OK, we got a little Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay last week... but there's something about red grapes that really marks the beginning of harvest for us. Yields are way down this year - at least for pinot, but probably everything. We ended up harvesting about 25% less fruit than last year and we're hearing that sort of story from lots of folks.
On one hand that gives us great concentration (the skins are insanely thick on the pinot - almost reminds me of cabernet - we'll really have to watch the tannins on this one), but it also means that our already scarce pinot noir is that much more scarce and all those extra barrels we thought we'd make for "library program" are not to be. The big question is whether we're going to see this on all varietals. We have an opportunity to pick up some extra last minute Cabernet that we really should get if we're going to be short on other vineyards... OTOH, if we get what we signed up for, then more cab would drown us. We could wait and see, but if we're short then everyone's short and the cab will be gone. What to do?
In any case, our new sorting line (inclined sorting table, Delta E2, vibrating sort table, crusher) worked like a champ - maybe a bit too well as it took out all the phenolic-rich, small pinot berries along with the raisins, shot berries and pieces of leaves. Should work extremely well with the cab and syrah though.
