Harvest! 2008

Fruit quality for 2008 is fantastic! Crop load is down, as it has been just about everywhere, but the fruit flavors and quality is beautiful. With the sun shining down on our mountaintop aerie, we are among the first to harvest in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and this year we started the day before Labor Day, finishing up two weeks later.

This is the first year we harvested from all 12 acres of our Pinot Noir; and the first harvest from our 1 acre Syrah block (we also have about an acre of an as yet unplanted and nursery section, totalling 14 acres altogether). Crop load was affected by the killing frost that hit the entire state in April, as well as high winds during flowering that affected fruit set and caused some cluster shatter. Also, although we drip irrigate, the low winter rainfall undoubtedly contributed to smaller clusters and berry size. The result, though, of these climatic conditions and nature's 'thinning' is what promises to be a stellar vintage. Can't wait!