Blog
By Corey, on Wednesday, October 2nd, 2013 in Blog.
It kicked off almost 3 weeks ago: a furious beginning to what looked to be a condensed harvest. I brought in my Cabernet Franc (red, and a rose!), gorgeous fruit from Quady North Vineyard down in southern Oregon. Numbers were darn near perfect for what I wanted.
Grapes started coming in from Washington, and more from southern Oregon. And then? The deluge began. Downpours, high winds, day after day. When the forecast showed the approaching storm, scrambling happened all over the Willamette Valley, a race to bring in grapes before the rains. Once the weather hit…radio silence. Harvest halted.
On the one hand, a condensed harvest sounded good to me, as it would mean a return to normalcy sooner than the last couple of years. So when the weather turned, I was a bit bummed. But as I’ve now had a few days to rest up, I’m glad it happened. Harvest is spread out, which may ease congestion in the winery. Already some red wine has finished fermenting and has been pressed and put into barrel. More is soon to follow (including my cab franc). Very good.
The only concern now is the condition of the grapes still out there. There is talk of rot. No mention of split grapes yet, or wind damage. This afternoon the sun popped out (after dumping rains all morning), and is projected to stick around until Sunday. I suspect the next few days may see a return to crazy time. Fingers crossed all is well with the grapes!
In the meantime, the Cab franc rose and red are coming along gloriously. Both started fermenting rather quickly, but have slowed in the last few days. This is fine by me, as I’m in no hurry so why should they?
On another front: I bottled my first wine last week!! A stressful day for me, but all went very smoothly and I ended up with 63 cases of my 2012 Pinot Noir! Unfortunately my labels haven’t been printed so all I have are shiners. It was an exciting day, and not until I made it home and ate dinner looking upon one of my bottles did it start to sink in. I have my own wine. Wow.
My first case of wine!