2019 Harvest Report
Oct 31, 2019
Featured wineries: Abbazia di Novacella, Angels & Cowboys, Barnett Vineyards, Belasco De Baquedano, Berton Vineyards, Bortolomiol, Bruno Paillard, Can Feixes, Cannonball, Château Chauvin, Château de Campuget, Château Lagrange, Domaine de Cristia, Domaine de la Solitude, Domaine Drouhin Oregon, Don Rodolfo, Dry Creek Vineyard, Dusted Valley, Far Niente, Fess Parker Winery, J. Lohr, L’Ecole, La Playa, Lanson, Lava Cap Winery, Maison Joseph Drouhin, Oak Ridge Winery, Paxton, Pedroncelli Winery, Pietra, Quady Winery, Rabble, Roots Run Deep Winery, Silver Oak, Trefethen, Vina Robles and Yarden
CALIFORNIA: Angels & Cowboys, Barnett Vineyards, Cannonball, Dry Creek Vineyard, Far Niente, Fess Parker Winery, J. Lohr, Lava Cap Winery, Oak Ridge Winery, Pedroncelli Winery, Quady Winery, Rabble, Roots Run Deep Winery, Silver Oak, Trefethen and Vina Robles
Angels & Cowboys harvest of Grenache grapes. The grapes are picked by hand and rushed down to be weighed, sorted and crushed.
Barnett Vineyards‘ dedicated “harvest interns” with Pinot Noir from the Tina Marie Vineyard in Green Valley of the Russian River.
Cannonball Merlot from Mendocino County, and Tzabaco Dry Creek Sauvignon Blanc!
Early morning harvest of 2.85 acres of Sauvignon Gris at Dry Creek Vineyard’s historic “DCV3” Vineyard. This vineyard was the first to be planted with Sauvignon Blanc in the Dry Creek Valley in 1972, when the family-owned winery was founded. Clone 917 of Sauvignon Gris provides a steely mineral aroma and rich viscosity to the winery’s Dry Creek Valley Sauvignon Blanc. The use of different clones of Sauvignon Blanc, such as Sauvignon Gris and Sauvignon Musqué, is one of the most impactful elements in achieving the wine’s distinctive flavor profile.
Far Niente‘s “Blessing of the Grapes.” Pictured is the Priest, Beth Nickel (Winery Founder), Dirk Hampson (Chairman, Director of Winemaking Emeritus) and Steve Spadarotto (CEO).
Fess Parker Winery kicked off harvest on Thursday, August 29th by picking Pinot Noir from Sta. Rita Hills. Head Winemaker, Blair Fox is excited about how the vintage is shaping up.
The Cabernet from Home Ranch Vineyard at J. Lohr is almost ready to pick as of the end of September.
Lava Cap Winery | It has been a cooler than average harvest season, leading to slow ripening. Quality and flavors should be great, but it will be a very late year for us. Hopefully we get some warmer temps to push things along. So far, we have harvested only 30 percent of our estate vineyards.
Oak Ridge Winery‘s Director of Winemaking Noel Basso inspecting this year’s crop of Lodi Zinfandel
Pedroncelli | A happy winemaker and her grapes. Montse Reece and team receive the first Merlot of harvest. and team receive the first Merlot of harvest.
Quady Winery in Madera, CA receiving a late night harvest of Black Muscat for their famed Elysium Black Muscat, Red Electra Moscato and new Electra Moscato Rosé.
The Rabble team is excited for this year’s harvest! It’s been a longer start to the season, but we are seeing good acids and great flavor coming out of the vineyards. The photos below show Director of Winemaking Jeremy Leffert looking over Rabble’s Estate Tempranillo harvest, and Associate Winemaker Brianne Chase is digging out Zinfandel.
Roots Run Deep Winery | Winemaker Macario Montoya initiating the “Blessing of the Grapes” as we received our first Pinot Noir grapes from Sagiacomo Vineyards.
Silver Oak | From our vineyard crews to our winemaking and cellar teams, many skilled hands are hard at work behind the scenes at Silver Oak and Twomey.
Trefethen | After a wet spring, the summer weather in Napa was beautiful and the harvest came in with pretty regular timing. The flavors in the young wines are fantastic and we are very excited about the quality of the vintage The big October story this year was the widespread power outage. Thankfully, we had purchased a large generator over the summer so we were able to just keep picking! Every block in our estate vineyards is harvested by hand, by our own long-term employees. When the wine finally makes it into a bottle, there’s a lot of pride in there, as well as great juice. Photographed by Robb McDonough.
