“This week we are in something of a lull. We are finishing up our sauvignon blanc harvest in Oakville, but nothing else is ready for picking just yet. This seasonable, not too hot, not too cool, weather is great for slow ripening, and slow ripening is great for quality and balance, but not great when you want to get going already. … Soon enough we’ll be busy harvesting again. Both our Oakville merlot and chardonnay are hovering near ripeness. Until then we are prepping the blocks we already picked for dormancy and the 2016 season: spreading compost and cover crop seed.”
“Our Oakville harvest begins this week with sauvignon blanc, which is always the first grape to be picked for still wine. With most blocks and varieties we are slightly ahead of last year, another early year, in some we are way ahead, and in others we are slightly behind. Overall, this harvest is two to four weeks ahead of average. For example on Aug. 18 we picked a block of sauvignon blanc that we picked last year on Aug. 28. In an ‘average’ harvest’ we pick the same block on Sept. 8. Yields are light, which is speeding up ripening. Other varieties are starting to sweeten up as well!”
We are big believers in making up your own mind about whether you like a wine or not. Scores and reviews from wine critics and reviewers tend to tell just part of the story.
Still, it’s nice when our wines get noticed by the critics, which has been happening a lot lately with our 2012 Trilogy, a wine which is still available for purchase. Below are a couple of our favorite examples, find the complete list here.
“We are seeing much lower yields overall in the vineyards this year. This may be attributed to the sporadic spring weather we experienced, but may have more to do with the fact that the vines have produced above average yields for three years in a row now. Our newly planted vineyard blocks on the Winery Estate – Komes Ranch in Rutherford, as well as new plantings at our Crossroads Vineyard in Oakville are experiencing a normal size crop given their age, which may support the latter scenario for the lower crop on our established vineyards. Other than making less wine, a low yielding crop can be a good thing from a quality perspective. Smaller berries, less competition to ripen can lead to more concentrated fruit and more color in the reds. Time will tell, but 2015 should prove to be another stellar harvest!”
— Winemaker Paul Steinauer
A cluster of cabernet sauvignon. Some of the berries are lagging behind completing veraison within the same cluster (the smaller green berries).
