2018 Harvest Report | By Christian Palmaz

It’s a bit strange to celebrate a harvest partially because you made it to the end without a natural disaster.  Following a challenging 2017, the 2018 vintage has given us much to be thankful.  Besides an excellent long growing season and moderate temperatures, 2018 has been the season of slow development — dare I say, a return to a normal pace.  Harvest began exactly 8 days later than last year.  Beginning with lower elevation whites, parcels came in with a predictable order and cadence.

On Oct 2nd, nature reminded us that she is still in control.  An under forecasted rain event formed over the bay area and dumped a notable .27″ of rain inside 12 hours.  However, sun returned the next day along with a steady breeze to band-aid the situation nicely.  It was a nice proof of concept to our new state of the art de-stemming and sorting system which handled the rain softened fruit perfectly.

Slightly above average cluster weight is an additional headline of the 2018 vintage.  Some vineyards yielded almost 10% more weight despite a rather aggressive fruit drop program implemented by Tina this year to enhance intensity.  This was a welcomed surprise given the current released vintage’s (2015) below average production.  Don’t let marketing know but I’m confident we won’t be shorting allocation holders from the 2018 vintage.

We can confidently say 2018 is on it’s way to making a great wine.  If I had to compare it, I’d say it feels like a cross between 2013 and 2008 vintages.  I’m excited to see how this one develops.  Cheers!