The rains came, the rains went, and we delayed harvest till Monday 10/9/06, or so we thought. It only rained about a quarter inch in Anderson Valley, and we wanted to give the grapes a chance to dry out a bit. Pinot Noir is a very thin-skinned grape, and it absorbs water through the skin. We don't want to dilute the flavors with a burst of new water in the grapes. And sugar measurements on Saturday confirmed that the grapes did indeed fatten up a bit with water, and the sugar levels are just on the edge of being high enough. So at this point we're in a holding pattern.
This waiting to get the call saying GO! produces a lot of anxiety but we're only waiting on a single batch of grapes from a single vineyard source. There are growers and wineries who deal with dozens of locations, and varieties. I shouldn't complain. Harvest is very stressful for many reasons but this untimely rain has made things quite a bit more harried. Our Pinot is pretty much ready to roll so these additional few days waiting for sugars to bounce back up won't be a problem for the Pinot 2.0 wine. Other growers who have longer to wait for their sugar levels to rise might be fighting mold and Botrytis before they pick.
While this means that my schedule had to be completely rearranged, the found time was well spent getting a few lose ends tied up, like learning how to edit video. I also had a chance to check in with another winemaker who's making wine at Crushpad.
Click here to watch/download Pinot 2.0 Video Podcast #2, A Conversation With David Dain TPT: 6:08
David Dain of Dain Wines, seen at right up to his elbows in his Hein Vineyard Pinot, makes seven different wines at Crushpad. This year he's making a Pinot Noir from the Wentzel Vineyard in Anderson Valley, the same vineyard supplying the fruit for the Pinot 2.0 project.
