So here I am wandering in the vineyard still looking for something to pick. It’s not much of a harvest Blog unless I can fine some grapes ready to come in. But never fear, we went out tasting again Monday morning and I think we have a winner; some juicy looking Sauv. Blanc grapes that will be ripe and ready come in Thursday morning. My next Blog should have a photo of us actually working, what a relief that will be!
Thanks for hanging in there (is this what they mean by “hang time”?)
Driving up the valley this morning I deeply inhaled the wonderful fragrance of harvest in the Napa Valley. What an amazing time of year! The vines are heavy with fruit and anticipation is in the air for what is expected to be a fantastic harvest, both in quality and quantity.
Here at Broman Cellars we plan to produce two varietals for this vintage – Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon. We just harvested some really beautiful Sauvignon Blanc last week from the Beckstoffer Melrose Vineyard in Rutherford – a whopping 6.1 tons! This is a nice amount of excellent fruit, which will translate to an increase in case production over our 2008 SB. Yippee!
The two vineyards with which we contract, Beckstoffer’s Dr. Crane Vineyard and their Georges III vineyard have some time to go. Our own vineyard on our property is looking to be several weeks away from harvest.
So now we play the waiting game and hope that the weather and Mother Nature cooperate! The rains of these past couple of days were enough to knock the dust down, but not much more.
Lisa Broman Augustine Director of Sales & Marketing (and everything else!) Broman Cellars
"Thunderbolt and lightning-very very frightening me" --Queen, "Bohemian Rhapsody"
"There's a threat of rain on the dark horizon and all that's left is a quarter moon of light" --Sting, "After the Rain has fallen."
The astute weather watcher out there knows that Napa went through a bit of a rollercoaster this past weekend. Saturday morning, 2:30 AM, I'm in my back yard in old wildland gear and boots, monitoring the fire band radio, wondering if we're going to have to deal with the "Napa Wildfire of '09". Fortunately, the dry lightning stayed well South of us.
Sunday evening had very light sprinkles, great for keeping the dust down. In fact, it was just enough to clean the dust off our solar panels, and our array is back up to 100%, no water or squegee required!
The system dropped about 0.16 inch of rain to us here at the top of the Spring Mountain District, giving our red varietals a much needed drink...we dry farm here...so this is the first sip they haven't had to work for since the springtime. This has resulted in both sugar and acid levels droping fairly uniformly across the vineyard...more waiting.
The only serious concern was our Chardonnay, which is still about a week away from harvest. Although we had no signs of Botrytis going into this weekend, we want to make sure our fruit stays clean and mold free. Fortunately, the sun was out, and a gentle breeze dried off most of the fruit quickly. Chardonnay grows in very dense and tight clusters, and these tend to trap and hold moisture...what we needed today was a really large blow drier: enter the minds of Fred and Andy Schweiger...
What you see below is something quite novel this time of year, my father, driving an empty sprayer...it's our BLOW DRIER! Our spray rig is equipped with a very large, powerful fan, producing about a 50 mph breeze through the vines. Although you can't see it in the video, droplets of water are blowing out of the clusters, providing us with clean, dry fruit.
Cheers,
Andy Schweiger, Winemaker and blow dry stylist, Schweiger Vineyards.
The busy bees below were picking and crushing our estate Syrah for the better part of today. I saw my brother Alan out there in his vineyard hat, driving the tractor and forklift carrying a few half-ton bins of Syrah into the crushpad area for processing.
Alan's next plan of attack: Cabernet Franc (pictured right).
Note his trusty chocolate lab Emma by his side. This morning she was barking and barking, hanging around Alan when he was driving the farming equipment. She also has a bad habit of running around the tractor as she yaps away...
Bright and early this morning the ZD Tasting Room troops met up with Chris Pisani, our Winemaker, and Rafael Llamas, our Vineyard Manager, for a taste of life in the vineyards pre-Harvest.There has been a lot of waiting and watching taking place at the winery these days as we anticipate the Harvest crush and, today, the Tasting Room staff was granted a behind the scenes look at what this waiting entails.
Pulling into the deLeuze Family Vineyards from the Carneros Highway, you are greeted by a charming old house surrounded by vineyards for as far as the eye can see.A small chicken coop near the back door filled with peeping chicks is a welcome reminder that you’ve arrived someplace special and seemingly untouched by the buzz and hum of Napa Valley, the destination.You are immediately transported back to the agricultural roots that make this location so unique.
