5:30am (alarm sounding) Do I really have to crawl out of bed and pick grapes for the next 8 hours?
5:45am (still laying in bed) Is it raining outside?
5:46am (jumping out of bed) Oh no, it is raining outside!
5:50am (out the door) I wonder if Starbucks is open yet?
This is how harvest 08 started, rain.... not ideal. We do live 45 minutes away from the vineyard, so there was a good chance that it didn't get hit very hard. Upon arriving at the scene, I realized that thinking optimistically actually paid off. The vineyard did get some rain, but not very much. It was time to get my clippers and head up with the crew.
The morning went by really smoothly- we picked for about 5 hours and brought in 3 bins of Pinot (1.3 tons). It was muddy though. The soil in the vineyard is clay-like, so when it gets wet, it's super sticky and slimy. By the end of the day, my jeans were crusted stiff with dry mud and my boots were absolutely caked.
The grapes looked fantastic. I'm going to geek out here for a minute, so feel free to skip this paragraph. The clusters were tight and consistent. The berries were small and ripe. There was minimal bird damage (thanks to the bird netting system we started using in 2006) and some raccoon damage- but nothing compared to the carnage they left us last year. The brix and ph were where we like to pick at. Overall, a really great looking harvest.
It looks like the Chardonnay will be ready in a week or so and the Syrah still has some time left (we usually pick it in early November). So as far as 2008 being a "light" year- which is what has been reported across the state since harvest commenced, we are right on target and looking strong. Here are a few pictures- you can click here to see the album
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