September 21
The weather warmed up through Tuesday and then cooled on Wednesday and Thursday as a brief storm passed through the area. Although the sky looked as dark as it does in tornado country on Wednesday evening, only a small amount of rain fell. Thursday afternoon was sunny and Friday was warm and dry. A threat of real rain on Saturday spurred on our pickers to get every ripe grape off the vines by Friday evening.
In the Pinot Noir program, we pressed the balance of the tanks from the first wave of harvest. The wines are gorgeous expressions of Pinot Noir – each is a unique statement of site and clone.
In our Merlot program, we picked three more blocks of Merlot from our Soda Canyon Ranch and the first block of Cabernet Franc. We were diligent to get any ripe fruit off the vines before the predicted rains on Saturday. It is tempting to jump the gun, but if the fruit didn’t taste ripe, we left it for the next week, in spite of the risk of rain. We have two more blocks of Merlot and most of the Cabernet Franc still to pick. We are beginning to press tanks as they go dry. The wines are rich and dark with a great balance of flavor.
~Daniel Baron