Winemakers recited several sports metaphors in describing the 2008 harvest in the Pacific Northwest.
They likened the vintage to mounting a fourth-quarter comeback, pulling off a ninth-inning rally or drawing to an inside straight.
Regardless of the analogy, most enjoyed a winning season despite a cool spring and a summer of doubt. And few bothered with trying to put on a poker face.
"We would just be laughing half of the time during harvest because the weather was so remarkable," chuckled Greg Koenig, the winemaking brother at Koenig Distillery and Winery in Idaho's Snake River Valley. "We were really lucky because September and October were sunny and warm. It was the most perfect harvest season ever."
Southern Oregon University climatologist Greg Jones, centerpiece of Wine Press Northwest's Fall 2008 cover story on global climate change, put the early season temperatures into historical perspective during his Nov. 11 conference call with the Oregon Wine Board.
"We started out with a cold, late winter, which continued into a very cool spring with March and April temperatures across the state anywhere from 2 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit below normal," Jones said. "And the vines pretty much responded with bud break dates that ranged anywhere from two to over four weeks later than normal."
Those figures were similar not only for Oregon, but also throughout the Pacific Northwest, he said. And yet, Mother Nature obliged most of the vines in the region, despite the early combination of a colder-than-normal northern Pacific Ocean, La Niña conditions in the tropics and rainfall for the year down 40 percent to 55 percent.
"I think overall it was a vintage when we were faced with potential disaster," Sam Tannahill, winemaker for Oregon giant A to Z Wineworks, told the Oregon Wine Board. "So looking at it now that we're done picking, it's almost one of those vintages where it feels like we were at the bottom of the ninth inning and five runs down and we managed to make it and win the game."
Once the wine goes into the bottle, the majority of Northwest vintners seems to believe the 2008 wines will go down as those with refreshing balance that showcase higher acidity and lower alcohol. That should mean better applications at the dining table and longer lived in the cellar than those birthed in some recent vintages.
Washington
By the sounds of it, Wade Wolfe enjoyed his 31st vintage in Washington. The longtime viticulturalist and award-winning winemaker talked about the harvest while hanging Christmas lights at his Thurston Wolfe Winery in Prosser.
"The ripening dates were 10 to 14 days later than normal, at least compared to recent vintages," said Wolfe, former GM at Hogue Cellars. "We had a few close brushes with frost, but by and large we had good weather through the end of October. The cooler temperatures kind of left the fruit in a refrigerator and allowed people to harvest in a rational manner."
Wolfe, who consults for several vineyards and wineries, devotes much of his time to the Horse Heaven Hills. Petite Sirah from Zephyr Ridge came in a bit later than normal. He concluded harvest Oct. 31 by taking in Lemberger from the upper Yakima Valley.
"From my perspective, we picked at somewhat higher acidities and lower sugars than previous vintages, but they weren't dramatic," he said. "There's been a bit of talk from folks about wanting better balance and lower alcohols, so maybe we will get our wish. And I certainly didn't use very much tartaric acid. From that standpoint, this vintage is similar to 1999, so we should be making wines that are a little bit more elegant than the massive wines for the last few years."
Kate Michaud, head winemaker at Covey Run Winery, pulled in her second vintage for the 200,000-case facility in Zillah. She contracts with more than 30 vineyards throughout the state, and many of them dealt with record-cold temperatures for two weeks early in the growing process.
"I had one grower tell me this was the coldest spring since 1985," she said. "As a young winemaker, this vintage has thrown me some curves. You had to think harder because varieties weren't ripening in the order in which they normally do. You had to adjust to it."
She pointed to her lower brix varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay as examples. Covey Run typically starts to pull them in at 22 brix right after Labor Day.
"This year, we picked our first hot site (in Benton City) at low brix on the 15th of September," Michaud said. "More dramatically, my last Sauvignon Blanc came in on October 2. But I am really pleased with the quality of lower brix whites."
Her Chardonnay lots were about a week tardy. On the other hand, Merlot and Syrah required less hang time than usual, she said.
