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2006 Vintage Notes
About halfway through February I began to worry (a farmer's waking state). Where were the winter torrents? The reservoir was low. Then came the March rains. Relief. Needless to say, that wet earth stayed cold, delaying budbreak by two weeks, getting our season off to a late start around the first of April. Not that April was exactly blue skies and sunny days. By the latter half of April the pond was full and May weather was pleasant. We collected all of our petiole samples in June, none in May, which was a harbinger of how delayed the season was. June weather was perfect for pollination resulting in a higher percentage of flowers per cluster fertilized (turned into berries) than is normal - or even room for on each rachis. This didn't mean the final berry size was big: Flavor intensity was preserved. And because of the dodgy weather in the previous spring (2005), the number of clusters hanging out there was modest to low. So we had big, tight clusters but not a very large crop hanging, something on the order of 2 to 2 1/2 tons per acre (for Pinot noir). While the summer was nice with no excess of fog nor cool temps, neither were there any heat spikes, so we remained two weeks late right through veraison. Weather from veraison to harvest for the Pinot, Chardonnay and Viognier stayed moderate to cool, resulting in an ideal ripening environment but slow sugar accumulation. Needless to say, I began to worry (see first sentence) whether the Syrah and Roussanne and Marsanne would run out of season before getting ripe. We picked the Pinot in a rather spread out, unhurried fashion, from September 23rd through the fifteenth of October. Not that Mother Nature intended to deprive us completely of harvest excitement: The Chardonnay came ripe just at the beginning of October. Most of it was picked when Mom threw us an inch and a quarter of the wet stuff on the 5th and 6th. We picked the penultimate ton of Chardonnay on the 8th with no worries, but that final ton, picked on the 16th, was falling apart on the vine, rotting from a botrytis explosion taking place before our very eyes. Yes, we trimmed berries with our needle-nosed pruners and discarded entire clusters. It took 12 people two hours just to pick that one ton! Then we gently tumbled the survivors onto our sorting table where we sorted through them again. For some reason, the laggards of the Pinot held up fine and made great wine. Maybe their clusters weren't as tight.
The Syrah was rescued by a late heat wave that began on the 19th allowing us to bring it and the Marsanne and, finally, the Roussanne in before Halloween. That was a good thing because November 1st brought rain. Even the mylar sheeting that lies under our Roussanne can't convert rain into a beneficial ripening environment.
The 2005 vintage: Rain at Flowering, Low Yields
Budbreak occurred right on time in the middle of March. Winter rains were not finished with us, however, and the open buds with an inch of growth just sat there in the cold rain for the next few weeks. Almost all of April was cold and wet with little growth and only a couple days that reached a high of 70 degrees. May warmth finally impelled the vines to bolt skyward (really, it is May!) Flowering began in the Pinot noir and the Chardonnay during the second week in June, probably a week later than normal. And then the deluge hit. Out on the coast, over half an inch fell while inland areas received only trace amounts. This results in shatter, millerandage, poor set - No Fruit! Well, less fruit: lots of exposed rachis (stem), small berries, big berries, some brown withered appendages where no berries set at all. As a result we had open clusters, where there were any. Some of our virused selections flowered a little later, bringing our average up to a whopping 1.25 tons/acre.
The summer was quite cool overall, with no heat spikes and plenty of fog in August. Harvest for the Pinot, Viognier and Chardonnay went quite smoothly, leisurely even, with no rot, no rain, no worries really. The last Pinot came in later than normal on October 15th. October weather turned unkind, if not foul, though: no heat, little sun, and even some rain. After pruning away the rot, what was left of the Roussanne came in on November 11th.
The 2004 vintage: Early to rise, early to bed
The 2004 vintage started early and abruptly with atypical warm fronts and finished early and abruptly with another heat spell. But, all in all, we had pretty good growing weather throughout the summer months.
