The warm and sunny weather held throughout the week, though it is likely to change for the weekend. Harvest—at least the part that involves bringing in grapes from the vineyard—is winding down. A few more loads will arrive next week and then we can sit back and see what we have, for a few moments anyway, and then it’s back to work tending the young wines.

The late season reds, Chambourcin, Cabernet Franc and Merlot, came in as expected—very ripe—and they are beginning their transition into wine in fermenters now. They will be pressed next week, and we’ll then be able to get a full sense of what this vintage really holds. The reds that were harvested last week were pressed, and we’re really excited with the results. Some have made their way into barrel already and are finishing up alcohol fermentation; inoculation with malo-lactic bacteria will follow to continue the natural process of transforming these grapes into great wine. Our Cabernet Sauvignon growers, Cindy, John and Mike Moorhead, were of the opinion that their grapes could hang a little longer to take full advantage of our perfect harvest weather and so we’re waiting patiently and excitedly for them to arrive from the vineyard. This year’s Cabernet Sauvignon vintage promises to be remarkable.

Vidal Blanc is a late-season white wine variety that does quite well in the Eastern United States and Canada. It is a versatile grape, capable of producing wines that range from dry and barrel-aged to sweet and rich ice wines harvested after the grapes freeze on the vine. Our Kisses Trio of ice-style wines —Eskimo Kisses, Hot Kisses and Cinnful Kisses—are made from this variety, and Vidal is also a key player in a few of our popular blends. It, too, is benefiting from the spectacular harvest weather we’ve had with high sugars, low acids and ripe, tropical fruitiness. We started bringing Vidal in this week, along with another stalwart Eastern variety, Catawba. Seeing these grapes arrive at the winery is like seeing robins in late winter—you know that the end is near and wonderful things are ahead. In the case of harvest, it signals the winding down of this phase of winemaking; the crusher and press will be cleaned and stored away until next September, and activity moves from the press pad back to the wine cellar.

We were exceptionally fortunate this harvest. The weather cooperated in ways that it normally doesn’t, and we had a good-sized crop of exceptional quality for most varieties. Others in our industry were not so fortunate—wild fires devastated the heart of the American wine industry in California, and our thoughts are with them. Their harvest was interrupted by the destructive fires, and they are now assessing what can be saved of those grapes that are still hanging while they rebuild homes, businesses and neighborhoods. Closer to home, heavy rains wrought havoc on vineyards in southern Pennsylvania, ultimately compromising the quality of their grapes at harvest.

Like I said, we were fortunate, and we’re thankful for it as we know it will be our turn to face adversity again at some point in these times of increasing climatic variance and more dramatic climatic extremes. We know this only too well as our vineyards are only just now recovering fully from the devastation of the previously unseen frigid weather periods during the 2014 and 2015 winters.

Bob Green
PIWC Executive Winemaker

The focus this past week has been on the late-season reds; pressing the early varieties that were harvested last week, and tracking progress of those varieties still hanging. Cabernet Franc, Blaufränkisch and Carmine have been in the fermenters this past week, and were pressed off the skins today. They are as we expected: deeply colored, nicely tannic, and with a full expression of fruit. Early next week we’ll be barreling some of these wines to begin aging. Yet again, patience will be called for with these wines—watch for them in 2019 and they will be worth the wait!

Late Season Merlot

Speaking of barrels, we are excited to have started a small batch of barrel-fermented reserve Chardonnay in our 500L (132 gal) Mercier French oak puncheons. These barrels have the advantage of a much higher volume to surface area ratio, which allows us to realize a more restrained extraction of oak flavor without sacrificing the benefits of micro-oxidation from extended time in the barrel. Fermentation in the barrel also has a positive effect on the oak uptake; yeast and malolactic bacteria increase the integration of oak extractives into the wine, ultimately reducing the intensity of the oak. An additional benefit to barrel fermentation is the opportunity to have the wine age on the dead yeast (lees). It may not sound like a positive thing, but sur lies aging, as it’s known in France, is a traditional method for enhancing the mouthfeel (texture) of the finished wine. As the yeast cells break down, components of the yeast cell walls are released into the wine, adding body and structure to the wine.

Now we get to enjoy the blessings of two great years in a row. In order to make room for a glorious future wine in these barrels, we must first avail ourselves of a formidable present one. The 2016 vintage will be bottled soon and released after a short period of rest.

Finally, we’re still watching the last of the red varieties—Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, the last of the Cabernet Franc, and Chambourcin—that are still in the vineyard. Next week’s weather is finally looking like a proper fall (though we’re not complaining about the unseasonable weather to date), and this most likely will force us to bring these varieties in. The season’s journey to this point has been grand, and we really couldn’t ask for much more from the vines, grapes or growers. The skins are starting to soften to the point that disease can easily take hold, but that also means that the tannins will be soft and supple. Sugars have been increasing and acids have been dropping, and vegetative flavors are going away to be replaced by ripe fruitiness. We will be harvesting these reds beginning early in the week and we’ll be looking forward to some great wines to come.

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.

The continued warm and relatively dry weather is giving us something that we don’t always have in our harvest—the ability to let fruit hang and ripen under full sun and heat. This time of the year we usually have to start considering trade-offs – carefully watching fruit quality and health of the leaves and often having to harvest before we would really like to beat the onset of deterioration from mold or disease. Right now, with the conditions we have been seeing, disease just isn’t a problem and we are free to let the fruit continue to develop sugar, burn up acid, and start tasting really good.

