Pat has been encouraging me to continue my 2010 harvest blog, and since she is downstairs working on her part of the website, I guess giving up part of my Sunday PM to the blog is ok.
Tonight I did my usual walk through the vineyard with Jack (12 years old and mostly deaf, but still the best company there is on a vineyard walk) and felt especially blessed. The leaves are yellowing in the cluster zone on schedule. Fungal disease is under control. The crop is small and ripening fast. Flavors are moving from green to blue fruits and are gaining in intensity. The weather forecasts are very positive for the first half of October. (The Climate Prediction Center just changed the long lead forecast to reflect this new view). Jack is healthy and hungry. We have a potentially great vintage in the making, in spite of a very cool spring and early summer.
The coolest vintages often, in my 30 years of experience, yield our finest wines if they have a strong finish, with cool and dry conditions. I was interviewed by the press three time in the past couple of weeks, before the weather forecasts took an upturn. They wanted me to talk about how worried I was supposed to be about the gloomy weather and the prospect of a “very challenging outcome.” (For example, watch this Channel 2 news report from Sept. 21). But the latest from Bethel Heights is that another outstanding vintage may very well be at hand!
Ted Casteel
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