The most peculiar feature occurred in the early spring, which started out with record high temperatures in the first two weeks of March. The young shoots pushed skyward far ahead of schedule. This brief warm weather trend came to an end in late March and cool weather settled in causing a temporary yellowing of the shoot tips, something we call "spring fever."
Cool, damp weather is not unusual for the months of March and April, but more often than not by the time flowering typically comes along at the end of May, the weather is mild and pleasant, suitable for good fruit set. But, as we were two to three weeks early, flowering took place while the weather was still a bit cool and damp and the flowers on the Syrah set under two tons to the acre. As a result, other than to balance the vines' crop load and to drop lagging clusters at verasion, no fruit dropping (green harvesting) was necessary this year.
The rest of the summer was fairly normal - that is, cool. There were not any unusual weather patterns or heat spikes, generally just the typical pattern of morning fog followed by a warm late morning sun tempered by cool afternoon ocean breezes. This weather was ideal for phenological development and it shows in the wines.
Throughout August the fruit slowly approached perfect ripeness. Then, as sometimes happens, a switch was thrown and we were hurled into frantic action. Around Labor Day, nine days of off-shore heat blasted California. We picked the Pinot noir, Viognier, and Chardonnay flat out until the majority was in by September 9th. Though the fruit was perfect (no shriveling, good acidity, advanced phenologics, mature fruit flavors), the calendar was all wrong - we were two and a half weeks early! A few, small blocks of Pinot coasted through the heat wave and were harvested on September 24th around the same time as the bucket or two of Roussanne and Marsanne. The Syrah came along in early October and at a much more relaxed pace. Except for a flat tractor tire on Labor Day, all in all, harvest went smoothly.
The 2003 Vintage
The Quick Story: The majority of the 2003 growing season was slightly cooler than normal leading us to think we might harvest the Pinot in October and the Syrah, well, who knows when? During the latter stages of ripening, however, a small heat wave followed by a larger heat wave accelerated the tail end of the growing process such that harvest dates were quite typical, with the Pinot noir coming in during the third and fourth weeks of September and the Syrah finishing up by the 24th of October.
The Finer Details: The previous winter rains had filled the reservoir by early February, rainfall totaling 63" for the year - just about average for us. Budbreak was a tad tardy, starting in the third week of March instead of the second, and, mercifully, there were no frost events, though none are really expected this close to the coast, elevated as we are. I guess we're just gun-shy after the freak arctic blast that we received in 2001. Spring and early summer were generally free of blazing heat spells, so shoot thinning proceeded at an almost leisurely pace. Unfortunately, the cool weather in late May interfered with fruit set for the Pinot noir and the Viognier. As a result, very little fruit thinning was necessary in those two varieties in 2003 - only to eliminate the tardy clusters as veraison finished in early August. The partially set clusters have normal sized as well as tiny berries that often have no seed, and therefore the cluster weights were far below what is typical. As a result, tonnage was uniformly well below 2 tons per acre for the Pinot and Viognier.
After some more normal warming periods in June and predominantly mild weather in July, highly atypical rain events cycled through at the end of July, depositing as much as three quarters of an inch on the east side of Napa Valley, though missing us on the coast. We did see a beautiful show of thunder and lightning and towering black clouds, as viewed from the west. The rain reappeared in the first days of September after a cool-to-pleasant August. Unlike in July, this moisture did hit us, and brought with it a little unease about the potential for rot in our almost ripe Pinot blocks.
By this point, we were tickled to find riper flavors and telltale phenological indicators in the Pinot noir at lower sugar levels than we had found in previous years. On the other hand, the Syrah had so far to go that we were concerned about running out of ripening weather.
Fortunately, a switch was thrown in mid-September and warm sunny days arrived causing us to sharpen our picking knives and head full-tilt with the harvest through the end of September and the beginning of October until the Pinot noir, Viognier, and Chardonnay were in the barn. The heat spell did not adversely affect us as we live on the vineyard and sample the fruit every day so no dehydration, spike in sugar, or drop in acid catches us off guard. On a typical day our full-time crew of seven workers wakes with us at the pre crack of dawn and by 8 a.m. we are usually finished with the pick and out sampling the remaining blocks.
