Thursday, November 8, 2012

Final report on PacNW's 2012 vintage weather

Portland, Oregon saw 2625 Growing Degree Days this year, which is quite a bit above average. The Fall was long and mostly dry; it allowed the luxury of picking on flavors. We had a record-dry July-Sept quarter. Some unirrigated grapes at harvest were shriveled from lack of soil moisture, which can lead to high alcohol wines. But overall, a very good vintage and I expect many high-quality wines.

My higher vineyard saw fewer GDD's, probably around 2300 (because Hillsboro saw 2025, and we lie between the 'boro and Portland's West Hills weather station). But that was enough to ripen many tomatoes with great flavor, and even some peppers got ripe this year. Funny--in Houston we had ripe tomatoes by May! and in Portland we're lucky to get them in August.




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