Journal | September 9, 2023
Drought ended (for the time being)
Last night we had two and a half inches of terrifying rain in a couple of hours. Terrifying because these severe storms included a small dose of hail. Fortunately in scouting the vineyard today, I could only find a handful of split berries. The only thing we lost was sleep. The rain came so hard that much of it couldn’t percolate into the soil. Perhaps it was just enough to refresh the vines, but not pump up the berries. The vines look happier than yesterday, and the grapes still taste very sweet and intense. So we’ll call it a good rain.
Monday starts the big pick of Hardscrabble Chardonnay. Grapes from the younger vines (8 to 14 years old) may be a bit overripe. The old vines (30 to 39 years old) are still slightly underripe, but they could be ready by the end of the week. Even if they aren’t at full ripeness, we may still pick them knowing that the resulting wine would contribute freshness and lower alcohol when blended with the wine from younger vines. That decision will be made on Thursday.
This is a vintage unlike any other. It requires decision-making outside our comfort zone. I can’t wait to taste the wines.
Less than 100 meters away is a block of very healthy and happy Cabernet Franc vines positioned to produce some truly great red wine. They are fifteen years old and on deeper, more water retentive soils. Fortunately most of our vineyards look like this.
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Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Journal/Field Notes: September 9, 2023