HARVEST REPORTS

#WVHARVEST2024

 

2024 HARVEST REPORTS


#WVHARVEST2024

Follow the latest harvest tag on Instagram.
Browse reports from previous vintages below.

Kate Payne Brown - Winemaker, Ambar Estate

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2024

We are excited to release three new Ambar Estate wines in October: the 2022 Dundee Hills Chardonnay, 2022 Sacra Terra Pinot Noir, and 2022 Lustral Chardonnay. While we’re still busy in the cellar, I wanted to take a moment to sit down, rest my feet, and express my gratitude for what has been a beautiful and memorable vintage. This marks my 21st harvest and my 4th with Ambar Estate, and I can confidently say I’ve seen the full range of what Oregon’s seasons can offer. But this year, Mother Nature has been the perfect co-conspirator.

The 2024 growing season brought us a cooler summer, allowing the fruit to ripen slowly and evenly, preserving the fresh acidity that defines our wines. This led to a slightly later harvest than usual, starting with our sparkling program on September 6th. The moderate weather continued into early fall, providing an ideal window for our Chardonnay a couple of weeks later, and then Pinot Noir about a week after that. The combination of daytime warmth and cooler nights is exactly what makes the Willamette Valley such a renowned wine region, and this vintage is the quintessential expression of classic Oregon.

We wrapped up the harvest on September 26th, bringing in the last clusters from the vineyard. With each stage, we watched the fruit develop remarkable complexity and elegance. The cooler evenings maintained vibrant acidity, while the long, steady ripening period gave the grapes deep, expressive flavors and refined tannins.

Now, as our attention turns to winery operations, I’m thrilled by what I’m seeing in the cellar. The sparkling base wine has finished fermentation and has been tucked away until we start preparing for tirage bottling. Our Chardonnays are continuing to ferment both in barrel and in our concrete cube, and our Pinot Noirs are just starting to kick off fermentation. The winery is alive with buzzing forklifts, heady fermentative aromas, and a harvest playlist that keeps us moving. These are the harvests we dream about and the ones we will continue to talk about for years to come!

KATE PAYNE BROWN, Winemaker
Ambar Estate


 

James Cahill, Winemaker at North Valley Vineyards

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2024

When the vines flower in June, we expect that it will take about 100 days to ripen Pinot Noir and thus we can forecast a harvest period. This year we were pretty certain we would be busy picking grapes the week of 23rd September and this appears to be likely. 

We will begin harvest with Chardonnay and a little Pinot Noir for Rosé. Chardonnay will come from Gran Moraine and our Aegrina Estate, Pinot Noir for Rosé also from Aegrina. Among our Pinot Noir vineyards, we will likely start in the Dundee Hills (Thoma), then Yamhill Carlton, Aegrina (Mac), Xomni (E-A) and likely finish at the North Valley Estate (YC). 

Thus far, 2024 has been a fine growing season with a modest crop load and moderate August temps. A couple of 100F degree days last week escalated grape sugars, which we can already see “recalibrating”. The weather forecast has my attention. We will see measurable precipitation during this evening and into tomorrow. That’s fine. But it looks like more rain may be on the way early next week. This scenario is not bleak, could be better. My apprehension builds if we start looking at cycle of rain events like these. Hence, we watch the weather. 

Stay tuned. 

In the coming days, after the rain and some time to dry out, we will begin rigorous sampling of grapes from all vineyards. With data and the experience of tasting the fruit we will refine our harvest decisions. 

The goal is to achieve meaningful ripeness without things getting too sweet; we want to avoid "over ripeness" as much as "under ripeness". This requires patience... and faith.

JAMES CAHILL, Winemaker
North Valley Vineyards / La Biblioteca
26th Harvest in the Willamette Valley


 

 

#WVHARVEST2023

Durant Vineyards | Dundee Hills AVA

Picking Pinot noir

Paul Durant & Spencer Spetnagle

 
 
 

2023 HARVEST REPORTS


#WVHARVEST2023

Follow the latest harvest tag on Instagram.
Browse reports from previous vintages below.

2023 Harvest Outlook from Elk Cove on Vimeo.

“The decision about when to harvest these grapes is by far the most important decision I make as a winemaker every year. And to get out there and to stomp around the vineyards, to do your own sampling, to taste the grapes on the vine, to look at the canopy, to look at the health, you can really start to gain a picture for what you might choose to do in the winery in terms of extraction and the amount of time it’s gonna spend in a tank what barrels it’s gonna go into. Everything we see and taste in the vineyard reflects on what we do in the winery.”

ADAM CAMPBELL
Owner/Winemaker, Elk Cove Vineyards


 

 

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