The Juice

Early veraison in Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon

Malbec ripening at Robert Hall Winery

Will harvest come early this year for Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux varietals? All indicators point to yes, but by varying degrees. One such indicator is veraison, the moment the grapes begin to ripen. 

For white varietals, the hard green berries begin to turn golden, the flesh softens, sugar levels increase and acid drops. For the red varietals, a similar process happens and the green berries turn to purple. For the average person, and certainly for photographers, viewing veraison is exciting. The individual berries in a cluster change at varying rates — the mix of color in a cluster and across a vine is like a piece of art.

In the vineyard, veraison visually signals development en route to harvest and the completion of another growth cycle. For the winery, veraison is a heart-quickening indicator that the arrival of a new crop and the start of another round of wine to craft is just around the corner. In 2013, Robert Hall Winery harvested the first grapes in the Paso Robles AVA on August 15th when their Sauvignon Blanc came in a week earlier that in past years. All indicators point to an even earlier harvest this year.

“We noticed veraison in our Malbec on July seventh when we were doing cluster counts in the vineyard. That puts us a good seven to 10 days days ahead of last year. Unless the weather cools, it will be an extremely early harvest – as early as the first week in August. That could be a good thing since we will be able to get all the fruit in the winery prior to any rain. With predictions of an El Niño this year a late harvest would cause problems.”

Don Brady, Winemaker
Robert Hall Winery

Brady also indicated that he is anticipating a very good vintage. The fruit set well and clusters size is down. For high-quality red wine, a small berry is a good thing and with grapes ripening early they can be harvested long before any threatening weather arrives. On the flip side it does mean winemaking teams are now scrambling to complete bottling, make room in the cellar and finish all of the pre-harvest activities.

“I’m getting some veraison in my Cabernet Sauvignon before my Merlot. If I had to guess, the Merlot will ripen the second week of September, which is actually very consistent with prior years. The Cabernet, though, won’t ripen before October eighth, which is our early-ripening record. We’ve had this vineyard since 1989, and that was the earliest we ever harvested Cabernet. It has to be pretty ripe before we pick; it might be 24 Brix in September, but we want 27 or 28 Brix. I hope we are a bit early, though, because there’s talk of rain in October.”

Patti Bello, Owner and Winemaker
B & E Vineyard

PRCC Mid-Winter Weather Report

“The current rainfall season, which runs from July to June has yielded scant precipitation in town. There was a trace of rain in October, .27 inches in November, .30 inches on December 3, giving a pre-storm total of .57-inches, according to city records. The Paso Robles Water Divison has recorded an average annual rainfall total of 14.33 inches since 1942.”

 “Paso Robles graced with rainfall,” Scott Brennan, Paso Robles Press, Feb. 3, 2014

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As an organization that represents Cabernet Sauvignon and other Bordeaux-varietal producers in Paso Robles, the weather and its oddities more than interest us – often, they consume us. So just imagine how consuming the Central Coast’s recent warm, dry temperatures have been to us winemakers and vineyard managers!

We asked some of our members about their take on the drought, how it affects their vines and wines, and what they’re doing with the cards Mother Nature has dealt them.

“At Paso de Record Vineyard, we are currently irrigating to build the soil moisture profile and checking for bud swell to time pruning. We like to prune as late as possible to avoid frost damage in the spring but because of the warm temperatures we anticipate having to prune sooner than usual. Due to the dry conditions, we are also discussing how we are going to modify our farming methods for possible lower-than-average yields.”

Tricia Record Swartz, Owner, Record Family Wines

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“Do you think it will ever rain again?

When we started our project after what we thought was many hours of research to insure success, we believed we were moving forward with our eyes wide open.  In the first years we were met with adequate or in some cases more rain than we needed. Those were the times we couldn’t get in the vineyard to work because of our ‘normal’ rainfall.

We were stunned when the rains virtually stopped three years ago believing that this was an anomaly,however the result over the past years, and the current outlook, has caused us to take steps to conserve and protect our precious water supply.  Now we pray for rain regularly.”

Wally Murray, Owner, Bon Niche Cellars

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“The drought will test the water holding capacity of our clay soils; but perhaps provide an opportunity for some remarkable wines.”

Jack Messina, Owner, Jada Vineyards & Winery

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“We are hopeful that it will be a wet spring, we have opened up the ground and prepared the soil in our Estate vineyard to catch every drop of rain we can get. We are using sustainable farming methods including some Biodynaimc farming practices to bring our vineyards back into balance after such a dry couple of years. This year we are spreading organic compost in the vineyard to compensate for any loss of organic matter from cover crops that we might get due to low rainfall.”

