Harvest Continues Nonstop

Wow, it’s already October, which means we have been harvesting for over a month now!   Almost daily picks of Pinot Noir kept us busy all September, with the sorting table and destemmer going nonstop.  The winery has been at capacity, with fermentors of grape must in every open corner, and hand punchdowns happening nonstop.  Now that many of the Pinot fermentations have been finishing up,   we’ve been able to start pressing dry lots and racking them to barrel, where they can finish malo-lactic fermentation and give us a chance to start focusing on the Chardonnay.

With last weekend’s heat wave, many of our Rosemary’s and Oliver’s Chardonnay blocks got just the push they needed to finish ripening.   As the seemingly endless bins of Chardonnay arrive we will send them straight to the presses to be whole cluster pressed and then put straight to barrel for fermentation.  

During hot weather weeks like this, we really see what a difference it makes that our vineyard crews hand harvest at night.   On big pick days the crews will start anywhere from 8 PM to midnight and continue until sunrise, delivering beautiful, cool fruit that’s ready to be processed at the winery.   Big thanks to the vineyard crews for all their hard work and crazy hours to get us the best fruit possible!