As mentioned in the August 1 update, the weather throughout the growing season was about as ideal as we could hope for - warm, sunny days followed by cool, foggy nights. In these conditions the grapes ripen slowly and evenly and get plenty of the all-important hang-time essential to flavor maturity. As harvest approached, one of the best known local growers went so far as to predict the best vintage in 100 years because of the mild conditions.

As the gorgeous weather continued, some of the sparkling wine producers began harvesting the first week of August and our Chenin Blanc was ready to come in on August 24. By contrast, the 2006 harvest began 3 weeks later on September 12! The 2007 season was pushed ahead from the beginning, mainly by getting off to a jack-rabbit start in our wonderful "July in March" weather.

It always seems that once crush begins it's non-stop and this year was no exception. It got particularly hectic around Labor Day, just as things were getting into full swing. Our biggest challenge of the season came in the form of warmer than normal conditions for several days running. The result? Lots of ripe grapes all at once! If you check out our harvest calendar, you'll see that the grapes were coming in at a fast and furious pace. Crushing nearly every day is rather frantic for a small operation like ours and Geoff started to wonder if we'd run out of tank space. But, when it cooled down, it cooled down in a big way and he actually saw the sugars go down, as the grapes rehydrated. Besides extending the hang time it bought him some tank space and breathing space! The prolonged heat caused a bit of dehydration here and there, so Geoff thinned out any fruit that looked a bit shriveled.

We were all reminded of last year's harvest the day the last of the estate Chardonnay came in because it started to rain! In 2006, many north coast growers reported rain damage to their Chardonnay. But, as in 2006, we were lucky and got our grapes in just under the wire. Unlike Cabernet, Chardonnay isn't very rot resistant because of its thin skin and tight cluster formation.

That was September 19 and, from all reports, most of the valley recovered rather well from the rains. For our part, there were only a few blocks of Estate Cabernet and some Petit Verdot left to pick and, for the small amount of rain we had, we didn't really need to worry because they're tough-skinned varieties that stand up to rain rather well.

An early start often means an early finish and any winemaker would be thrilled to call it a vintage on October 4! Geoff felt doubly grateful for the early finish because we had sporadic rainfall, sometimes heavy, the rest of the month. Fortunately, most of our neighbors were ahead of schedule on their harvest, too, and, for the growers who still had fruit out, it was mainly Cabernet. There were plenty of warm, sunny days intermingled with the rainy ones to bring the grapes to maturity.

As he finished pressing the last of the Petit Verdot, Geoff summarized our harvest this way: "Overall, the yields are down a little from normal. The grapes were also smaller than normal, likely due to low rainfall. The reds show beautiful depth the color and flavor, probably because of those small berries and the Chardonnay has lots of the characteristic tropical character that comes with good hang-time. I've got really high hopes for this vintage!" As he said back in August, "When Mother Nature hands you a year like this, the best thing to do is just try not to mess it up." Click here for the reports from August 1 or June 1.

Cheers!