Harvest 2023
The 2023 harvest started October 2, at least a full month later than usual due to delayed development throughout the year and the cool Fall (with no major heat waves, yeah!). The cool temps and longer hang-time have contributed to ripening and flavor development with no dehydration – perfect! The Pinot is beautiful and delicious. The 2023 vintage promises to be extraordinary. Harvest is continuing through October. Despite a couple of damp mornings we’ve not had significant rain and it looks like the weather should hold out for us through the month to finish bringing in all the grapes.
Looking back over the year:.
.
Following a long, cold and wet Spring that delayed bloom by 4-6 weeks the summer sunshine and warming temps have lit a fuse under the vines! In the course of about 10 days from the end of June into the first week of July the vines grew 2-3′, bloom finished and the clusters set. Set is also late by about a month. The crew has tucked up the long canes. And there is a thick layer of straw mulch over the floor left from mowing the heavy growth of cover crop following this winter’s rains. The vineyard is looking beautiful!
.
Unfortunately we did have some frost damage in the low swales early June (?), which is late for frost and another effect of the long cold Spring weather. Nevertheless, set is looking very good and the crop is looking plentiful with large, full clusters.
This year is like 2019 when we also had a very cold and rainy winter (60″+ in 2019 compared to 80″ this year, and snow in Feb., like this year), a late budbreak, bloom starting mid-June into July and a late set. In 2019 we started harvest mid-late September and we harvested for our Muns Vineyard label Oct. 4 during a cool autumn, finishing up for our winery partners late Oct. Every vintage is different, and brings its unique character to the wine in your glass.
.
.
Harvest 2022
* * *
Our first day of harvest was Aug. 30 and we picked over two days for several of our winery clients. Everything was ideal, it had been a perfect growing season so far. The berries and clusters were big, beautiful, juicy and delicious. And then we all were hit with that week of 100+ degree weather! That was difficult enough as it was, but grueling to harvest in. Even starting at 4am and ending by noon it still was hot to be out there. We picked on two days during that brutal heat, and then two days the following week when it was so cold in the morning we had to wear a jacket. What a difference from one week to the next!
The good news is that the Pinot remarkably made it through that heat wave, due primarily to irrigation and canopy management. Because of the sunlight at our elevation we do not strip the leaves away from the fruit zone, but instead allow the leaves of the canopy to shade the fruit. In this and prior heat spells this has proved to save the crop, along with diligent irrigation during ripening. We didn’t get away completely without some dehydration, which you can expect in that prolonged heat, but despite it we harvested some beautiful Pinot.
We finished harvest with the Syrah on Sept. 16. We usually harvest the Syrah a week or two after the Pinot, so this was earlier than usual, but the heat precipitated ripening.
2017 also saw a prolonged heat spell just as harvest started (although the preceding winter we were deluged with 85″ of rain, which we haven’t seen in the past couple of years). Our just-released 2017 is fantastic! and the 2022 promises to be, too!
Harvest 2023 starts at 5am.
Pink dawn over Santa Cruz, harvest day on the Big Hill.
