I’ve always loved a good story. And believe you me the wine world is full of
them. As a young winemaker I took every
opportunity I could to listen to older, more experienced winemakers, grape
growers and winery owners wax on about harvests past, production techniques and
farming traditions. But, the story told
over and over again that I never quite bought was “The Harvest When All the
Grapes Got Ripe at the Same Time”. It
has several different incarnations, but, basically the plot goes something like
this:
“Ahhh yes, Nineteen
something, something that sure
was a year! We waited and waited for the
grapes to get ripe and boy when they finally did, it all happened at the same
time AND the crop was enormous. Every
tank, barrel, bin, coffee cup, and bucket was full of grapes. The winery was bursting at the seams.”
Having never really seen a harvest like this over the years
I had come to believe that the old timers might be romanticizing the old days a
bit. Frankly I thought they were a
little full of it.
Turns out they weren’t.
2012 was the most intense, unpredictable, overwhelming
harvest I have experienced in 17 years of playing with grapes. What normally takes 8 – 10 weeks to accomplish we did in a little
over 5. Our cellar crew; Steve, Chris,
and Steven worked day in and day out from dawn to dusk. Fields where we expected 10 tons were
producing 15 instead. Vineyards that
normally ripen 3 – 4 weeks apart from each other were ripening on the same day
this year. Every tank, barrel, bin,
coffee cup, and bucket was full of grapes.
The resulting wines are now starting to show themselves and quality is
looking really good. But, boy was it one
for the record books and a story I will be telling years from now.
Just like the rest of the old guys……
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