LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Winegrape growers in Lake County are celebrating a successful 2011 harvest, although they got off to a late start.
With spring rains and cool weather lasting into June of this year, “We got a late start like the rest of the North Coast,” said Peter Molnar, chair of the Lake County Winegrape Commission and general manager of Obsidian Ridge Vineyard. “So we knew we’d need a good fall, and we sure got it.”
After that delayed start, Lake County growers, along with the rest of the growers in the North Coast American Viticultural Area – which in addition to Lake includes Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Sonoma, and Solano counties – scrambled to finish the harvest.
Grower Nellie Dorn of Loasa Vineyards wrote on her Facebook page on Oct. 31 that she was still picking Barbera, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Semillon and late harvest Sauvignon Blanc, “… and tomorrow is November! Latest harvest ever.”
Still, county growers are confident this year will be an outstanding vintage for Lake County wines.
Unlike neighboring growing regions where some vineyards resorted to hiring helicopters to hover above vineyards in the hopes of drying out the grapes and preventing molds after the early October rains, Lake County's higher elevations and abundant sunshine, “are situated above and beyond the deep and the persistent marine layer of this summer and thus enjoyed favorable ripening weather,” according to the Lake County Winegrape Commission.
“After two drenching North Coast rains in early October, the low humidity at higher elevations and the well-drained mountain soils ensured clean ripe fruit relatively free of bunch rot,” the commission said in a harvest report.
White winegrape varietals, which are harvested sooner than reds, ran into more challenges if harvest wasn't completed before the early fall rains.
“This must be the harvest from hell,” Devoto Vineyards reported on Facebook on Oct. 15, when harvest of Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Viognier was under way soon after the early October rains.
Devoto Vineyards followed up with an Oct. 26 post that reported, “All white grapes except Aligoté picked. Merlot underway and Cabernet Sauvignon scheduled for next week. Frost last night touched the leaves but grapes still OK.”
Dorn wrote in a Nov. 2 Facebook post that she was going to make a special late harvest Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blend in order to get higher sugar levels, and that some grapes were having to be left behind due to lack of ripeness.
Other growers of white varietals had an easier time, according to the winegrape commission.
Greg Hanson of Kelseyville said that while getting the brix – or sugar – levels up “was a challenge,” all in all it was a good year, and yields, including for his Sauvignon Blanc, were good.
“It was a solid year compared to average,” he said.
Although whites were a challenge, red varietals had unseasonably warm and dry weather throughout the remainder of October to finish ripening after the rains.
The Lake County Winery Association called Lake County’s 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon fruit “incredible” and said this year’s vintage should be “outstanding.”
The group reported that Lake County's unique growing conditions – including lack of fog, abundant sunshine and gentle afternoon breezes – have resulted “in thick skinned grapes that are full of flavor and resistant to the mildew and rot experienced by other wine regions following the rainy and damp weather conditions Mother Nature thrust upon grape growers a few weeks back.”
“We’re just harvesting the last of our Cabernet Sauvignon in early November and it’s some of the prettiest fruit we’ve pulled off this site,” said Molnar about his Obsidian Ridge Vineyard, located in the Red Hills AVA, where there were at least 75 days of temperatures between 85 and 92 degrees, allowing the grapes to achieve “ideal ripening.”
In another area of the Red Hills, winemaker and winery owner Gregory Graham said on Facebook on Oct. 28, “Today we're crushing the estate Cabernet Sauvignon, and it's looking great!”
Six Sigma Ranch, Vineyard and Winery's winemaker Matt Hughes tweeted on Nov. 4, “Vintage 2011 Syrah is just straight-up sexy!”
“The weather did cause some problems for us in terms of achieving optimal ripening,” said Megan Hoberg of Wildhurst Vineyards. “Luckily, we have an excellent winemaker that’s going to produce the best wine possible! The clouds, rain and colder temps are factors that everyone in CA had to deal with though and we’re probably better off than our neighbors in Napa and Sonoma because we didn’t have to deal with coastal fog and our temperatures do get a bit higher.”
These consistent conditions in Lake County – abundant sunshine, above-average temperatures, and low-humidity – allowed most growers to weather the storm and hold off harvesting early in an attempt to avoid problems, the winegrape commission reported.
Another grower in the Red Hills AVA, Beckstoffer Vineyard Manager Randy Krag, said, “There is no rot happening here and the warmth we got later in the season was very good.”
“Our altitude is an advantage for us,” added Nick Buttitta, winegrape grower, owner, and winemaker for Rosa d’Oro in Kelseyville. “We are harvesting late but we knew that early on. We do have some bunch-rot on the tighter varietals, but we fared much better than we feared we might. Everything seems to be under control.
He added, “We’re pretty close to where we want to be. It’s a reflection on our soil and climate. Things dry out faster, our soil drains faster.”
His son, Pietro Buttitta, wrote on the Rosa d'Oro Vineyard blog on Oct. 30, “It is particularly painful because pre-rain Lake County had the highest potential for a Grand Vintage I had ever seen (in my few years here) with more moderate heat and high humidity, no frost damage, early start and typical low pest pressure other than mildew and some early unusual botrytis.”
He continued, “If you were up on your mildew control it was looking like a beautifully structured old-world inflected possibility. Many of us never even touched water until Mid-August. Unfortunately limited labor is affecting this vintage just as much as the weather.”
Labor in the vineyards also was an issue for other growers, including Snows Lake, where the harvest was less than 50 percent complete on Oct. 26 but finished on Nov. 3.
“We've had the most challenging year,” said Bonnie Sears, administrative manager at Snows Lake.
Late rains, coupled with labor shortages and inexperienced labor, made the going tougher, she said.
In general, most Lake County growers seemed to be pleased with this year’s harvest, according to the Lake County Winery Association.
“The year was not without its challenges” said Krag. “But we’ve harvested a high-quality crop and, as always in Lake County, it comes at a great value for our clients” – who include the Lake County wine consumer.
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