Vintages
A long beautiful season of abundant hangtime and phenomenal phenolic development”. In February we had rains, followed by lots of cloudy/mildly sunny days in spring and early summer. During bud break and flowering occurred a bit later Han usual but under the perfect conditions, which led to a bountiful fruit set. During the summer months we saw generous sun during the day and cooler marine influences in the evenings with very few major heat spikes. The mild summer followed by extended fall sunshine and moderate heat created near-ideal conditions for the grapes to accumulate an abundance of flavor complexity.
The beginning of the 2019 growing season was defined by lots of rainfall creating soil moisture that allowed us to skip early season irrigation. We had a warm summer that saw very few extreme heat spikes and beautiful foggy mornings, this set the stage for massively expressive wines. The remainder of the growing season was long and mild finish which helped to preserve freshness and finesse in the fruit. A fantastic long hang time growing season produced great color, structure and soft tannins. An exceptional vintage making wine with big fruit character with bright acidity and tons of layers of texture and complexity.
The 2020 growing season will be remembered for the Glass Fire that ravaged our lands. It was a warm and very dry winter. We didn't start to see rain and cold weather until the end of March. A gentle spring start to the season gave us a wonderful optimism to the growing season. The Summer had almost daily, very cool mornings and very warm days, leading back into very cool evenings, which is perfect for the grapes evolution. The Glass Fire started on September 27. We were fortunate to have piked many over our vineyards prior to this tragic event. We made the call to “ride it out” on our last two vineyard blocks. Expecting the worst, but praying for a miracle. After the fires we re assessed our two blocks remaining, with an insane amount of testing and trials, determined that they had not only survived but had made it trough without smoke taint issues. He continued the harvest in late October and had a wait and see approach. Post fermentations the wines had beautiful complexity and remind s daily that after the storm comes a rainbow.
The white wine harvest started in early August, the wines are showing excellent development in cellars, reflecting the fine vintage year. While the red wine harvest will be smaller than usual, most wineries were able to move forward with red wine vinification.
While the 2020 Napa Valley harvest proved to be one of the most challenging in history, our winemakers remain not only optimistic but committed to bottling wines of the highest quality. The story of this vintage will continue to unfold over the years to come.
The 2021 vintage will be remembered for its small berries and clusters resulting in intensely-flavored, smooth and great tannin structured wines. The season started off with very little rain which had become a unwelcome tread over the last few years. The Spring and summer were fairly uneventful with our trademark cool mornings, warm afternoons and cool evenings. Harvest began slightly earlier that a typical vintage for us. Insanely small berries and clusters and a smaller than normal yield per vine, resulted grapes jam packed full of flavor. The vineyards produced fruit of amazing quality, resulting in a stellar vintage that will be admired for a couple of decades to come.
