Harvest 2021 So Far…

Harvest 2021 arrived with a few more challenges than the usual harvest brings. Out here in El Dorado County we had to contend with the Caldor fire shutting down harvest for nearly 2 weeks, affecting the grapes and vines in many ways, burning some vineyards and many homes, and on a personal note threatening the main hub of the vineyard management company I work for. This coupled with an early ripening crop this year has led to many creative solutions and lots of hard work by vineyard crews and wineries alike.

For our 2021 wines we were able to pick fairly early as we had a couple of growers able to include our ton onto already scheduled picks and we went into the smoke, clad in  KN95 masks, to pick the Sangiovese for our Rose. We have been lucky to be able to get grapes for another year of Roussanne, Sangiovese rose, and to get some Barbera for a young Barbera. Unfortunately due to fires and the complications that come with them, we were not able to get zinfandel this year. There  are many options available for us to deal with the challenges associated with the smoke and fires to come out with a zinfandel, however they are a bit of a gamble and in our situation we do not have the flexibility to take on a gamble like that if it were to not turn out. Have no fear, the 2020 Zinfandel is only getting better with a bit more time in the bottle and we will be making more Zinfandel in 2022 to keep you in great wine going forward.

In the vineyards we are seeing moderately low yields and early ripening with some vineyards being ripe 3-4 weeks earlier than average and yields being 50-75% of average depending on the site with a few outliers being close to their average output. There are lots of factors that can lead to the low yields and early ripening, including: a dry and relatively warm winter, some late spring frosts in cold sites stunting growth, wells being drawn low leading to difficulties irrigating sites and a longer hotter summer than normal. Many of these factors are site dependent however there was a lot of overlap with how this years weather patterns have affected the vines and we are planning accordingly to mitigate these effects going forward.

In the wineries the grapes are coming in fast and furious  (minus vin diesel) and winemakers all over the region are making many hard decisions on how to combat any smoke taint in reds that may be present and to try and keep fermenting space open as most grape varieties are ripe and ready to come in all at once this year. There are techniques that are being employed in wineries in the area that are worried of a certain lot of grapes having taint. One is to use activated charcoal as an in tank filtering agent to pull some of the chemicals causing the tainted flavors and aromas out, sometimes this can affect the other flavors in the wine by pulling some of those compounds out as well. Another that is fairly widely used is to press the fruit early to make a rose from red varietals and limit the opportunity to pull the smoke flavors in the skins into the wine. A lesser used technique is to oak heavily to cover the flavors present. We luckily have been able to avoid smoke-related issues by being able to pick relatively early and avoid long contact of smoke with the grapes we purchased.

Its been a wild and crazy beginning to harvest and we will keep you all posted on how the rest shakes out!

-JAMES