Walking over to the vines you can see chickens in a range of colors scampering about and snacking happily on vine-loving insects.They are one faction of ZD’s sustainable farming techniques designed to harmoniously marry the art of winemaking with healthy vines and soil.Gazing at the chickens stand Rafael and Chris who are ready to lead the group through the vineyards for a closer look at the grapes that make up our wines.
First up is Chardonnay.The grapes are developing beautifully and we are anticipating Harvest in the coming week or two.Sampling some of the grapes was such a treat and we all found ourselves steeling quick nibbles of the sweet grapes, warmed and mellowed by the morning sun.
The Pinot Noir grapes are planted furthest from our starting position and, as we meandered over, the deep purple fruit looked picturesque hanging in small clusters along the vines.Chris trimmed a bunch of the Hanzel-selection grapes for the group to try.The tightly bunched clusters of smallish grapes are a point of pride for Chris and the winemaking team.The sparsely irrigated vines result in low-yielding, intensely flavored grapes ideal for our Pinot Noir.
Using a Pressure Bomb to test the stress-level of the vines (I’m hoping to try the Pressure Bomb on myself later today), we were able to witness the small droplets of liquid eked out of the tested vine, revealing how the surrounding environment has affected the plant.The Pressure Bomb measures the amount of pressure that exists in the vine between the roots and the tips and is used to evaluate how much need the plant has for water or how well it has adapted to its environment.The results?The vines are in peak condition for harvest.
Bringing samples back to the winery, Chris will test the brix and ph levels in the grapes to further forecast our Harvest date.In the meantime, the cellar is sparkling as the Winemaking Crew has scrubbed, sprayed, cleaned and prepped in anticipation of the first truckload of grapes.Hopefully we will have some more harvest news to report in the coming days!Stay tuned.
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.
We just brought in our first Chenin Blanc in 5 years from our newly replanted vineyard! The Chappellet Chenin Blanc is a fabulous wine – crisp & lively with lots of citrus and stone fruit – look forward to trying it in a few months. We’ll be playing with the fermentation a little – using a Nomblot Egg (concrete egg) to experiment with.
We’ll pull some Chardonnay from our Oak Knoll vineyard next week. Pritchard Hill reds are coming along, with maybe some Malbec and Merlot by late next week, or early the following. Cabernet is still at least a few weeks out. The Cabernet crop is about average for Pritchard Hill but quality looks really, really good right now. Last of the hot weather for awhile today, with maybe a little rain next week…wouldn’t be harvest if we didn’t have to worry about something!
The vibe at the winery has certainly changed and it’s formally ‘game on’. This is a great time to visit wine country and experience it for yourself! Over and out!
Harvest at the Quintessa estate officially started last Friday when we picked our Illumination Bench block of Sauvignon Blanc from the Quintessa property.
This small Sauvignon Blanc vineyard sits right on the famous Rutherford Bench, in a cool spot next to the Napa River. The fruit came in beautifully, with a small crop and really good intensity. After we pressed the grapes, it went into two of our concrete egg fermenters and a few neutral oak barrels for fermentation with aromatic yeasts. Right now it is humming along nicely.
We will see more Sauvignon Blanc tomorrow from a vineyard in South Napa, Semillon from Calistoga in a week or so and some from our own Faust Vineyard the week after next. I plan to use a combination of stainless steel, concrete and barrel fermentations and both native and more aromatic yeasts.
Next week, possibly as early as Tuesday depending on how the next two days of warm weather push flavors along, we expect to see the first Merlot from Quintessa's Silverdale South block. Merlot yields would be a bit below average but it's a bit early to tell with Cabernet. More updates to follow!
I feel like the rabbit out of Alice in Wonderland, the one with the pocket watch running up and down yelling “we’re late, we’re late”, because that’s what we are this year. We usually are harvesting Sauvignon Blanc no later than the first of September, but it looks like the 15th this year. No panic, but I am wasting a lot of energy running up and down the mountain and not picking anything.
This photo is of our La Perla Sauvignon Blanc vineyard ~ two things to notice ~ the vine training is an ancient method called ‘vertical gobelet’ . Head trained, each vine has its own stake and the canes are tied into a goblet shape. This lets us control the canopy on all sides of the vine, removing leaves to expose clusters to morning sun and shading clusters from harsh afternoon rays. Since vines struggle on our steep hillsides with shallow soils, we make sure gobelet vines stay compact and only carry about 3 pounds of fruit per vine. (Of the 225 total planted acres on the Spring Mountain estate, 90 are trained to gobelet ).
