Harvest is a full buffet of emotions: excitement, anxiety, stress, relief.. on and on. One has to be organized and structured enough to remember the details, get things done on time but also flexible enough to roll with the punches.
As we pride ourselves on low-intervention winemaking practices, there is only so much you can prepare for as mother nature is the final determinant. Last year when we produced our first vintage for our Cassie Bella label, we were blessed with a terrific year; grapes were pristine at 23 brix and we made an extended macerated whole cluster barrel fermented Pinot Noir.
Read up: How to get a harvest job at a winery?
2022 weather delays
This year.. not so much. There was a very late spring frost in the Columbia Gorge area. While that didn’t kill any buds or vines (like we’ve seen in Burgundy the last few years), it did delay ripening for a few weeks.
That two week delayed, combined with a relatively mild summer meant that our grapes are still playing catchup — some wineries in the area are reporting over a four week delay compared to 2021.
Late harvest wines
Unfortunately there is only so long you can wait into the season until the grapes cease to ripen with added sugar and simply just build Malic acid due to the inclement cold weather. We’ve had a nice late summer here in the Gorge but things are starting to cool down.
As of October 12th 2022, our grapes are measuring only 20 brix (compared to 22 on September 23rd of last year). Seeing all of this, we decided to pivot this year and make Blanc de Pinot Noir and Rose from our Pinot Noir grapes. White and Rose will do better with lower sugar, higher acid than Red wines which typically require a larger body (more sugars = more alcohol).
This is exciting for a few reasons.
- We’ve never made White or Rose by ourselves (just white Burgundy in France).
- It’ll be interesting to see three different stylistic expressions from the same vineyard and grapes.
- We think Blanc de Pinot Noir is pretty cool and fun to discuss with novices and experts in the wine world alike.
- There will be plentiful lessons learned — as always when trying something new.
Don’t miss: White Wine for beginners.
Making Rose and White Wine
This will be an entirely different process than how we made our first vintage Pinot Noir and certainly our first vintage of Port. That’s the greatest thing about winemaking and wine in general–it’s a living, breathing entity that’s fluid (literally) and always changing. One must adapt to survive.
To be continued…
