We had rain on 3 days during mid July, which broke the string of rainless days since the first week of June. Timing was excellent, since it came near the end of bloom, and only amounted to slightly less than 3/4 of an inch, a tad more than normal.
The 3 month forecast, based on analog years, is showing average temps with the rainy season holding off until late October.
I had a good chuckle the other day when a potential grape customer from out-of-state decided not to buy from us for his inaugural Pinot vintage, saying 2011 is a questionable vintage. So far, the only thing that is questionable is what the last 30 days of the season will be like - which is the same question we have every season, and the answer usually is a good one when we're not ripening during a September heat spike.
The vines are in great shape, with canopy growth starting to slow as the clusters start closing up and seed development moves forward. This year's set produced huge numbers of berries, sample counts show 120-160 berries/cluster in most areas of the vineyard; approximately 2X last year's counts. While it remains to be seen what the resulting berry size and cluster weights will be, we already know we'll have large tight clusters this year.
Clone 114
Clone 115
Wadenswil Clone
Pommard Clone