Also notice the enormous Grandmother fig tree in the background. Its branches stretch wide and touch the ground. Even the figs are late this year!
I hope to have some news about grapes by the next update, so stay tuned.
Yesterday I caught our cellar assistant, Maurilio Camarillo "red-handed" with bags of berries for sugar sampling and pH tests (our lab is adjacent to the winery office).
With 28 distinct vineyard "blocks" or sections in just under 27 acres - we're doing a lot of berry sampling around the estate vineyard. Alan Viader, winemaker and director of operations, told me this morning that the estate Syrah will be the first variety picked. Skins are dark purple with huge flavor, rich tannins, great texture and the seeds are ripe and brown... We should be picking this Monday!
On our estate vineyard on lower Howell Mountain, we cultivate Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, a tiny bit of Petit Verdot, Syrah and an even tinier bit of Malbec. In addition, we also bring in limited fruit from other Napa vineyards for varietal wines in our "DARE by Viader" line, like the DARE Tempranillo.
This year, we're even taking a stab at something completely new for VIADER -- Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. Trough friends, Alan discovered a block of Sauvignon Blanc off the Silverado Trail, and the Pinot is from the Sonoma Coast AVA. Our first white wine ever will be harvested tonight! Stay tuned...
So I wait and I wait and finally it's almost here. I know I sound redundant, but the sugars are still too low and the fruit isn't showing the maturity we want. Maybe today's 90 degree heat will help, but I still think we're a couple of weeks off.
In the meantime, I had my first, pre-6am day. Let me precede this by saying I didn't get to sleep until 2am last night - I had a kitten problem that pushed last night's plan to much later, and then I couldn't sleep. I had to drive this morning to walk a vineyard and deliver bins: stop at the vineyard manager's, then the vineyard, then the warehouse - I had traveled about 75 miles before most of my friends got their first cup of coffee at the office. I sometimes long for those days!
I'll take sugars again this Saturday and see what the week's done for us. I'm anxiously planning to travel to sell wine next week - and there's a rumor flying that we might see some rain next week - yes, it's harvest. So all I can do is include a picture of the offending kitty - her name is Dusk and she's on restriction - no more late night tree climbing for this miniature cat!
Why would we decide to install beautiful custom made concrete tanks and a new chiller just weeks before harvest? Because we’re daredevils here at Martin Estate!
Or, we’re just completely mad.
Happily, the winery has not erupted into utter chaos. Instead, we seem to be breezing through the installations. And, while we’re hauling and sweating indoors, the Cabernet Sauvignon on our eight-acre Puerta Dorada Vineyard is just buoyant with great juice. The heat spike some folks were worried about have (at present) turned into beautiful, consistently warm days with pleasantly chilly mornings, and the moderate temperatures should lead to seamlessly integrated sugars, acids and tannins in our fruit at harvest time. When our full-time winemaker Frederic Delivert walked the vineyard this morning - something he’s taken to doing on a daily basis now – he was beyond pleased with the healthy canopy and small but concentrated yield.
The fruits of our labor are tasting mighty good this year!
They’re here….Chardonnay grapes that is, not the poltergeist of Alfred Tubbs (he’s always here).
The delivery of 17 tons of Chardonnay from one of our growers in the Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley marked the official start of the 2009 Harvest for us here at Chateau Montelena.This is the 38th consecutive harvest under the current ownership, but there is a much longer history, dating back to the first harvest in 1882 under the direction of the above mentioned Alfred Tubbs – the founder of Chateau Montelena.But enough with the history lesson; that was 127 years ago…So, yesterday’s grapes were both Dijon clones of Chardonnay, clones 809 and 96 to be precise, and this is the first time that we’ve worked with them here at Montelena.So far we’re quite excited about them – we saw great early flavor development without high sugars, which means lower final alcohol, something that we work hard to achieve every year.Yields were very good - about 3.25 tons per acre – especially considering that these vines were T-budded over from Merlot only 2 years ago.The juice tastes great in the tank, so we’ll see how the flavors change during fermentation and aging, but it won’t be until we pull everything out of barrel before bottling next August that we really find out how these new clones fit (or don’t).
