“We’re seeing a slight dip in yield, with smaller grapes
and clusters, but the quality of the fruit is phenomenal, and
I’m really excited about the vintages that we’ll be seeing.”
– Dean De Korth, winemaker at Bernardus
Morgan Winery’s Double L Vineyard
It’s early November in the Santa Lucia Highlands, and there’s a flurry of activity on the 49 acres of the Double L Vineyard, home of Morgan Winery. Pickers move down row after row of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah and Reisling grapes, plucking fat bunches from the vines. Trucks ride along the dirt roads, loading up hundreds of containers ready for transport to the winery’s facility in Salinas, where they’ll be pressed and most will be placed into French oak barrels where they will be transformed into award-winning wines.
It’s a scene going on throughout Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties, and yet it’s unusual. Why? Because it’s happening so late. We’ve had odd weather this year, but local winemakers are cautiously optimistic about what the season’s unusual climatic curveballs will yield when the wines emerge from their barrels anywhere from nine months to two years from now.
“The picking is usually wrapped up by now,” says Kristina Banks, marketing coordinator for Morgan Winery. “But we’ve had a longer growing season and more rain than we’re accustomed to from a typical year.” So far, Banks notes, all seems fine at the Double L Vineyard, which was the first in the Santa Lucia Highlands American Viticultural Area to garner both “Certified Organic” and “Certified Sustainable” recognition.
“The cool spring and summer slowed ripening but we were not worried,” says proprietor and winegrower Dan Morgan Lee. “With a smaller crop, healthy, organic vines and the warm weather we experienced in October, the ripening process had the opportunity to advance nicely.”
At Bernardus Winery in Carmel Valley, the harvest and its potential impact on this year’s vintage was a hot topic at the winery’s annual wine dinner on Oct. 21. (See related story on the EMB blog at www.ediblemontereybay.com.)
Bernardus winemaker Dean De Korth sees no problems for this year’s harvest, and is in fact expecting a banner year. “We had a slow start to the season with those late spring rains, but the recent warm and clear weather has been great,” says De Korth. “We’re seeing a slight dip in yield, with smaller grapes and clusters, but the quality of the fruit is phenomenal, and I’m really excited about the vintages that we’ll be seeing.”
Judy Schultze at boutique winery Windy Oaks in the Santa Cruz Mountains echoes De Korth’s sentiments, reporting late harvests of their Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes due to the cooler summer, as well as lower yields due to a late fruit set in May of 2010. “We also had some minor mold issues from the summer rain, but dealt with them quickly,” says Schultze, who with her husband Jim is also looking forward to a year of super high-quality vintages.
Mike Waller, winemaker at Calera Winery in Hollister, is also confident about this year’s harvest. “We’re on our second year of plentiful rain, and the weather has been cool but sunny at just the right time,” says Waller. “Fortunately for us we didn’t see any frosts during bud break, and we had great growth in springtime. The only thing we saw was a bit of shatter during bloom and heavy mildew pressure, but we were able to keep it under control, and we’ve had great fall weather to get us to the finish line. I’m finding that our grapes are coming in with higher acid, but they’ve reached that magical ripening point.”