In one of the early Harvest Notes, I commented on the early onset in veraison in one of our grower’s Cabernet Franc vineyard. At that time, it was promising but too early to tell the ultimate effect this might have on final fruit quality and whether it would lead to accelerated development and an earlier harvest. Based on past experience I was betting “no” on early harvest. Most often when grapes are ahead of schedule coming into harvest, it always seems to even out by the end, and harvest ends up being at the normal time. So it was a bit of a surprise and a testament to this season’s great conditions when we tested the Cabernet Franc earlier this week and found that everything was indicating a fully mature crop. We harvested on October 2, and the grapes are now in the fermenter, on their way to becoming what looks to be a phenomenal example of this phenomenal variety.

Speaking of red wines, we pressed off the fermenting Chancellor, one of the earlier red varieties and the resulting young wine was deeply colored with nice berry-like aromas and full tannins. The Dornfelder has also completed fermentation and will soon be barreled for aging. Starting next week, we’ll be bringing in more of the late-season varieties, starting with Blaufränkisch and Carmine.

Another variety that is worth mentioning is Chardonnay. This year’s fruit was clean and ripe when delivered, with a nice balance in of sugar and acid. Last year’s Chardonnay was aged in 500L (132 gal) French oak puncheons, and this will be taken out of barrel in the coming week for bottling and to make room for the new vintage. These are special barrels—the size, just over twice the size of a normal barrel, changes the volume to surface area ratio and gives a more subtle and nuanced extraction of oak from the barrel. The result is a more elegant expression of fruit with a fine oak structure. Given the degree of perfection of the 2017 fruit, fermentation in these barrels should yield a truly spectacular wine.  Stay tuned for release in 2019!

Bob Green
PIWC Executive Winemaker

We’re in the middle of harvest now, and in a bit of a lull in the pressing schedule. It will be short-lived though —a day or two and we’ll be back working with the late season varieties in full force. But this gives us a moment to look at how the harvest has been to date, and what the outlook is for the remaining weeks.

The big news so far is the weather and how many consecutive times the good side of the coin has come up for the grapes. The last several weeks have been hot and dry, with a lot of sun. The temperatures have been in the 80’s for the most part, which is ideal for giving the vines a huge boost to ripen the fruit. Fall heat can also nudge molds and mildews into gear, though, if there is enough moisture to get them going. And that’s been the beauty of this weather pattern: ample dry air and sun has kept these undesirables at bay, allowing the grapes to reach nice maturity while avoiding rot.

One grower observed that despite the dry conditions with no rain for several weeks, he’s had to mow the grass every week, and the only brown spots were where the tractor has been driven on it. This is because of another aspect of the weather: cool clear nights that produce a heavy dew by morning. Not only has this kept the grass green, but it has also provided just enough moisture to the vines to allow them to continue the ripening process without stress. The dew dries up by mid-morning, keeping disease from taking serious hold. All of this has given us a stellar harvest period to date, for the most part offsetting the less than ideal conditions of the earlier part of summer. The pattern has now changed to one that is more typical for us this time of year: temperatures are in the 60’s, but we are still having a lot of sun in the forecast. Late-season varieties will continue to ripen, and molds and mildews will continue to be held in check. All puppies and rainbows for the grapes at the moment.

Ripeness can be assessed and measured in several ways. First is sugar content, measured in °Brix”. This is the most common metric in the American Industry (other countries use different scales, or scales that also relate to potential alcohol). Sugar accumulation in grapes is a function of photosynthesis, and ample sunlight, adequate moisture, and leaves that are not disease-damaged are needed for maximum sugar levels. These conditions are all in place so far this year and varieties harvested in the last week have shown nice increases in sugar content to normal and typically better than normal brix.

Acid content, measured as either total acid (in g/L or %) or pH, is another important way of assessing the ripeness of the grapes. There are two primary acids found in grapes: tartaric and malic. As berries mature, tartaric acid remains at a fairly constant level while malic acid is transpired by the vine, lowering the acid content. The degree of acid metabolization by the vine is dependent on heat, and in a cool year, we see less malic acid transpiration and thus higher acid levels. This is what we are seeing in some varieties this year, especially the earliest ones because of the cooler conditions seen earlier in the season. Later varieties with longer exposure to the sun and heat are finally getting down to normal acid levels.

The final measure of ripeness and by far the most important: flavor. As a winemaker, I can adjust both sugar and acid level with reasonable results. It is much more difficult to make flavor adjustments that are successful. Unripe fruit simply lacks flavor, and we can’t just add it from another source. We are kind stuck with what we get. One of the keys for our area in terms of developing flavor in berries is being able to let them hang on the vine long enough for the ripe flavors to develop. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this requires ample sunlight, adequate moisture and leaves that are not disease-damaged. And yes, this is what we are seeing in the varieties that have been on the vines through this period. Nice, ripe flavors are showing up with a vengeance.

The upcoming week will have us back in the vineyard taking samples, trying to determine when to harvest each variety and block. In the meantime, we’ll be monitoring wines fermenting in the winery, and keeping the caps on the fermenting reds punched down. Some of them will be pressed mid-week and will soon be ready for those of you looking to purchase them as Young Wines.

Bob Green
PIWC Executive Winemaker