October 2008
Posted: Oct 28, 2008 5:48pm ET
Posted by Adam Lee The 2008 harvest officially ended for us this past weekend. We brought in the last of our fruit—Syrah from the Garys’ and Rosella’s Vineyards. And just to prove that harvest was truly over, I shaved my harvest beard.
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Posted: Oct 27, 2008 11:19am ET
Posted by Josh Bergström What started out as a potentially very scary vintage in Oregon has turned out to be very anticlimactic … and that is a very good thing, I think. Compared to 2007, I find myself walking through vineyards this year and just pushing the harvest date off by one more day … or even two or three.
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Posted: Oct 23, 2008 12:22pm ET
Posted by Brian Loring As I mentioned in my last post , we’re trying our hand at making a Cabernet/Mourvèdre blend this year. Given the craziness of the 2008 harvest, it shouldn’t be surprising that we’ve run into problems with our Mourvèdre.
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Posted: Oct 22, 2008 4:19pm ET
Posted by David Whiting Well, harvest is wrapping up in the Finger Lakes. It's still very busy, and there are more grapes to be harvested, but I notice that I am occasionally leaving the winery at a reasonable hour, which means that the finale is in sight.
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Posted: Oct 22, 2008 12:54pm ET
Posted by Adam Lee I had planned to use this blog to write about our experiments with Nebbiolo (we just harvested the 2008 Nebbiolo grapes from Stolpman Vineyard this past week), but last night it didn’t seem important enough to write about.
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Posted: Oct 22, 2008 10:00am ET
Posted by Barbara Kronenberg-Widmer Last Sunday, we celebrated the end of harvest 2008 together with our staff from all three estates. Temperatures hit 84°F at our Maremma estate, where we held the celebration.
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Posted: Oct 21, 2008 2:19pm ET
Posted by Julien Barrot Six vats of my Domaine la Barroche 2008 Châteauneuf-du-Pape are fermenting in the cellar, in other words, six babies are in incubators … some are precocious, some take their time, and others don’t miss a beat.
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Posted: Oct 17, 2008 10:00am ET
Posted by Brian Loring We totally destem all our fruit before fermenting. Why? It probably comes from my dislike of vegetables, so anything that looks like a vegetable has no business being in our wine.
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Posted: Oct 16, 2008 3:29pm ET
Posted by Josh Bergström As we continue to enjoy fair skies and dry weather in Oregon, the harvest has become extended, meaning that vintners can take their time bringing in fruit. This allows vineyards to fully ripen their crops, yet, because of the cool weather and even colder nights, physiological ripeness does not necessarily mean high sugars and low acids.
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Posted: Oct 14, 2008 11:25am ET
Posted by Bob Betz These are the dog days of harvest, when every inch of the winery, and every ounce and waking moment of every staff member, is consumed with grapes, fermentation, barrels and processing.
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Posted: Oct 13, 2008 11:02am ET
Posted by Tim Perr This is now my fourth harvest in the wine business, and I still have a problem figuring out what I’m tasting and seeing in barrel this early on. As of today, we have about 100 barrels of wine more or less finished with primary fermentation (where all sugar is turned into alcohol by yeast).
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Posted: Oct 10, 2008 5:09pm ET
Posted by Brian Loring One of the most important decisions a winemaker has to make is when to pick. In addition to the matter of wine style, there are lots of other issues to consider. Things like weather, vine condition, mold pressure, etc.
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Posted: Oct 10, 2008 4:10pm ET
Posted by Jean-Charles Cazes Since we started harvesting our youngest Syrah vines at L'Ostal Cazes (our Languedoc property) on September 17th, the weather has been favorable in Minervois. We were blessed with sunny days and cool nights, which helped produce grapes with ripe tannins, good aromatics and the right level of sugar.
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Posted: Oct 10, 2008 2:17pm ET
Posted by Barbara Kronenberg-Widmer The final harvest day is coming very close—we will be harvesting the last Sangiovese vineyard in Chianti Classico on Monday. We're still enjoying beautiful autumn weather—really a great and stimulating ending of a fascinating year.
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Posted: Oct 10, 2008 12:11pm ET
Posted by Josh Bergström Twenty nine years ago, I thought I either wanted to be a cowboy or a pirate when I grew up. Fourteen years ago, I thought I would become a brewmaster … until I made my first beer.
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Posted: Oct 9, 2008 3:08pm ET
Posted by Adam Lee I want to express my sympathy in advance for those at Wine Spectator who compile the vintage charts in which they give an overall number rating to each vintage. Unlike 2007, the 2008 vintage will not be a simple vintage to handicap.
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Posted: Oct 8, 2008 5:42pm ET
Posted by Jeremy Seysses Thursday, Oct. 2 Carrying on with the négoce parcels, Lilian's team harvested in Puligny-Montrachet this morning, in the lieu-dit Petites Nosroyes. Meanwhile, Alec began the Gevrey-Chambertin with the Justice and the Champs-Chenys.
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Posted: Oct 7, 2008 3:56pm ET
Posted by David Whiting Monday, Oct. 6 Harvest is well on its way in the Finger Lakes. We'll be wrapping up with most of the white varieties this week. Did I mention before that this was an unusual harvest? With the year being unusually warm, as well as having more moisture than is typical for that kind of heat, I was looking forward to the harvest with a quizzical eye.
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Posted: Oct 7, 2008 12:30pm ET
Posted by Julien Barrot Here we go: Harvest is finished; every grape is now in the cellar! We finished picking the Mourvèdre this past Wednesday. Like the classic line from Droopy the dog, "I'm Happy" (and really ecstatic).
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Posted: Oct 6, 2008 4:03pm ET
Posted by Jeremy Seysses Saturday, Sept. 27 Big day of picking today: the first. I met the harvesters at 8 a.m. for the roll call and was delighted to find that most of them were there. We've had up to a third of our scheduled harvesters end up no-shows some years and it makes for a tricky start when you have that many missing.
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Posted: Oct 2, 2008 10:57am ET
Posted by Barbara Kronenberg Widmer Last Saturday, we completed the 2008 harvest in the Maremma. All the grapes are now in the cellar, and it is a good feeling that nature has little impact anymore—everything lies in our hands now.
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Posted: Oct 1, 2008 6:13pm ET
Posted by Tim Perr I thought it might be fun to take a brief break from talking about harvest decisions and discuss a bit of business. As referenced in my prior blogs, my partners and I have decided to introduce a second label with the 2008 vintage.
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