Sometimes what is needed is just patience – which in our business means waking up every day with optimism not necessarily supported by reason, trying not to freak out about everything that could go wrong, hoping that the weather cooperates and things don’t go south, and taking humble pleasure and relief when things turn out OK. “Patience” has been rewarded this year—the continued warm weather, punctuated by days of just enough rain, is allowing us to let fruit hang on the vine and ripen for longer than we normally would. Rain can be a problem this time of the year—the vine soaks up the moisture and transfers excess water to the berries, causing flavor dilution and swelling in the berries, sometimes even to the point of skin breakage. This year, however, the rains have been short and have been followed by days of sun that dries the vines out again. Any Botrytis that was encouraged by the rain, dries up, adding richness to the flavor of the grapes.

Red varieties are really benefiting nicely from these conditions; white varieties are too, but to a lesser degree. The longer hang time in the reds is reducing vegetative aromatics and shifting the tannin structure to yield better aromas and a more pleasant, supple mouthfeel in the finished wines. White varieties are very healthy and solid but aren’t showing the same marked improvement over what we normally see in good quality years. This could be a year that our red wines really shine.

What’s coming up in the next week? As part of the waiting game, we’re watching fruit quality in our vinifera reds. We’re not as concerned with the chemistry (sugar and acid) as we are with how the grapes are physically holding up. Sugar and acid readings are tracking just fine, both in the appropriate range to harvest at any time. What we are observing are changes to the berries, leaves and even the pedicels —the little stems that attaches the berries to the cluster. The leaves are still necessary to capture sunlight energy and convert it to a form that can drive the berry ripening process, and the woody parts of the plant, including the pedicels, are the conductors of this energy to the berries. As the fruit and vine matures, the pedicels start to break down, ending this aspect of ripening in the berry. The berry continues to change, though, mostly drying up a bit as moisture is lost, concentrating flavor in the berry, and altering the texture of the skins. This is evident when tasting this fruit, and these changes will also carry into the finished wine—more ripe, jammy fruit, and softer, less green tannins. Definitely something to look forward to.

What makes this even better is that we are finally going to have both Carmine and Cabernet Sauvignon back in the stable. Both of these varieties took a beating during the hyper-winters of 2014 and 2015, and the vines have now recovered (and new vines have matured) enough to yield a crop. They are looking really good, and we’ll soon have them in our fermenters, showing off their potential.

In the cellar we’ve racked a few of the early varieties off the yeast lees, with later varieties either in the throes of active fermentation, or finishing up their fermentations. The first barrels of Dornfelder have been filled with this new wine which is already showing an amazing depth of color, fruit intensity and tannin structure. It has been inoculated with a malo-lactic culture to enhance the complexity and softness, and should result in a really nice wine.