Multi-tasking.

Well, we have finally finished bottling this week’s run of 2008 Cumberland Reserve and Old Stones Chardonnay and we even brought a little bit of fruit into the winery. We have never multi-tasked as well as we have this week. The tasting room was busy as ever, we had to bottle five days in a row and the winery harvested pinot noir and chardonnay from three different vineyards.

The young vine Chardonnay from the winery estate was definitely ready and so it was harvested early in the morning on Tuesday and sorted, pressed and settled. We took the juice to barrel yesterday and are cultivating our native yeast strain for inoculation this weekend.

The young vines from Durant and de Lancellotti are still cold-soaking and we decided to bring in the Ty’s block of the de Lancellotti Vineyard as its ripeness was pushing the envelope and started tasting really good.

The weather is still warm and clear and we officially broke the record for the hottest year in Oregon history on Monday and Tuesday with temperatures back in the upper 90’s. This year has been so strange. Hot and strange.

The fruit in most vineyards is showing extreme signs of dehydration and heat stress. But the flavors are oddly-enough not yet ready. The grapes still need a few days to concentrate flavors in spite of the fact that they appear to be “overly” concentrated already. Acids remain honest and I think that if we get the weather that is forecasted, we are in for some pretty luxurious tasting wines from the 2009 vintage.

Tomorrow we will harvest the Pre du Col Vineyard on the Ribbon Ridge and then we launch into Shea and Bergstrom and de Lancellotti Pinot Noirs this week as well as the second half of our estate Chardonnay harvest. Only 12 tons have been harvested so far and a whopping 250 remain in the fields waiting the right day. I have a feeling it is going to be a very busy couple of weeks.