However, Michaud said some of her peers give late-ripening varieties Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon with a grade of "B," blaming it on the condensed growing season.
"Not every year can be a 4.0," she said.
Casey McClellan of Seven Hills Winery in Walla Walla told the Oregon Wine Board that harvest in his valley did not suffer despite heat units being shaved by about 10 percent.
"Overall, I'm very excited about the wine quality," he said.
Michaud suspected the reduced number of scorching days during August contributed to the balance of the grapes.
"At higher temperatures, over 95 degrees (Fahrenheit), plants will just shut down, which delays ripening," she said. "That usually will happen for a couple of weeks when we get those days in July and August."
Oregon
Grape growers in the Willamette Valley reacted to the cool spring by reducing tonnage, but they still worried about ripening.
"We did not start picking until the first week in October, which is quite late," Tannahill said. "Usually, we're seeing at least something coming in toward mid-September."
A prime example of that is Privé Vineyard in Newberg. The boutique winery within the Chehalem Mountains AVA predicted its case production of Pinot Noir dropped by about 20 percent, but winemaker and co-owner Tina Hammond isn't complaining.
"We had a really perfect summer after we had a very late spring," she said. "We had some rain, and Mother Nature did some thinning for us at that time, and a rather cool summer. The rains came in early and the cool weather came in early, so we thought we'd have a repeat of 2007. We dropped quite a bit of fruit in anticipation of struggling to get ripe, but the rain dried out after a couple of days and we had that beautiful Indian summer."
Harvest of her 2.5-acre vineyard on Oct. 19 was a bit late, but it yielded "incredible flavors and intensity that we've not ever seen before. It's turned out to be a really special year. The brix and the acidity were where we wanted, but the intensity is over the top."
Bob Morus, owner of Phelps Creek Vineyard in Hood River, told the Oregon Wine Board that crops were down 10 percent to 15 percent. The lower yields have some predicting higher prices for many wines, especially Pinot Noir.
The warm harvest of 2008 also will be remembered for a historic cold snap that plagued much of the West Coast on Oct. 9-12.
"A frost/freeze event of this magnitude had never occurred in early October in the majority of these wine regions, including most of Oregon," Jones said. "However, the impact was really highly variable across sites and varieties."
He noted that from 40 percent to 60 percent of Oregon's vintage already had been picked, "with the remainder of the fruit pretty much ready to come into wineries."
In the Umpqua Valley, Dr. Earl Jones of Abacela Vineyards & Winery in Roseburg continued to have fruit harvested through Nov. 10. And he singled out Malbec as a variety that struggled to achieve ripeness.
"Most things tracked pretty normal," he said. "The Malbec was the thing that probably finished our year at the lowest alcohol levels. We didn't have a single fermenter that went over 24 brix."
Fears were high in the Rogue Valley, the Northwest's southern-most appellation.
"We had a pretty bad hand dealt to us early in terms of there wasn't much room for error because everything was running a little bit late," said Gus Janeway of Velocity Cellars in Medford. "So we had to play the high risk and draw three or four cards, but it turned out that we were dealt a fabulous hand to finish off."
Tannahill also predicted greatness for many Oregon wines from the 2008 vintage.
"Looking at it back again, that game happened to be the seventh game of the World Series," he said. "So I think we're sitting on some great wines here and certainly perhaps some of the finest wines that I've seen. If I had to compare it to a vintage, I would look back at a comparison between '99 and 2000. It has the structure of 2000 and the prettiness and the intensity of '99."
British Columbia
In the Okanagan Valley, which is the province's primary growing region, there didn't seem to be quite as much concern heading into September because of the area's reliable Indian summer and the protection provided by Okanagan Lake.
Vineyards were one to two weeks behind schedule at the start of summer, but many caught up soon after veraison - the beginning of ripening.
"The biggest determining factor came down to listening to Mother Nature and thinning your crop in June and July," reported Jay Drysdale, the B.C. Wine Institute's Vintner Quality Alliance liaison. "Those that did pulled in some pretty good grapes; those that didn't had to run the ripening gauntlet, and this season was a little wonky for ripening."