The heat spell broke in late September and, as a result, the Syrah, Roussanne and Marsanne looked and tasted like they would ripen after all. October allowed us worry-free ripening, and the last Syrah came in on the 24th.
2002 Vintage Notes
In retrospect, time will probably diminish the significance of the subtle shadings that differentiate the last two vintages. The weather was generally quite good to us in both years, though each provided slightly different challenges. 2002, on the whole, was no warmer than 2001, but there were more heat spikes. In 2002, budbreak occurred during the normal period in mid to late March with no late frost event as we experienced in 2001. Flowering took place at the end of May and beginning of June with no challenging weather to disturb crop set. The resulting full set required that we drop crop, which we did three times throughout the growing season: once immediately following set; once more after the berries had swollen to close up the clusters; and lastly, following veraison, eliminating the clusters that did not color at the same time as the others.
The intense heat spells we experienced were created by air currents flowing from inland climes where the air masses are heated far from the cool ocean. The degree to which this "offshore" warming pattern dominates the usual "onshore" cooling pattern depends on one's proximity (lateral and vertical) to the ocean, which dictates the degree of intensity (less intense on the coast) and the duration of the event (shorter on the coast). But even so, the coolest marine influenced microclimates-from the Willamette Valley in the north to the Santa Rita Hills in the south-are vulnerable to some offshore events.
Heat spikes require anticipation: the plants, which have stopped actively growing, are directing all of their energy to ripening fruit. Higher temperatures result in greater evaporative moisture loss from the leaf. Judicious watering two or three days before a heat spell will give the vine enough water to weather the heat. Furthermore, the dark fruit better absorbs the heat, potentially causing shrivel. This is why it is very important to allow a few leaves around the fruit zone to protect the grapes during the warmest time of the day. As a weather fanatic, I was aware of the offshore patterns and acted accordingly.
As 2001 and 2002 were "good," "cooperative," or "less challenging" years, Pinot noir harvest took place in the final week of September. We anticipate that cooler years more akin to 1998-2000 will require an extra week or two of ripening that may push the Pinot into October. The Viognier and Chardonnay were picked during the final week of September and the beginning of October. The Roussanne and Marsanne came off the vine during the third week of October. The Syrah arrived last, right before the onset of November.
2001 Vintage Notes- early Spring frost, ideal Summer, cool Fall
We have no frost control. Nor do we have any expectations of spring frosts. Frost mitigation systems like wind machines and sprinkler systems are for areas like the valley floor where frost hangs, and, as a result, are of little interest for upland grape growers.
2001, however, brought one of those exceptional weather events to the Sonoma-Napa uplands - a cool blast of arctic air, super-chilled by its backwards S-shaped path over the British Columbia interior took a sharp left towards the coast, blasting Sonoma and Napa counties with sustained temperatures below freezing. West facing slopes with budding vines were endangered, the higher elevation vines even more so as they were thrust further into the chilly air stream. Chardonnay quite insensibly buds early and leads with its florescence and as a result there was a 50% reduction in Chardonnay tonnage. The Pinot buds were further behind and better insulated and experienced only a 10% reduction in crop. The Viognier, Roussanne and Syrah sustained some visual damage here and there, but no measurable crop loss.
The local paper reported that it was a once in thirty year occurrence. Let's hope so.
When Spring did come, we were blessed with warm, even hot days, which woke up the plants, helping them pass through flowering without a hitch before the usual cool Summer weather pattern of warm days, cool nights and afternoon breezes settled in.
September was cool as a 14 day stretch of fog hung in the vineyard late every morning, returning promptly in the mid-afternoon. October saw the return of optimal sunshine and temperature and the last grapes picked (always the Roussanne!) came in around the third week in October.
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