:

We brought some Riesling from Oregon but also some Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris for our new Oregon winery project. It was a challenging harvest in OR overall following an unseasonably cool spring and summer (Thank you la Nina). We thought that all would be saved by a great August and a promising September but the weather turned cold mid-September slowing down ripening considerably. We were aggressive with yield reduction to allow what was left to ripen a bit more. The saving grace has been the dry weather which has reduced fungal pressure in OR tremendously. We saw little or no rot on any varietal. Most folks started to harvest mid-October wrapping harvest in 2 to 3 weeks – bit of a flash harvest ahead of the rain that are in the forecast as far as the eye can see now. Overall the fruit is low in sugar (21 Brix) but fruit flavors are ripe with no greenness, and colors on the Pinot Noir are very decent indeed. I think that overall it will be a nice vintage with delicate flavors that will reward wineries that tend to go for elegance against power. The Riesling was low Brix and is slotted for a Kabinett style.

WASHINGTON:

Same pattern than OR in WA minus the rain factor and plus frost issues. The summer was very cool and 2011 will be remembered as one of the coldest vintage on record, cooler than 2010 even – 2011 is the 8th coldest year on record sandwiched between 1976 and 1970. The yields were quite lower than last year due to some winter frost damage and some aggressive thinning after bloom. WA harvest as a whole will probably be 20% below average yield which has probably helped to get most fruit to good ripeness. Acids are high and everyone brought some nice botrytis with the fruit. Overall it is a little riper of a vintage (bit weird but the acids were much lower than 2010) for us and we will be able to make every Riesling style we usually produce. We are leaving a few acres out to see if this is a good ice wine year, we might get something good out of this cold weather!

We have seen large botrytis infections that dried out nicely but it ended up lowering yields dramatically. I expect a 20% drop in yield overall in Washington for mature Riesling vineyards. It is not clear right now if the new Riesling plantings will offset the loss from their older brethren – I suspect the total Riesling harvest to be down 10% overall versus the record 2009 harvest for the State. The botrytis flavors are adding a very nice fourth dimension to the sweet styles and the quality of sweet Rieslings is very high. Several wineries (us included) will make a noble rot infected Riesling this year.

Overall it was a very unusual harvest for Washington that should reward patient and skilled winemakers. It is definitely a vintage that will be made in the cellar.

The results from the GDD race are in, 2003 will end at 2325 which will put it in on par with 1974 and 1970 – 2003 is now the 9th coolest year in WA on record (http://rieslingrules.com/the_book/2010/09/20/). The final GDD chart for the year is below:

As I have hinted before, we will probably not make a dry Riesling this year except for our Wallula Biodynamic and Solstice Rieslings single vineyards (they will probably be close to 1% RS so not fully “trocken”). As far as cool and new wines we are exploring, we are still trying to make a decent TBA, very scary wine to make, the jury is still out on this one so stay tune. Another experiment this year is a 100% carbonic maceration Gamay – that is also a bit of a work in progress right now.

Let’s check in in two weeks when all the grapes are in.

We will have to see how high those acids come in, but I have never experienced acids that high, will they drop by the time we pick? can we rebalance with sugar? Will we have to de-acidify? Time will tell.

Botrytis is spreading quickly, especially in the Yakima Valley – big pad in the back for splitting our sourcing between warmer climate Riesling (Wallula Vineyard) and the Yakima Valley; it will really work as a good insurance policy this year. We usually don’t have much botrytis in Washington (at its best, botrytis is also called noble rot) and I look for it as a complexity agent. Well, we are getting it big this year but I that does not make me that happy. Why? -> a lot of botrytis brings a few winemaking issues including very low yields, high oxidation, off aromas and can lead on filtration nightmares. Awesome, no? we will also have to see when we bring the grapes in what we can do at the winery to mitigate those winemaking issues – it will add cost, no doubt.

At this point we have to compromise between the high acids, the botrytis, the low yields etc… I really feel like we have been teleported to Germany for one year.

 Exciting table, no? The warmest years were 1987, 2003, 1992, 1990 and 1998. The coolest were 1984, 1971, 1975, 1999 and 1980. Right now we are trailing slightly behind 1999 so we could have the coldest year on record. What does that mean for quality? Well, it will really depends of night time temperature I believe. If we can hang our fruit without a night time frost for another 5 to 6 weeks, we will have a great vintage like 1999. If not, we will have a repeat of 1984 which, I have heard, was a disaster.

Harvest is approching and it is time for us to look at our grapes sourcing and make sure all is in balance (i.e. we have just enough of everything for each wine we make). Below is a synopsis of what harvest will look like for us:

- 3,181 tons of grapes or 203,000 cases of wines – our largest harvest yet

- 92.2% Riesling, 97.1% White grapes (Gewurzt and Chenin). We have a little Gamay coming this year (plus our usual Barbeara, Sangiovese and Primitivo blend)

- 1/3 of our Riesling from Wallula 2/3 from the lower Yakima Valley

Next week I will be touring all our blocks to confirm quality and volume. Ready, set, Go!

Just coming back from a quick trip to raspberry land also known to us as Mount Vernon in the skagit valley of western Washington. It is there that Mike and Jean Jungquist grow our special selection of Raspberry that we call internally the “Morrison”. We’ve selected that raspberry varietal because of its low seed bitterness and its crazy high raspberry flavors. Mike and his family gow one field for us (picture below) so it is really a single vineyard raspberry! It is a major commitment from our team but this is what it take to make a primo raspberry infusion like framboise. The field yields about 40 tons of raspberry every year. We’ve discussed experimenting with a few newer selections this year, so I might be up for a raspberry clone tasting this summer (they breed about 180 new clones every year) – raspberry fans send me a note and I’ll take you up!