Merrily Rolling Along

If the first part of this year was marked by freakish lightning incited fires, a frost the likes of which have not been seen for years, days of smoke haze, a cool spring followed by hot, windy weather, and crappy set in Merlot and Cabernet, the last month and a half have been calm-inducingly perfect.

Even warm weather without spikes of heat have caught fruit up, ripening has been steady, and flavor development is good. We are nearly 100% through veraison in all vineyards except for the climatic Syrah outliers– Wildcat (where it is about 10%), and Bald Mountain (where it is about 70%). In the whites and at Josh’s Pinot vineyard sugars are climbing through the teens and inching into the low-20’s.

I met this morning with Luc Morlet and we looked at the Monte Rosso Semillon. It looks absolutely beautiful, and given its good crop (around 3 tons per acre on 100 year old vines), it should be coming in toward the mid to latter part of October. Luc likes to pick ripe, he said about 25 or 26, and since I am letting him dictate picking decisions we shall go with the expert. The Sauv. Blanc. at Kick Ranch is in the 17-19 range.

It seems that Josh’s precocious Pinot vineyard will inaugurate the vintage again this year. My feeling, given the crop levels (again, low), is that we should be seeing the first fruit coming in early on the week starting Monday the 25th. It looks like the eastern side of the corton will come in first, followed quickly by the western face and the Pommard-4 clone. I am getting a bit more fruit from Josh this year so I am looking forward to being able to play with some whole-cluster fermentation. So far the fruit is looking perhaps even better than last year– small clusters, small berries, freakishly good color for Pinot, and already creamy skin tannins.

Everything else is looking excellent. Now, if only barrels would arrive, the tanks would seal themelves, the lines would self-sanitize, the destemmer would mount itself, the 2007 Syrah’s would rack themselves, and the 07 Bedrock Heirloom Wine and Rebecca’s Pinot would bottle themselves, get up, and hand me a frosty cold Anchorsteam.