I can’t believe it - harvest is finally here! This vintage has been a waiting game like no other I have ever experienced in the 35 years I have been in the wine business. Is this good? Is this bad? Well, there is a lot to ponder, and we won’t know the final outcome until early next year when the wines are ready to evaluate.

I get asked almost daily, “why is the harvest so late this year?” and there are several reasons why. The main reason is that the weather has not been so normal this year from the spring into the summer, as it was a very cool spring with not a lot of warmer days. This cool weather also continued into the first half of summer, with temperatures rarely getting to 90F. The ideal temperature range for grape ripening is from the mid 80’s to mid-90’s Fahrenheit and we really didn’t have those temperatures until late July into August, so you can see that this put us behind normal. Is this good or bad to ripen slower than normal? For the flavors and aromas of the grapes, winemakers actually like grapes to “hang” on the vines – we say long “hang time” is great. It lets the grapes develop flavors without getting too much sugar. In 2022 we had a heat spike in late August, and while the grapes were ripening nicely, this heat spike caused the sugars to jump significantly, and the sugar levels were then ahead of the flavor development. Luckily, we were going to pick anyway, and the wines turned out very nice, but there is always that voice in your head that says, “what if that heat spike hadn’t occurred, would the wine be just that much better?” So back to this vintage, with the longer time on the vines we can taste that the flavors are really good already, and we expect a really great outcome!

The downsides to the cool spring and summer are several, one being that we worry about late summer or early fall rainstorms. We normally get storms in October, and sometimes they drop a lot of rain, and I would consider anything over 0.5 inches to be significant. I would expect the Pinot Noir to be all in by the end of September (normally it is all in by mid-September), so I am less worried about that varietal. The Chardonnay, however, is a problem if it gets hit by a lot of rain. With a large storm the vines suck in the water, and it causes the berries to plump up so much that they all press against each other and burst, which causes rot. I have also seen that the berries will turn a brownish-pink-purple after a few days, which is likely a form of rot without the berries bursting. They just turn soft and watery, and the flavors just aren’t right. In 2011 I remember a big rainstorm that came right before our Chardonnay was picked, and some of the Chardonnay started turning purple, so I picked it as quickly as I could to minimize the problems. Luckily the wines turned out fine, but had I waited just one more day then I think the wines would not be as good – maybe even really bad!

The other problem with a later harvest is that those varietals that ripen late anyway, say October, will have a harder time ripening with less sunlight and heat when we get into October. This would be Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot for Roche Winery. These varieties aren’t affected so much by rain as the skins are thicker and the clusters are very loose, so that’s less of a worry. If there is a rainstorm, the sugar levels will drop quite a bit, and you then must wait longer for the sugar levels to come back up, which is hard given the lack of heat and sun. You hope that the extra hang time gets the flavors to where you want them to be even at lower sugar levels, and so far, our Cabernet Sauvignon already has great flavors, which comforts me when thinking of the looming rainstorms.

What do I think of this vintage so far? I think I can say “Late is Great!” So far things are shaping up to be great, even though we have a long way to go. We may still be working in the cellar the next time you come to the winery to the Post Harvest Party in November, where you can taste the wines that will be either in barrels (Chardonnay and Pinot Noirs) or still in the tanks fermenting (Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon). And while you are drinking your Wine Club wines, please wish us luck with the harvest!

Chardonnay is, of course, the most common of the three and isn’t as showy as the other two, so it can be a good base to start with, contributing apple and citrus flavors and aromas. Viognier can be very overbearing in that it tends to have high alcohol as well as very peach/apricot/floral, just perfumy in general. Gewurztraminer tends to have intense aromas of lychee and rose, lower in alcohol, and as the name translates to – spice! All three wines are unique and can contribute different characters, and the fun then begins with blending trials.

The first part of blending is just coming up with an idea of your blend based on each wine’s profile. Andrew and I made up our own secret blend recipes on paper, then we make those actual trial blends. The first blends we came up with were very heavy on the Gewurztraminer and Viognier, and although our blends were different, we both realized we went too heavy on those. Too much Viognier and the wine was too thick and overbearing, and too hot (alcoholic). Too much Gewurztraminer and the wine got thin from the lower alcohol level. Flavors and aromas were interesting no matter what, but we realized that the mouthfeel and texture were very important when working with these varietals. We then started collaborating on the next trial blend and found we liked the blend when we backed off the amount of Gewurztraminer and made the Viognier more dominant. We knew we were heading in the right direction so now we made several small variations of the previous blend, talking 5% difference of this or that, until we found what we liked the most. 40% Chardonnay, 45% Viognier, 15% Gewurztraminer. Fruity, vibrant, rich and mouth filling!

Yes, blending is a lot of fun and particularly when you have an open mind!