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Napa Valley predicts exceptional vintage

Published:  20 October, 2010

Napa Valley winegrowers are predicting exceptional wines from this year's harvest, despite challenging growing conditions from the cooler than average temperatures.

Napa Valley winegrowers are predicting exceptional wines from this year's harvest, despite challenging growing conditions from the cooler than average temperatures.

Rainfall returned after three dry years, and pushed bud break, flowering and fruit-set back by at least two weeks.

"We are in the final days of harvest for 2010 and every winemaker I've talked with is thrilled at what they are tasting in the initial stages, all across the board," said Napa Valley Vintners Board President Bruce Cakebread of Cakebread Cellars.

The summer brought cooler than normal temperatures, meaning that rigorous canopy management was required to avoid mildew or pest problems. A late heatwave casued some sunburn damage to grapes.

"This (heat spike) was not the end of hope, it just meant a lot more work for the vineyard crew. When it came time to pick Sauvignon Blanc (21 days later than past years) the crew had to first make a passthrough the vineyard and remove all the sunburned or shrivelled grapes. They then went back through to pick the rest of the clusters that were ripe, and if there were a few sunburned grapes left on the cluster, the picking crews removed those grapes carefully before throwing them in the picking bins. This is a textbook case of what we call "precision farming" ? it can be very time consuming and expensive, but the results are worth all of the extra effort," said winemaker Brian Brown of Round Pond Estate.

Jac Cole, winemaker at Spring Mountain Vineyard reported: "Even though this is a later than normal year, we're already getting some great flavors in our Cabs and Merlots and I've got a good feeling we'll be getting the lion's share of the reds in before the end of October. Even though we're hovering in the high 23° Brix realm with the Cabs, the flavors are bright and fruity and there is little to no green herbal notes, which is terrific. This could be much like the 2005 vintage, with great flavors and depth and very moderate alcohols, just ripe, balanced, and beautiful wines."

Final yields will be tallied in the annual crop report published in spring 2011.

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