August Newsletter

Harvest Update from our Winemaker, Adam Lee

Harvest is just around the corner and it looks like it is coming on pretty quickly.  In the past few days, I’ve been out in vineyards in Sonoma County, the Santa Lucia Highlands, and the Sta. Rita Hills and I am guessing we are about 2-3 weeks away from our first pick.  These are the days that we follow the weather particularly closely as a cool down or a heat spike can change harvest timing dramatically.  Thus far the quality of the fruit looks exceptional and the quantity looks --- well, it looks normal.  I realize that doesn’t sound particularly exciting, but for those of us in the winery it is truly thrilling.  It has been so long since we had a “normal” sized harvest that it is difficult to remember the last one.  Recently normal has only been achieved by taking a vintage (such as 2014’s huge crop) and adding in another vintage (such as 2015’s minuscule crop) and averaging them out. But 2016 looks like the rarest of the rare – an average-sized harvest.  We can’t wait!

Cheers,