2008 Vintage in California: Small Harvest

[Jenise]

A California winemaker says in his latest mailer: Overall quality of the grapes is great, but vineyard yields appear to be much lower than anticipated. Our Syrah source, Lani's Vineyard in Shenandoah Valley, produced 40% less grapes this year than last. Why? No one that we've talked to seems to know yet, except perhaps the prolonged dry weather we've had over the past couple of years. We're on track to make about 2000 cases of wine this year but we think you'll be hearing a lot more about the small harvest across California.

I think it's true, everythings picking out light. In some cases frost was the culprit, in some cases shatter, some maybe the drought, and growers being careful not to push the vines too far after a couple dry years. And with the light crop, and the warm weather over the past couple of weeks, it's not only a light harvest, but a fast one, for some of us. I usually think of harvest as at least 6 weeks, and this year, for me, it was 14 days! Last grapes came in Monday.