2018 Harvest Report
Nov 06, 2018
Featured wineries: Abbazia di Novacella, Barnett, Bortolomiol, Cabernet Corporation, Chateau d’Angles, Chateau Sainte Marguerite, Domaine de Cala, Dry Creek Vineyard, Dusted Valley, Flora Springs, J Lohr, Lanson, Marques de Vargas, Niven, Paco & Lola, Rossignol-Fevrier, Sake Story, Shannon Ridge and Yarden
As Barnett sits on top of Spring Mountain at 2,000 feet elevation, the fog layer covers the valley floor during the early morning hours of harvest. These were taken by David Tate, winemaker at Barnett Vineyard, while he was harvesting Merlot.
Spencer’s Hill Zinfandel is grown in two small parcels in Dry Creek Vineyard’s iconic estate Endeavour Vineyard in the Lytton Springs area of the Dry Creek Valley. Located at the very top of the vineyard, Spencer’s Hill provides Zinfandel fruit that is concentrated and intense. The small clusters and low yields from this part of the vineyard provide fruit that is rich, ripe and full of expressive berry flavors. Named after winery owners Kim and Don Wallace’s son, Spencer, this outstanding wine is as dynamic as its namesake and expresses Dry Creek Valley terroir at its finest. Photos taken by Lillian Pageot.
Early morning harvest at J. Lohr.
Harvest trucks and first picks of True Myth Chardonnay in Niven’s Paragon Vineyard located 5.4 miles from the Pacific Ocean.
FRANCE: Chateau d’Angles, Rossignol-Fevrier, Chateau Sainte Marguerite, Domaine de Cala
The sorting table at Chateau d’Angles. The 2018 vintage looks like one of the most promising Vianney Fabre and his father Eric has ever seen during the last ten years in the south of France. After a rainy spring, they got the perfect Indian summer with cool nights and sunny days marked by the sea breeze.
The 2018 vintage is shaping up to produce what might be the best wines from Rossignol-Fevrier in the past 40 years. The crop is large and the quality is outstanding, putting smiles on everyone’s faces after several years of small productions.
Dawn to dusk harvest at Chateau Sainte Marguerite.
The team at Domaine de Cala, who worked hard harvesting grapes plump and full of flavor.
ITALY: Abbazia di Novacella, Bortolomiol
Tank time at Abbazia di Novacella! During these days the weather conditions allows the team to think positive: important nocturnal temperature range, beautiful sunny and windy days.
The 2018 vintage will definitely be a year to remember for the folks at Bortolomiol: the weather conditions experienced by the vines over the last few months have allowed slow and perfect ripening of the grapes, which arrived at the winery for vinification with excellent parameters, exceeding all expectations.
SPAIN: Paco & Lola, Marques de Vargas
Paco & Lola’s harvest in Rias Baixas, Spain.
Jorge Peique, Marques de Vargas winemaker of Conde de San Cristóbal, doing quality control check on the estate’s grapes. The winery does all their harvest by hand.
JAPAN: Sake Story Breweries Housui, Nakagawa, Tsukinowa
Farmers from the Housui Sake Brewery in Tokushima, Japan. The brewery is located on majestic Shikoku Island off the southwestern coast of mainland Japan.
Farmers from the Nakagawa Sake Brewery in Tottori, Japan. Mr. Nishio, a local farmer, successfully re-introduced the once extinct heirloom Sake Rice back in to the farms of the Tottori Prefecture.
Tsukinowa Sake Brewery rice fields in Iwate, Japan. This is one of the many small breweries Sake Story works with.
Head winemaker of Golan Heights Winery Victor Schoenfeld likes to think of himself as a conductor of an orchestra who brings together different elements which harmonize into rich, beautiful wines.
New grapes to crush means new bottles to fill. The metal stamped labels at Berton Vineyards in Australia are getting fired up!
MORE HARVEST AROUND THE WORLD
Dusted Valley’s Sconni Block Estate Vineyard grapes.
Shannon Ridge team sporting tie-dye shirts for the first day of crush. They read, “I’m not a player but I crush a lot!”
In February 2018, Flora Springs invited “Trilogy Brand Ambassadors” from Wine Warehouse to prune a few vines and celebrate the Trilogy Release Party. The vines WW pruned were tagged with “WW Row 1, Vine 1.” This cluster finished going through Veraison, you can see some small green “peas” that let the team know the vine still has a ways go to ripen.
Champagne Lanson America team harvesting and having fun in their biodynamic estate vineyard of Verneuil, with Jerome Courgey in charge of the 16ha single vineyard of Domaine de la Malmaison.
Winemaker at Belasco do Baquedano Elizabeth Bordin checking out the vines. “Working with 110 year old vines is a delicate process.”
Harvest at La Playa.
