Last year at this very time we were charging into the fields to pick after having diligently waited through two and a half weeks of straight rain and cool temperatures. Those wines are now resting in bottles or in tanks waiting for the later bottling in November. 2004 was a challenging year in every aspect but, as predicted, the wines are showing great character and definition and promise. We are proud of these wines. Hard to believe that it is already time for the 2005 harvest. This year has been a blessed year for our family. A new Bergström son was born, our great aunt Mathilda who sponsored our father to come to the new world from Sweden turns 100 years old, construction is finishing on our new barrel storage building and tasting room and yes, we have worked hard and patiently in the fields to bring forward another great year of wine to our friends.
2005 is presenting itself very well. After a very dry winter and early spring, we found ourselves in a drought situation with snowlevels in the mountains 200-300% below normal. A very wet March, April and May saturated our soils with replenishing rains and gave the vines plenty of stores to grow healthily through the hot and dry summer months of July and August. Once again we suffered influorescence necrosis (when the grape cluster flowers shrivel up and die instead of bearing fruit) in the Dundee Hills and yields will be much lower than usual. This was a year of tremendous mildew pressure and we had to be much more attentive in the vineyards, often times having to spray sulfur every 5 days instead of the usual 7-10 day interval. As Biodynamic certified farmers, we have to be strict in the vineyards during periods of high mildew/botrytis pressure as we cannot and will not use systemic or synthetic fungicides.
It is now September and we are experiencing lovely cool days with high temperatures in the mid 70’s and cool nights with lows in the mid 40’s to low 50’s. The grapes are beautiful in almost every vineyard we work with. The color is vibrant and the acidity is still very strong and holding. Sugars are reasonable at 20-23 Brix and are very slowly rising. This will be a great year for flavor (if the weather will hold of course!) We will begin to harvest the younger vineyard sites next week and will move into October for the estate vineyards, the older vine Pinot Noirs and the white wines. I hope that you will join us as we document another fun and exciting, hopefully informative, year of making wine at Bergström. We wish all of our friends and associates who make wine around the world our very best this harvest. Stay safe and work hard.
Cheers!