While European vineyards are way behind last year’s early vintage pattern, West Coast vineyards look set to produce a vintage that is exceptionally early – about three weeks ahead on average.
Kendall Jackson report that they picked their first grapes, Sauvignon Blanc for their Lakeport winery in Lake County just east of Mendocino, on 26 jul, and expect to have even their latest-ripening vineyards fully picked by mid October.
Domaine Serene in Oregon also report a grape harvest expected to be very early and rather small, chiefly thanks to a particularly dry growing season. Oregon vintners will presumably have their work cut out to keep some finesse in their drought-reduced Pinots. A high skin to juice ratio is a good thing for flavour but too high a ratio can result in some unusually chunky wines.
Crop levels in California are also expected to be rather lower than average, which may ease the grape glut in a state where official plantings have increased by 40 per cent in the last 10 years. Even the Wine Institute admits that there are probably at least 75,000 unreported acres of vineyard, bringing the state’s total in 2002 (the most recent year for which statistics have been compiled) to 556,000 acres, of which a good 12 per cent are not yet bearing fruit.
Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Syrah have been particularly popular in these new vineyards, and the total acreage given over to a colouring grape we never see cited on a label, Rubired, doubled between 1992 and 2002 to make it the state’s sixth most planted dark-skinned grape (and by a mile the most planted dark-fleshed grape in the Americas).
Of course Nature may play a few tricks along the way, but West Coast 2004 with its exceptionally hot, dry weather looks set to follow the pattern of Europe’s 2003, when vintners had to cancel their holidays and set to work on some truly unusual grapes.