Weather  
Today

Mostly Sunny, Dry & Breezy

Mother Nature, through her soothsayers the weather forecasters, played with us a little, chuckled and then seems to be giving us what we want.

After a forecast certain rain tonight/tomorrow of 1/4 inch, followed within a day by three days of 1/2 inch each, we were scurrying to get almost ripe fruit picked by Friday. Monday's forecast, validated by two subsequent forecasts, call for a possible spurt tomorrow of .05-.16, followed by perfect late harvest weather for the next week of hi 60s-low 70s, sunny and dry. Total rain since picking began is 0.78 inches.

Harvest to-date:
Total: 128 tons
(50% of forecast)

Pinot noir: 70 tons
(50% of forecast)
Pinot gris: 28 tons
(58% of forecast)
Chardonnay: 27 tons
(54% of forecast)
Riesling: 2.4 tons
(35% of forecast)

Michael Sampling Corral Creek Pinot for Flavors

Hold The Phone, Late Breaking News!

	Ridgecrest 5-Acre Block Pinot noir
	Pinot Gris Almost Ripe at Ridgecrest

We can let it all hang out to achieve perfect flavors! Last time we spoke we were beginning a forced march to get all top blocks in. Just in time, the forecast changed and we're seeing, with the exception of some cool and "possibly" damp weather tomorrow (0.16 inch max), perfect dry, sunny and low 70s ripening weather. With Ridgecrest almost ripe this is a perfect dry and slow ramp up of flavors. It could take a rushed pick very good quality from that vineyard and make it close to perfect! Plus, it may be superior with adequate volumes, which years like 1994, 1998 and 1999 did not have from there.

As of today, we have now picked all Pinot noir from Stoller Vineyards and all but one major pick of Corral Creek Pinot noir. We have harvested 128 tons of a projected 254 tons set for Chehalem use (more realistically, seeing estimate accuracy to-date, it may be nearer 267 tons). Ridgecrest will begin to arrive Monday, October 14th.

We have already pressed-off two of our earliest Pinot noir fermentations and have barreled them down. We will now be easily relieving tanks of their ferments in time to receive a second load, unthinkable three days ago and, at the time, forcing potential compromises.

	Riesling Early-picked Fruit from Stoller

We are per normal pushing the envelope in several areas: we have just brought-in the final half of an early-late picked Dijon 76 Chardonnay comparison, attempting to gain greater control over structure level in chardonnay; we have brought in yesterday our first Riesling from Stoller Vineyards, from grafted Pinot blanc vines, again in a bracketing experiment, half brought early and the second half hanging for another 2-3 weeks; we will be trying new fermentation combinations in upcoming ferments of Pinot noir. We will talk later about a joint effort with OSU and an instrument manufacturer.

Regards,

Harry