Some areas pulled in Merlot before Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay. Overall, the vintage is believed to be the coolest for heat units since 2000. And yet, the vintage came in well-received.
"Across the board, everybody we talked to has been pretty pleased," said Bob Ferguson, co-winemaker at Kettle Valley Winery on the Naramata Bench near Penticton. "We were pretty confident that things were going to ripen, but there are always some sleepless nights in the fall. Had we not seen some 30-degree Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) days in early September, we would have gone back and done more thinning.
"Historically, we've got to crop low in the Okanagan Valley, and this year was a bit more of a test for people in terms of their crop load. The people who did their fruit thinning kept their tonnage," he added. "We didn't do anything differently."
For example, Merlot came in at 24 to 25 brix, and it was the first variety Kettle Valley harvested on the Naramata Bench in late September. Ironically, Merlot also was the last grape it had picked - which Kettle Valley received in mid-November from the Oliver area near the U.S. border.
"We got some nice acidity and bright fruit flavors across all the varieties," Ferguson said. "The only thing that struggled was the Cabernet Sauvignon."
Ferguson's first commercial harvest at the family operated winery was 1992. He compared the 2008 harvest with that of 1999.
"It was very similar, but this year we had a better fall and a better finish," he said. "The wines are going to be easier to work with because of the acidity, especially some of the aromatic whites such as Riesling and Gewürztraminer. They will maintain their flavors. There will be some very stunning wines from 2008."
And the historic frost event that hammered parts of Oregon did not wreak havoc in Okanagan Valley vineyards, which largely are protected by their proximity to lakes.
"We always count our blessings when it comes to frost," Ferguson said.
Idaho
By Nov. 4, Greg Koenig, who also makes wine for Bitner Vineyards and Williamson Vineyards, had finished picking all but his ice wine grapes. He began just after Labor Day with Pinot Gris and Roussanne.
"This was only the second time that I've ever picked into November," he said. "The first time was 1999, but that fruit never got ripe. This year, we had beautiful weather. Even the Sangiovese finally had enough sugar."
The timing of some varieties didn't line up as usual, but nearly everything caught up.
"I picked some Syrah before Chardonnay, which was about the only strange thing that happened. The Syrah got ripe early, and it was beautiful. The Mourvedre was the one funny wine. It got to 26 brix with high acidity and still had green flavors. Petite Sirah and Petit Verdot always need a long season to get the inky black color and berry aromas and flavors. The seeds don't get crunchy until late in the season and the grapes aren't high in alcohol. I just wish we had more of them."
Such a cool spring reinforces the need to reduce crop level of red varieties early on to hedge against green results.
"We went to 1.2 tons per acre. Usually, it's 2 1/2 tons to the acre, so I barely had any Merlot," Koenig said. "In hindsight, I could have left more tonnage and still gotten the ripeness, but in August I couldn't gamble on September and October.
"It's going to be an expensive Merlot," he said with a chuckle.
Crop thinning is a relatively new concept to Idaho, he said.
"The key to red winemaking in Idaho is that you have to be sure you have low crop levels," Koenig said. "Until the late 1990s, a lot of the growers were growing all the grapes the same. So you had Riesling at 5 to 6 tons per acre the same as Cabernet, Merlot and all the red varieties. They began having success after they cropped Syrah to 3 tons per acre."
The extra hang time is critical for most Bordeaux varieties, he said.
"Here in Idaho, especially with wines like Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, the grapes need longer hang time and need a little higher sugars, otherwise you get green and stick flavors," he said. "I don't think we could make a
13.5 percent alcohol Cab in Idaho worth drinking."
These wines should continue Idaho's recent surge in the marketplace
"We're still shaking our heads at how lucky we got with the weather," Koenig said. "What looked to be a 'down vintage' really turned out great, but the proof is not there until it gets in the bottle."
So the 2008 harvest may well go down as a Fall Classic and will no doubt produce some gold medals in future competitions.
ERIC DEGERMAN is Wine Press Northwest's managing editor.
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