Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day (like November).

Severe rain all day yesterday! Our first major storm of the season brought us anywhere from 2.5 to 5 inches, depending on where in the valley. Merryvale's estate vineyard in St. Helena had just under 4 inches.

Even though our ecosystem and watershed need the water, most wineries would have preferred if the rain came in November. Fortunately, Merryvale has the majority of our fruit already harvested and in the winery. We only have approximately 10% of our grapes still ripening on the vines, and it is mostly well-drained hillside Cabernet. All of our estate vineyards have been completely harvested, and we just finished harvesting our St. Helena Estate vineyard on Monday with the final pick of Petit Verdot.

Driving around this morning, I stopped at a few of the blocks where we have grapes remaining on the vines. Although there is some standing water on the vines, the weather is forecasted to clear up, and they will dry out. Brix may have decreased slightly, but the few blocks I tasted still had nice flavors and concentration.

The rain would be an issue only for vineyards where the fruit is already damaged, and then the water would cause rot and mold to form, or for vineyards that have yellowing leaves and will not see much additional maturation despite the forecast for sunny weather.

Tomorrow, we will sample all of our remaining blocks to determine if Brix have decreased, and to confirm or postpone any remaining scheduled picks. The majority of the fruit will be harvested Friday, Saturday, and into next week.

Full Moon Musings

I love sleep, so perhaps the most challenging thing about harvest is the lack of it! But the challenges of a sleepless ten weeks are easily overcome by the magic of night harvest. In Napa Valley during harvest, it is like an underground club. You drive up the Trail to your harvest destination and you see all the lights at all the different wineries, and you think, ‘Oh, they’re picking that block today.’ You run into the same people at Model Bakery or Starbucks as soon as they open and give each other a knowing nod, or a ‘How’s harvest?’ One of the best treats is being able to drive through St Helena with no traffic.

But my favorite part about night harvest is the moon. And last night’s full harvest moon was exceptionally lovely, and on this cold crisp night, I could really sense the changing of the seasons and I know we have only a few more weeks to go.

Last week was our busiest week, and we harvested almost 30% of our total production in one week! Merryvale finished harvesting our Chardonnay on Friday, which concluded the harvest of all of our white grapes. After today, we have only one block of Merlot left to pick, having brought in Buena Vista selection Merlot from Hyde Vineyards this morning.

We still have a lot of our Cabernet left on the vines, and we look forward to a little warming later this week to get some more Cabernet into the winery as the week ends.

We have already pressed some reds, and harvest parties are already on the schedule. We look forward to bringing in the rest of our Cabernet, and are optimistic about the quality we are seeing in the cellar so far. Cheers! Remi Cohen

Harvest continues at Merryvale

Harvest is moving at full speed in Napa now. Due to hot weather all week, we have accelerated picking Chardonnay, Merlot, and Cabernet. By the end of next week, we anticipate finishing our Chardonnay harvest. This week, we have really begun to harvest the Bordeaux varieties, particularly Merlot and early Cabernet blocks.

Fortunately, the heat was not as intense as originally forecasted, and the highs are only sustained for a short part of the afternoon. Forecasts are for a return to seasonable or below average temperatures beginning early next week. That will likely slow down the ripening in the remaining Cabernet blocks.

This morning we harvested small portions of two blocks of Cabernet from the Schlatter Family Estate in St. Helena. Attached is a pic of a few lug bins in the back of the truck.

Remi Cohen
Merryvale Vineyards

Harvest Continues at Merryvale

Even with this week's high temperatures, harvest continues steadily, but not frantically, at Merryvale and Starmont. By tomorrow, we will have finished harvesting Sauvignon Blanc, and on Thursday we completed harvesting our Pinot noir, all from the Stanly Ranch in Carneros. We started harvesting Chardonnay, and Chardonnay will be the main focus for the next two weeks. Today we harvested some Hyde Chardonnay from an enticing block of mixed clones that exhibit exotic floral flavors.

We have begun harvesting some Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon from earlier ripening sites, but we anticipate continuing to harvest Cabernet throughout the rest of this month and into October. Attached is a picture of us harvesting one of our earliest Cabernet lots from this morning at our Estate in the foothills overlooking St. Helena.

We are really excited about the early flavor development, and are finding developed and concentrated flavors, the disappearance of green flavors, resolved tannins, and brown seeds at lower Brix than recent years.

Cheers!
Remi

Merryvale continues harvesting Sauvignon Blanc

Harvest began for Merryvale on August 20th with Sauvignon Blanc and Sauvignon Musque from Juliana Vineyards. Since then, we have also picked Juliana Vineyards Semillon, and additional Sauvignon Blanc and Sauvignon Musque from the Oakville appellation, all crushed at Starmont. On average, we have been harvesting Sauvignon Blanc around 23 or 24 Brix and it has nice natural acidity. We are optimistic about the quality as the vines have shown beautiful melon, citrus, and floral flavors, and yields have been average or slightly below average. We will finish harvesting our warmer climate Sauvignon Blanc early next week, and two Oak Knoll blocks of SB will continue to ripen on the vines.

We anticipate beginning the harvest of Pinot noir at Stanly Ranch in Carneros near Labor Day. Some of our blocks of Chardonnay are also close.

We also have Merlot in Calistoga that is now at 23.5 Brix, with nice early berry flavor development. This block will likely begin the harvest at the Merryvale facility in St. Helena, and we also anticipate harvesting this near Labor Day.

Harvest has begun at a nice pace, with moderate weather. The forecast is for some warming this weekend, and then a return to average temperatures next week. Harvest will really kick into full gear for us after Labor Day, as we currently have Chardonnay, Pinot noir, Merlot and even some Cabernet between 20 and 23 Brix.

Cheers!