The next round of fruit will come in tomorrow – another Dijon clone (76) – so if you’re in the area, stop by in the morning to watch us load the presses.Get here early though, as all of our Chardonnay is harvested at night in order to assure that we receive cool firm fruit – this preserves the delicate flavors, helps prevent damage or unwanted microbial growth in the picking bins, and reduces the amount of energy needed to cool the juice during the initial settling.After that, we should be off and running, with fruit coming in every day from that point on.I expect we’ll be picking the first Estate Cabernet Sauvignon grapes sometime next week….
Until next week, Happy Harvesting and Cheers from the top of the Napa Valley!
Keep reading to see what our Intern Daniel Orrison had to say about the past week.
The last few weeks have been relatively calm around the winery… cleaning tanks, racking wine, sanitizing (everything you can imagine), cleaning more tanks, and for the interns, trying slow but sure to learn the ins-and-outs of Montelena-- an area I’ve found comes far more from experience than anything else.Fortunately however, experience, is something Montelena does very well.Certain members of the cellar staff have worked at the winery for over 20 years!They may not be able to offer you the book definition of malolactic fermentation, or the theory behind volatile acidity, though, working with them daily I have learned more about wine than I could have ever imagined.For example, the importance of hard work, responsibility, care, dedication to trade, and professionalism (even in the most mundane and simple tasks) that must take place daily for any wine to be successful.In this area alone I have grown as a person and my appreciation for wine and its process has been heightened without the sign of a single grape!
But who wants to talk about topics that don’t involve grapes (especially on a day that will go down in books as the official start of my FIRST harvest)?We received over 13 tons of two different chardonnay clones.They came in early, and if I may, left very late…The day lasted around 13 hours, from 7am to 8pm, which, I’ve been told is relatively tame for any harvest day.Though for me it was the perfect start… I got to marvel at the sheer quantity and quality of fruit brought to the property.I got absolutely soaked, several times I should note, in juice, water, sweat, and more juice throughout the day.I ate my first freshly picked chardonnay grape and took part in my first, ‘famous’ Montelena Harvest lunch.(It lived up to all the hype, fantastic actually… lasagna, salad, garlic bread, fresh fruit, and a dangerously tasty fudge brownie.All consumed in about 15 minutes.They say you are supposed to lose weight during harvest, but at this rate, I’m not so sure… 167 and counting.)The day however seemed to move at a feverish pace, for as quickly as it started, looking back, the ending was quite similar (bike ride through the vineyards to our lovely home on Old Toll).Tomorrow is another day.Can’t wait!
...you're out in a vineyard tasting your Petite Sirah at dusk, want to take some pictures, grab your camera, and realize it's sticky from pulling leaves and taking pictures of this mornings pick of Chardonnay at sunrise.
So here is basically how the day went. To really start, I have to begin with drinking some Pinot Noir in front of the TV late last night, because someone asked me to evaluate it for a future project. That led to falling asleep in place, only to have the wife reach over several times with a sort of loving touch/smack and the kind words of "Go To Bed". Begrudgingly, I crawled myself upstairs, barely got the teeth brushed, and remembered the ever important set the alarm for tomorrow's pick. The next thing I remember is thinking that can't be the alarm, hitting snooze, and lying there half asleep and half awake waiting for the next reminder that I won't be able to fall back asleep anyway. A few more snooze's and off we go.
Jump in the truck and haul a.. out to the vineyard thinking that I'm going to be late. Head down the road toward Caffino (the wrong direction from the vineyard) and realize there is actually a Starbucks on the way. Step on the gas to get to the Starbucks, order my double mocha, wonder what other souls must be out at this ungodly hour, and wait and wait and wait for them to fill the order of one medium (they call it Venti) Mocha. Really how long can it take. Haul a.. out to the vineyard to see the Vineyard Manager waiting for the bins and breathe a sigh of relief that I wasn't late. We pick, pull leaves from the bins, and take some photos. This is where the camera gets sticky, but too busy to notice. Once my truck has a full load I head off to the winery. I make several phone calls to the winery to see how the other vineyards are picking, and make the call as to the order of which things might get pressed. Make the call to hold one press for my grapes and start loading the other with the other grapes coming in all while using my speakerphone on my phone and wondering if holding the phone in hand but not up to my ear really means "Hands Free".
I get to the winery to find out that there are more grapes from the first pick then previously thought, and we'll have to add an extra press load to the already max scheduled day. We begin loading the press, squeezing berries, and collecting juice as fast as we can. Anyone who knows winery work, knows that this means hurry up and wait. Loading the grapes takes about half an hour or so, while running the actual press to get the juice takes roughly two hours. So our pace at the winery is hurry, hurry get the press loaded, get everything else done while it's running, clean the press, and start over.
