Cheers!  Harvest is complete. You may know that it is called crush, with the origin of the term, crush, thought to be what happens to the grapes. What really happens is that the people are crushed by the work and worry.  A whole summer's worth of care and effort can be lost if a hurricane hits at the wrong time.  But the weather cooperated and we harvested based on grape maturity, not threatening storms.   

    

     This vintage is now in the barrel. Merlot, Cab Franc, and Petit Verdot from our vineyard are stunning and the Viognier from Jane & Jon in Stuarts Draft is heavenly. 
 
     Wine comes from living things, from our vines. The vines react to the weather from the previous year as well as the weather during the current growing season.  Last year we had a frost during bud break so the crop load was very low, and the vines got a rest with a smaller than normal crop of grapes to ripen. This year the vines woke up in the spring with plenty of energy and decided to make lots of fruit.  We removed nearly 60% of the fruit at verasion and still our harvest was about 50% larger than we expected - time to order more barrels. Usually high crop loads affect the quality, but this year was a pleasant surprise.  The fruit was beautiful and ripe. We have never had such deep purple color in the Merlot juice.

    

     As usual the Petit Verdot was temperamental. Remember the dictionary defines temperamental as "unpredictable and erratic in behavior." That about sums up Petit Verdot vines. We check the fruit nearly every day during ripening. One day the Petit Verdot grapes are happy and pretty and the following day, for no reason that we can fathom, the grape skins have split. Vines and grapes are like people in many ways, one of which is when the skin has a cut, it will get infected. In grapes we have to harvest the day of the splitting or the next day. Ready or not! Fortunately the ripeness, taste and aroma were all there. 

 

     Our last pick, the Cabernet Franc, was perfectly timed.  The night before, we got frost.  When the crew arrived around 7:30am, the leaves were crisp.  The sun came out, our volunteers got the tractors rolling and we finished up the vineyard year.  It is a great harvest when we can leave the grapes on the vine as long as possible!