First Day of Crush

Today we crush and press Hardscrabble Semillon and some Hardscrabble Sauvignon Blanc. The first day of crush brings excitement and angst. As winegrowers, we’ve been prepping for this all growing season with thousands of hours put into the vines and hundreds of decisions made along the way. As winemakers, we’ve spent the last month scrubbing, painting, maintaining and setting up massive pieces of equipment that are only used for six weeks out of the year.

Today the grapes meet the equipment.

To be honest, this first picking will not be our best. Earlier this week we had a series of showers that swelled the grapes. This triggered the onset of some rot. It was felt these grapes would not benefit from remaining on the vine, especially through another rain. Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc are tender and rot prone.

These vines are also young, which can be problematic when dry ground suddenly becomes wet. Their roots are still superficial. Vines need many years to establish a deep root system. A deep root system better regulates soil water uptake. Therefor old vines are not as adversely impacted by soil moisture swings.

We’ll now wait and take the hit of this next rain, hoping that the older vines of Sauvignon Blanc will get through it and then be able to take full advantage of the coming ideal ripening conditions.

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Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Journal: September 10, 2022