Usually at the winery in the meantime, this means several conversations with other winemakers about custom crush, making sure sales are on track at the winery, consulting with the tasting room, oh yeah the two tour groups that came through the winery, taste all the fermenting wines, check sugars, get the lab analysis, do the additions that need to be done, and finally clean up all equipment the winery that was abused over the day.
By the end of the day, we've cleaned everything up, talked about tomorrow's chaos, and said goodbye for the night. This is the point I head off to check the two Petite Sirah Vineyards, taste the grapes and take some beautiful sunset pictures in the vineyard. I pull the camera from the car, and realize that the thing is super sticky from this mornings pick. Oh well, I take the pictures anyway. After checking the vineyard, I head off to an account to deliver a case of wine, meet up with the wife, have a glass of wine and some food, and head home.
Hi and welcome to our harvest blog! We’ll be giving you the down and dirty on harvest at Peju. Yes, fall in the Valley is romantic and beautiful with the pleasant smells of grapes wafting through the air, but in our world of wine production, things are not always so glamorous. We’ll take you through the process with us every step of the way, good, bad and ugly – all of the things that make the final product even more rewarding. We have a blast along the way and continue to learn new ways of making the absolute best wines we can from our vineyards. So here we go…
In order to ramp up for a busy three months of picking, fermenting and barreling, we recruit the brightest, best and most fun harvest interns from around the world! Every year we draft talent from foreign countries this year we have a South African, named Arno Smith who hold a degree in Enology and Viticulture from Elsenburg and who has done vintage in Australia and South Africa. He is not only super friendly and smart, but more importantly FUN! Luckily he arrived just in time (with only one small Visa snafu) to help us prep the cellar for harvest and finish bottling our 2007 Napa Valley red wines.
We kicked off harvest on August 21 and have since picked all of the Sauvignon Blanc blocks from our Persephone Vineyard in Pope Valley. All was good on the harvesting end, however, once the fruit got to the winery we had a few issues: Day one, the Bin dumper on the Forklift wasn’t working (hydraulic oil leak), Day two, the hose from the Press going to the tank got clogged, Day three, a fuse on the Press went out, Day four the Transformer on the Press went out – and every day since things have been running smoothly (Yikes, I am afraid as I type this that I just might Jinx things)… On the bright side, we are noticing amazing flavors from the fruit and thus far extremely pleased with what we are seeing this vintage! At this point all the SB has gone to tank, yeast has been added and fermentation is in full gear (btw, our cellar has the most marvelous smell).
We also received 60,000 predatory mites via FedEx this week to release in our organically farmed Rutherford vineyard! Spider mites- beware! The microscopic “good mites” arrive on bean plants that we in turn place throughout the vineyard canopy. The good mites make their new home in the vineyard and prey on all the bad bugs that can hurt the vines. It’s a great alternative to pesticides and chemical sprays.
Next up – Chardonnay and Syrah! We’ll tell you all about it in next week’s adventures…
We brought in our first Chardonnay of the season this morning at Trefethen Family Vineyards in the Oak Knoll District. The vineyard crew began picking the 1.26 acre block of Wente clone Chardonnay in the chilly morning hours. This particular clone has a lot of muscat character and had just reached the point where the berries were singing with flavor!
When the fruit arrived on the crushpad, the Trefethen family joined the crew in celebrating the start of the 2009 Harvest. Nothing like popping the cork on a bottle of sparkling wine at 8:30 in the morning! None for the forklift drivers, of course....
After loading the press with grapes, we headed back out to the vineyard to taste grapes and discuss harvest plans for the rest of the week. We have another Wente clone selection that is nearly ready. This one is called "Hens and Chicks" for its tendency to produce large and small berries on each cluster. We're also looking at some Dijon clone Chardonnay as well as some Pinot Noir for later this week.
Going on his 10th harvest, Kodiak doesn't need to measure the Brix (or sugar) level, he can just smell it!
Delia Viader, who is the owner/winemaker at VIADER (and also my mother) was the one who discovered Kody proudly showing off his fresh catch of the day -- a ripe cluster of Cabernet Sauvignon -- during last year's 2008 harvest.
Half-way up Howell Mountain in Deer Park, our estate fruit is rapidly approaching full maturity. So quickly in fact, that my brother Alan, our vineyard manager and winemaker, had to cut his recent travel plans short and will be returning this Wednesday and expects to start picking first thing Thursday. He and his wife Mariela are currently in Utah representing our private bottling of "Robert Redford Reserve" Cabernet Sauvignon that we bottled specially for Sundance.
