Willamette Valley Vintage - 2009, Part Two

Well, the weather is cooperating.  Sort of.  We truly don't know what we're going to get.

I know of one winery that began picking pinot noir last Thursday, September 24 from a warm site, and I know of a couple others who began over the weekend.  There are probably more but I'm not in touch with them.  Some folks are picking grapes for white wine.  One of my friends will have brought in around 35 tons by the end of today, but he had a short picking crew this morning.

The weather has been wonderful and warm for the past few days, with highs around 80 over the weekend, but potential disaster looms.  Autumn arrived quite suddenly this morning.  It's 65 or so right now and the forecast is for showers and steady rain on and off for the next ten days beginning tonight.  A little rain shouldn't be too bad because it's been so dry and the grapes in some vineyards have shriveled and dehydrated a bit, but a lot could be a problem.  During the spring and fall, ten-day forecasts are pretty fluid, so everything could change by tomorrow.

If we don't get too much rain, and what we do get is followed by a period of dry weather with relatively warm days - mid-to-high 60s are fine - everything should come together.  Depending on where sugar levels are, some folks will probably pick on the dry days between the rainy ones, but that's dicey because the grapes soak up water when it rains, diluting the sugars and the flavors.  There's also the specter of splitting and rot from the moisture.

Stay tuned, cross your fingers and pray to the weather gods.  There's a lot of fruit still out there.