Harvesting Grapes

Summer Started Once it Officially Ended

We've had some very nice summer weather once fall officially ended... October has been a warm one (93+ today), and has actually set a couple of heat records in Santa Rosa. Now, in hindsight, it's easy to look back to August and say "of course things will warm up and everything will get ripe". The heat has defintily helped things come get ripe/riper, and if things stay dry and warm it will be a good ending to an interesting and stressfull season for many winegrowers.

The early October heat spike ripened up the remaining Pinot Noir on the vines for ME, and "we" took the last of it in last Saturday, October 2nd. So, things are very busy in the cellar at this time managing the Pinot Noir fermentations; you have punch downs, pressing the finished fermenting tanks of Pinot, and barreling down. Also, the Sauvignon Blanc has continued to come in bits and pieces, along with some primo Chardonnay fruit. Things are very very busy, and we are in the "belly of the beast" for this harvest; long days (11-13hrs) and non stop, which is just the way I like it. Overall, thing look great and there are some awesome smells wafting about in the winery. There is great flavors, colors and concentrations and the higher ups seem to be very pleased with the quality.

Harvest Pics

Coopersmith Vineyard at the Merry Edwards Winery

Finally got my pics uploaded to the comp, so I thoght I'd post a few. No grapes today so I ended up getting my day off for the week... decided to sleep in and go wine tasting. Had a great, relaxing time checking out Saphire Hill, Roadhouse, Stryker, Stonestreet, Medlock Ames and Ridge. Now, time to get some sleep and get ready for some serious harvest action!
35 Year old Pinot Noir Vines at Pellegrini's Olivet Lane Vineyard


happy Pinot Clusters


sunburned Pinot Clusters

unloading bins of Pinot Noir... this is how it makes it to the winery


Weighing the Pinot

Dumping the Pinot into the "hopper", where it will make its way to the sorting table, through the destemmer into the tanks


View from Russian Hill Winery off Slusser Rd. in RRV

Merry Edwards teaching the harvest crew about the vineyards


tasty morsels of Sauv Blanc grapes waiting to turn into wine


Sauv Blanc Chilling out in the cool room waiting to be processed



full moon rising over Coopersmith Vineyard

Harvest Update

The weather has warmed up since last week, and for the last couple of days it has been HOT (broke 100 in Russian River Valley Monday and Tuesday). With all of the warm weather, everything has gotten ripe very quickly, almost "overnight"... It was just around 5 weeks ago when everyone was worried about nothing getting ripe. Anyways, grapes are coming in at a very fast pace at the winery, and by the looks of vineyards I drive past on the way to work (bins set out, portapotties, people acutally picking etc.), everybody is getting their fruit in now or very soon. We will be processing Pinot on our end every day this week and its going to be quite busy.... so far 25hrs worked over 2 days. Tired, need to crash....

weather

Yesterday was a bit wet on the north coast, and we saw some light rain over Saturday night into Sunday in the Russian River Valley. Things cleared up by mid afternoon and the sun poked out around 4ish, with a light breeze picking up. Today's high will be 78 according to the weather channel, followed by a dry week, which should help to get rid of any moisture left behind from the rain. I will report back with the winemakers take on the precipitation later.

Update 9/16

As we all know it has been a cool summer and the grapes are behind. So far we have only taken in two vineyards in the northern end of the Russian River Valley, which doesnt leave much winemaking activities to be had in the cellar at this time, other than a few punchdowns a day. Last year at this time all of the Pinot Noir had been harvested.

The weather has been very mild with the exception of a couple days where it warmed up to around 85-88 last weekend. Lots of the grapes from different vineyards are at similar levels of ripeness, and we may be seeing everything come in at once, possibly within the next 7-10 days. And, to make things a little more complicated there is the possibility of rain this weekend, followed by more cool weather in the 70's.

The cellar is spotless and the harvest team is ready for anything, so bring on the grapes!

Sunburned Grapes from the Heat Wave Two Weeks Ago

Old Vine Dry Creek Zin

Here's what happened to grapes when the temp climbed up to around 108 degrees a couple weeks ago from the high 70's the day before. Needless to say but these grapes cannot be used to make wine.... they now taste like uber ripe raisins and are good for nothing but protecting any unburned grapes from another heat wave, which has caused many folks to keep them on the vine for now.


RRV Chard



RRV Pinot Burn

zin grape cluster burn