Hopefully Alan can get to the grapes before Kody does!
I want to be informative and tell you all about our harvesting, but, we aren't doing it yet!!! The bins are clean and being moved to the vineyards from which I purchase, the equipment is all prepped except for the final cleaning. The generator and forklift are primed and ready. I'm standing around like a 9 1/2 month pregnant woman waiting for the dang delivery....such is the life of a winemaker.
In the meantime, I continue to walk the vineyards, test the fruit, watch the weather, sell wine, hmm... all the things we do to keep busy while the grapes ripen.
I thought I'd share an integral part of my operation - Zoe, the wine dog. She meets and greets, leads folks up to the tasting room, has her own method of checking the grapes (not MY favorite method) and generally keeps me laughing.
To my brethren in this business - busy harvesting Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir - sleep is now allusive, I'll just rest until MY harvest starts!!!!!
I’m sitting in my home office looking out my window at our 5-acre vineyard here on Diamond Mountain (see photo) and I admit I am having a hard time focusing on this harvest report. There is not a cloud to be found in the endless blue sky and the temperature is a perfect 85 degrees out. Did I also mention it is Friday and the start of the long Labor Day weekend? But I promised Joel, the Communications Manager for the Napa Valley Vintners, that I would get this blog done today. I feel like a school kid sitting in class rushing to finish my assignment as I watch the seconds tick by on the clock until the bell rings and the weekend begins.
You may be wondering where this is all going and why I haven’t mentioned harvest much yet. Here at Diamond Terrace we make Cabernet Sauvignon from our Diamond Mountain and Howell Mountain vineyards. Most of the mountain appellations in the Napa Valley harvest several weeks to even a month behind the vineyards on the valley floor. Our fruit has gone through veraison, the technical term for the fruit changing color from green to dark red, but we are far from harvesting. In the past it has not been unusual for the fruit to hang well into October and based on the health of our vine canopy and the mild summer weather we are having (see paragraph 1) it looks like we are headed in that direction again this year.
So with not much to report at this time I think it is safe to say my assignment is completed and I’m off to enjoy the start of a fun Labor Day weekend. The weather here is perfect (again see paragraph 1) so if you don’t live far it’s not to late to jump in the car and come for a visit. Most of the grapes are still on the vine and enjoying the perfect weather as well.
The Napa Valley Vintners is the non-profit trade association responsible for promoting and protecting the Napa Valley appellation as the premier winegrowing region. From seven founding members in 1944, today the association represents more than 450 Napa Valley wineries and collectively is a leader in the world-wide wine industry.
So here I am wandering in the vineyard still looking for something to pick. It’s not much of a harvest Blog unless I can fine some grapes ready to come in. But never fear, we went out tasting again Monday morning and I think we have a winner; some juicy looking Sauv. Blanc grapes that will be ripe and ready come in Thursday morning. My next Blog should have a photo of us actually working, what a relief that will be!
Harvest at the Quintessa estate officially started last Friday when we picked our Illumination Bench block of Sauvignon Blanc from the Quintessa property. 
I feel like the rabbit out of Alice in Wonderland, the one with the pocket watch running up and down yelling “we’re late, we’re late”, because that’s what we are this year. We usually are harvesting Sauvignon Blanc no later than the first of September, but it looks like the 15th this year. No panic, but I am wasting a lot of energy running up and down the mountain and not picking anything. 
I want to be informative and tell you all about our harvesting, but, we aren't doing it yet!!! The bins are clean and being moved to the vineyards from which I purchase, the equipment is all prepped except for the final cleaning. The generator and forklift are primed and ready. I'm standing around like a 9 1/2 month pregnant woman waiting for the dang delivery....such is the life of a winemaker.
I’m sitting in my home office looking out my window at our 5-acre vineyard here on Diamond Mountain (see photo) and I admit I am having a hard time focusing on this harvest report. There is not a cloud to be found in the endless blue sky and the temperature is a perfect 85 degrees out. Did I also mention it is Friday and the start of the long Labor Day weekend? But I promised Joel, the Communications Manager for the Napa Valley Vintners, that I would get this blog done today. I feel like a school kid sitting in class rushing to finish my assignment as I watch the seconds tick by on the clock until the bell rings and the weekend begins. 
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