Harvest  1999  October 6, 1999

Tuesday we picked our first pinot noir, after bringing in some pinot gris Monday as our first 1999 grapes. These are from our warmer, earlier-ripening sites. The later-ripening grapes from our three estate vineyards will come in over the next two-to-three weeks.

As with the 1993 vintage, which many of us consider to be a vintage of great complexity and finesse, Chehalem did not even have color change on its pinot noir grapes (called veraison in wine nerd jargon) until well into September. (Normally color changes in mid-August.) Our grapes now are fully colored and many fully ripe.

We compacted our harvest slightly by "green harvesting" or "crop thinning" the fruit over the last month, so now the vines have fewer clusters to ripen. Dropping sound fruit on the ground rather than harvesting it can almost bring on a heart attack, but the promise of harvesting high quality, fully ripe fruit before the fall rains makes such "compacting" worthwhile to us and other premium wineries in the valley.

Wish us luck and continued good weather so our first 30 tons of fruit have good company in the cellar!

Harry