Harvest 2015 Has Started!
It's here! This Saturday we picked our rows of Charles Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc, kicking off vintage 2015 for Foursight Wines. It was also baby Evan's first harvest day; he had a sample of some grapes as they arrived at the crushpad (although he likes it a little sweeter)!
My previous post talks about some of the challenges with this particular vintage, but the one we're feeling particularly is the lack of fruit in most of the North Coast. We believe our estate is more than 50% down in tonnage for our Sauvignon Blanc, and 30-40% off in Pinot Noir. Gray, gloomy weather during the spring caused a bad set. Clusters are small, berries are small, and there's not much of them.
Unfortunately for us, that means less production for this vintage. We won't feel it until we release the wines in a few years, but knowing this will make us address the 2016 vintage differently (like producing additional quicker-to-release wines like our Vin Gris perhaps). We also won't be able to use our new tank, purchased for the express purpose of producing more Sauvignon Blanc this year as it keeps selling out too quickly! Murphy's law, right?
The Pinot starts coming in next Friday, after several days of bottling the 2014 Pinot Noirs. Given the small crop, we're planning to focus on our mainstays (Zero New Oak, Charles Vineyard, and Clone 05 Pommard Pinots) and, with the warmer year, perhaps some Paraboll. Wish us all luck!
My previous post talks about some of the challenges with this particular vintage, but the one we're feeling particularly is the lack of fruit in most of the North Coast. We believe our estate is more than 50% down in tonnage for our Sauvignon Blanc, and 30-40% off in Pinot Noir. Gray, gloomy weather during the spring caused a bad set. Clusters are small, berries are small, and there's not much of them.
Unfortunately for us, that means less production for this vintage. We won't feel it until we release the wines in a few years, but knowing this will make us address the 2016 vintage differently (like producing additional quicker-to-release wines like our Vin Gris perhaps). We also won't be able to use our new tank, purchased for the express purpose of producing more Sauvignon Blanc this year as it keeps selling out too quickly! Murphy's law, right?
The Pinot starts coming in next Friday, after several days of bottling the 2014 Pinot Noirs. Given the small crop, we're planning to focus on our mainstays (Zero New Oak, Charles Vineyard, and Clone 05 Pommard Pinots) and, with the warmer year, perhaps some Paraboll. Wish us all luck!
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