Vina Robles | The discussion before the pick–in the dark early morning hours. Picking in the cold is wonderful for the grapes, but not so much for the humans!
FRANCE: Bruno Paillard, Château Chauvin, Château de Campuget, Château Lagrange, Domaine de Cristia, Domaine de la Solitude,Lanson and Maison Joseph Drouhin
Bruno Paillard | We worked in the parcels that had their full normal yield and took good advantage of an additional three to six days of maturation, starting with Pinot Noir in Montagne de Reims, with Verzenay/Verzy as well as some of our Pinot Noir in Cumières and Damery.
Château Chauvin is located to the north-west of Saint-Émilion, half way between Cheval Blanc and the Butte de Rol, close to the Pomerol appellation. Julie Regimbea–Owner of Château Chauvin–tasting grapes for ripeness. is located to the north-west of Saint-Émilion, half way between
Franck-lin Dalle, winemaker of Château de Campuget | Vintage 2019 is a very unique vintage. From a very cold spring to an extremely hot summer and a gorgeous September we have experienced a very unique climate expression full of records. Altogether it gives a great vintage. Berries came to our tank and press machine in such perfect conditions! We have now fresh and aromatic juices. We love the elegant tannins of the red, the fruitiness and freshness of the rosé and the finesse of the white. Sometimes we are lucky!
Hand sorting the Cabernet harvest at Château Lagrange.
Domaine de Cristia | These photos were taken late September, harvesting one of our best plot of Grenache in the sandy area of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation. Harvest is looking great this year in the southern rhône, we had a very dry and hot summer, it spread on almost one month, we are finishing today actually! So this seems to be a very good vintage in terms of quality and quantity.
One of the first harvests for Domaine de la Solitude. This was a “harvest of Grenache on pebbles.”
Lanson Champagne | Some pictures of vineyards, grapes, winemaker Hervé Dantan and people harvesting. This was a great day with people from Lanson to share the love of our terroir and Champagne. 2019 has been a great year, especially for the quality of the grapes. It has been a very hot and dry season which ensures a perfect balance between acidity and fruit. It is too soon to say it but no doubt Vintage 2019 will be great.
Maison Joseph Drouhin Harvest at Beaune Clos des Mouches.
ITALY: Abbazia di Novacella, Bortolomiol and Pietra
Harvest time in the Isarco River Valley for Abbazia di Novacella.
Bortolomiol vineyard workers carefully hand picking grapes.
Pietra | The 2019 harvest began the second week of September. The vintage allowed healthy and well-ripened grapes. The grapes were harvested by hand and transported to the cellar where they are gently de-stemmed and left to macerate for a short period under the careful observation of the winemaker, Marco Mascellani (left photo). The company produces the Pietra wines in the WW portfolio and the vineyard is located in the very bottom of Puglia, the “heel of the boot.”
More wines from around the world!
Hand sorting Belasco’s 113-year-old vine grapes that will go into the Llama Malbec (Argentina).
Bob Berton of Berton Vineyard saving some Aussie critters from his Metal Label Range wines.
2019 harvest at Can Feixes, historic certified organic estate of the Huguet family in Spain’s Penedès region. Finishing harvest with the Cabernet and Merlot. Looks like a classic, healthy vintage!
Véronique, Philippe and Arron have a laugh over an active fermenter at Domaine Drouhin Oregon. Arron have a laugh over an active fermenter
Successful hand-picked basket of grapes ready to be sorted for the Don Rodolfo Malbec. 2019 is going to have a great pop of fruit. (Argentina)
Dusted Valley co-owner and co-winegrower Chad Johnson sampling at Breezy Slope in Walla Walla. (Washington) Dusted Valley co-owner
Hand-picking the La Playa Sauvignon Blanc on the hillside of the Curico Valley, going to be a very fresh vintage with good acidity. (Chile)
L’Ecole Production Winemaker, Mike Sharon, dumping fruit into the destemmer. (Washington)
Freshly picked Paxton NOW (Natural Organic Wine) Shiraz. All certified Organic and Biodynamic! (Australia)
Yarden | The first week of October was the second biggest harvest in the winery’s history! We harvested nine different varieties and finished two of them: Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier. (Israel)
