We picked half of the vineyard yesterday, for two customers, from portions of all the different blocks of clones. The weather during the ripening period has been perfect; sunny, dry, and seasonably warm. This year during the critical final 30 days of the season, sugars have developed faster than acids have moderated and flavors have lagged behind. Over the past week, though, the acids have moderated and the flavors have come on strong as a result of sunny, windy, and dry conditions; with daytime relative humidity in the teens and low-twenties, daytime highs in the mid-70s, and overnight lows in the 40's.
Overall, it looks to be the makings of a very good vintage, albeit a small one. As discussed earlier, this year's yields will be small, due to the effects of the poor weather during bloom. The quality of the ripe grapes, however, is excellent. There is absolutely no botrytis this year, due to the lack of rainfall since June and also due to the extremely low daytime humidities during the final weeks of ripening. However, this year's extended bloom period and a multiple-day heat spike at the end of fruit set, will require diligence on the sorting lines at the wineries removing random green berries from flowers that bloomed last and partially ripened berries on heat damaged rachises. Careful sorting should produce a great vintage, given the similarities between this year's ripening conditions and 2008's. Overall heat accumulation during the season will be almost exactly the same as 2011, but the 3 inch difference in rainfall between the years (all in the period between fruit set and harvest), the dramatic difference in sunshine and humidity levels during the final ripening period, and the more normal timing of harvest has, at least, lowered the stress level of everyone involved in harvesting and processing the grapes this year.
Pommard
Wadenswil
Dijon 114
Dijon 115
