Last Friday we brought in our first Cabernet of the season from To Kalon vineyard for the blessing of the harvest. It was an amazing experience to witness complete with songs, speeches, and of course, a Catholic priest to conduct the blessing of the fruit and all attendees.

Outside of this small deviation, my entire focus has been on Pinot Noir. Well that and kicking the fall cold my son was so kind to share with me. By the end of this week we will have brought in the vast majority of the Pinot Noir. Since we were getting close to the end for Pinot, I have been watching the weather like a hawk. Pinot is notoriously fickle. It will stall just before ripeness is achieved then at the slightest hint of a heat wave suddenly jumps and can go past optimum flavors faster than you can blink. I’ve adopted a strategy to pick some s little early to balance the inevitable over ripe fruit that tends to show up towards the end. This year, however, the weather has stayed cool for the most part with only the end of this week threatening hot days. By then, thanks to careful planning and efficiently of the winery team and our growers we seem to be keeping one step ahead so far. I won’t count it done however until all of it is in. Then I will focus my complete attention to our Bordeaux varieties, which, by the way are sitting at the 22-24 range in Brix right now however the flavors are not even close to ripe. My personal optimum Brix to pick Cabernet is 24.5-25. This year I don’t think that is going to be realistic. That is not the style this vintage is giving us. Be prepared for some big concentrated beasts this year! We’ll see how it goes but I’m thinking 26-27 might be the average Brix for Cabernet in the valley for 2013.

Only the coming weeks will tell for sure.