Thursday, September 2, 2010

Rain rain stay away


2010 is a tricky year for grapes hereabouts. First they got a late start due to a long winter. Spring was cool and record-wet. Then, flowering was late. Then, after a very hot 2009 summer in the Pac Northwest, 2010 gave us only a few hot days, and way too many cool cloudy days. I think July set a record for lowest average high temps. My nearest weather station calculates that my Growing Degree Days to date (a measure of sunlight hours) is fully 24% behind where we were, this time last year. That is very bad. Veraison (color change) is about 2-3 weeks late, and has just begun, at my 490' elevation site.
All this means that we are running a risk of a sub-par year, or even a disastrous, no-crop year. If the persistent rains come early, then it could wipe out the Willamette Valley's Pinot noir crop.
However, Dick Shea told me this week that persistent Fall rains, starting in the last week of September, occur in NW Oregon only about 20% of the time. If that happens this year, we could have a grape disaster on our hands. The rest of the time, the Rains come in either the first week of October (in which case some PN makers could make a good wine) or the second week of October, or even later (in which case many PN makers should make very good wines, and some should make great wines, in a spectactular triumph of recovery from all odds).
And, in the silver linings dept, even if we have a grape disaster, the winemakers who survive it might benefit from the marked reduction in wine inventories which would ensue, if there simply was no 2010 wine to be had.
Last comment: It is SUCH a shame, but all that winter and spring moisture gave the vines a supercharging. I've had to hedge (trim) them way more often than normal. Their growth is rampant, and they confidently threw out far more than the usual number of grape clusters. But, as the end of the growing season approached with the grapes so far behind, we all had to drop fruit like crazy, in order to try to get some of it ripe. Such a shame. A high yield of fruit, with high quality, is a bifecta which only rarely happens, in this marginal growing environment. These are some of the reasons why Pinot noir is "the heartbreak grape." Stay tuned . . .

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