Farewell Sauvignon Blanc, Hello Chardonnay

Today we crush both Hardscrabble and Avenius Sauvignon Blanc. They were picked meticulously over the last two cool mornings. We are having to treat them with kid gloves as they were very fragile with a fair amount of botrytis rot resulting from last week’s rains. The picking was painfully slow as each cluster was inspected and cleaned of rotten berries. We will be sorting one more time on the sorting table today, making sure that the grapes that fill the press are of good quality. These last four days of perfect ripening conditions will give us wines of very high quality with good intensity.

The Avenius Sauvignon Blanc held up much better than the Hardscrabble. Avenius vines are older (27 years vs. 10 years), the site is on a steeper slope affording better soil and air drainage, and the canopy was more open (French Lyre trellising, no bird netting and better spaced clusters). This wine will be special.

This coming week will be a marathon of harvesting and crushing Chardonnay. We start with Boisseau on Sunday, Avenius on Monday, then Hardscrabble through the rest of the week. Every day we taste riper and more concentrated grapes. They had to lose a lot of the water that was taken up from last week’s rains. It has taken awhile, but these dry sunny days have finally done the job. Let’s hope that the forecast stays accurate and Fiona tracks out to sea.

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Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Journal: September 17, 2022