Winemaker Notes
After a relatively mild and dry winter, the onset of the growing season began with fears of ongoing drought concerns for Oregon and most of the western states. The spring remained cool, with mild frosts in April and some cool, wet conditions leading up to bloom in mid- June. This, coupled with some colder weather during the 2019 flowering window, resulted in smaller clusters and berries, and a lighter fruit set across the Pinot Noir blocks. While the weather created natural balance in our pinot yields, our alternative varieties provided a bountiful fruit set for the 2020 vintage. After a summer of minimal “heat stress” events, and perfect sept temps predicted, we were cruising into a perfect looking vintage. Labor day through us a curve ball with an extreme wind event leading to wild fires across the state of Oregon (and the rest of the western U.S.) being a cooler site, we felt fortunate that our grapes were still a few weeks away from harvest, and we had time to ripen and mature the skins after the event subsided. 2020 was surely one to remember! Technical: abv 10.0%, ph 3.55, ta 5.5 g/l.