David Galzignato, Winemaker, Jada Vineyards & Winery

Harvest 2013 – A Promising Vintage

Despite the frenzied pace of this season, we’ve received early impressions on the 2013 harvest from a few Paso Robles CAB Collective member winemakers, which we’d like to share with our fellow Cabernet and Bordeaux fans.  This is a sneak peak at what Calcareous, Parrish Family Vineyards, Le Vigne Winery and Jada Vineyard are experiencing within each of their unique locations within the Paso Robles AVA.

“The 2013 vintage is a classic example of why Paso Robles is such an exceptional location for growing Bordeaux varietals. Being weather-obsessive as most winemakers are, I knew this was going to be a year for dense Cab.  Dry conditions like this year usually produce small berries which have a concentrated skin-to-juice ratio.  This provides the wine with ample color, fruit and depth.  But these are typically a given when producing Cabernet in Paso.  Nowhere else is the richness and fruit of Cabernet so consistently expressed as in Paso Robles.

In an almost inverse challenge to other regions, the structure elements of acid and tannin are what I’m most concerned with capturing each vintage.Also, the heavy seed tannin concentration is high enough that I won’t need wood tannin from new barrels, so I’ll use less new oak than the pre-harvest plan called for.  With this commitment to producing a wine that needs aging comes another requirement (and here is where the true miracle of the 2013 vintage has shown itself): With each lot of rich, ripe fruit harvested last week, I expected to see the berries sapped of their acidic strength by the warm September sun.  Not the case at all.  The pH and total acidity readings have been incredibly high.  This is an absolute necessity for the creation of age-worthy wines, as without this acidic backbone, these dense ripe wines can be too easily off-balance, flabby, and without real character.

So all in all, at this earliest of stages in the wines’ life, I could not be more enthusiastic about the vintage.  It may not be until 2016 that these wines are ready to taste, but if there is enough patience to let natural aging run its course, this vintage has all the requisite fundamentals for the production of remarkable Bordeaux varietals.”

Jason Joyce, Winemaker, Calcareous Vineyard

“This year is turning out to be fantastic for Paso-area fruit in general, and I think many grape farmers in the area would agree. For us, we have been blessed with both a large, healthy crop-load, and amazing quality as well. Some of the clones that usually seem to struggle somewhat with fruit-set and the development of sugars have shown up in full-force this year with an impressive fruit-set, terrific flavor, and ideal sugar developmentThe berry size is small, with an excellent and ideal skin-to-pulp ratio, which we can already see will beautifully impart its luxurious colors and flavors to this year’s vintage.

The talk of the town this year is the timing of these crops. I believe that most farmers are seeing their crop’s development as being weeks ahead of the last few years, due to good weather early on, and not having to battle much in the way of frost problems around bud-break. Also, with the fruit’s development being ahead of the expected schedule, it means that we will be able to comfortably develop the sugars we need, as well as the flavors we want, before the rainy season hits us. This is an unusual but huge blessing for us and our harvest.

We are very excited and enthusiastic about this year’s crop, and believe it will produce an excellent harvest, and in turn, some very special wine.”

Ethan Ray, Assistant Winemaker/Assistant Vineyard Manager, Parrish Family Vineyards

“An early and warm spring got the growing season off to a quick start. Some cool stretches in the summer allowed varieties like Merlot to coast a bit and be ready for harvest around the same as an average year. However, for us, Cabernet Sauvignon will be coming in around two weeks earlier than normal. Our harvest size should be about average with nicely-sized clusters that should provide nice flavor and concentration.”

 Michael Barreto, Winemaker, Le Vigne Winery

“Jada Vineyard is located in a unique mesoclimate. 2013 is looking to be a perfect vintage for our vineyard site. I wouldn’t label our vineyard as a ‘cool’ site, because of our total degree days, but it does prove to be cooler than others in the area.  This has factored into our 2013 harvest, allowing flavors, color, and tannin to develop at a slower and more even pace.  In late September, we were just starting to pick some of our blocks.

The challenging side of the 2013 vintage is dealing with uniformity issues within each block.  The key to rock star wines in 2013, for our vineyard and location within the AVA, is patience and picking extremely small sections of each block, and only when they are ready. If I were to pick the entire block at the same time, it could jeopardize the wine quality.”

David Galzignato, Winemaker, Jada Vineyard