The Hard Part is Over

Written by Rusty Eddy Friday, 30 October 2009 15:03

News

Clayhouse winemaker David Frick has finished harvest. He reports that he's been on a roller coaster this past month, with rain, frost and potential rot all happening in the span of several days.  Temperatures have been seasonally mild, but the threat of unseasonable early frost at the beginning of the month had winemakers and growers around Paso Robles pushing to get all grapes off of low-lying blocks (where cold air pools).  David said that, in some cases, they had to accept a compromise between proper ripeness and the risk of damage to the crop.

Then, in the middle of the month a rain storm, fueled by tropical moisture leftover from Typhoon Melor, arrived.  Again, they listened to the forecasts and worked hard to bring in the grapes that were ripe and at risk for rot damage (which was essentially everything but Cabernet Sauvignon).

After the deluge, it took two weeks for everything to dry out and for sugars in the grapes to build again. This delayed some picking, but at that point the winery was at capacity anyway, so it was a non-issue.

Finally, a hard frost on October 28 spelled the real end of harvest 2009. David is now finishing up with grading the various lots and barreling down and/or consolidating lots, monitoring malolactic fermentations, as well as scheduling bottling.

Hey, I'd be mixing the martiinis.

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Experience the Central Coast with SAVOR, Sept. 30 – Oct. 3