One of our Stags Leap District vineyards.
The second week of the harvest season is upon us. This week we will be harvesting Sauvignon Blanc on Thursday and next week we will probably see the first of the Pinot Noir. The weather was unseasonably cool last week. Combined with the previous cool temperatures that drops our early harvest to only one week earlier than normal ( whatever normal actually is). The defining feature of this vintage so far is the acid. The weeks of cool weather have kept acids very high so far. How high you ask? How is a 10 TA so far for you? For the layman, this is pretty high. This week is calling for slightly above average temperatures so this should only be a temporary issue. The heat will work on the acid and everything should drop smoothly into place by the time fruit is ready to harvest. Phenolic ripeness doesn’t seem to be an issue this year as the seeds and canes in Cabernet and Merlot are already almost completely brown.
Picture of a fully lignified (brown) cane.
With the warming in the future this is setting up to be a memorable vintage. I’ve always considered 13 one of my lucky numbers. So far, it seems to be holding.
3 Responses
TA of 10?! Wow! I’ll be curious to hear what your Mondavi reds come in at. Ripeness and high natural acidity spells awesome vintage to me!
Doesn’t it though? The big question here is how much of that acid is Malic because once the wine goes through ML a lot of that could drop. We’ll see once the fruit arrives what the acid breakdown is.