It was a year of extremes in two Northwest wine-growing regions and a rather normal year for two others.
Washington and British Columbia were on a roller coaster from late bud break to an early frost, while Oregon winemakers enjoyed a normal year and Idaho dodged the frost bullet and was picking Cab as snow began to fall in late October.
Here is a region-by-region look at the Pacific Northwest's 2009 vintage.
Washington
When Washington winemakers look back on 2009, they will likely just shake their heads in awe. It was that kind of year.
After a long, cold winter, bud break was at least two weeks late, and it had everybody nervous.
"It's cool and we're late," said veteran winemaker Charlie Hoppes of Fidelitas Wines on Red Mountain. "We're as late as I can ever remember. We definitely need some warm weather."
That warm weather came. By July 15, Paul Champoux of Champoux Vineyards in the Horse Heaven Hills reported his vines were pretty well caught up, thanks to consistently warm weather in June and the first half of July.
"We're as close to normal as we need to be," he said. "Everything is looking phenomenal."
About 10 days of triple-digit temperatures followed, then the rest of August was about normal, with the entire Columbia Valley experiencing daily highs in the low to mid-90s. Veraison came by the first week of August, which put winemakers on watch for the start of harvest. By the start of September, the grapes actually were nine days ahead of 2008, which was a cool vintage in Washington, and harvest began in earnest right around Labor Day. Reports coming in from throughout Eastern Washington indicated a quality harvest, even though grapes seemed to be earlier than usual.
On Oct. 10, Mother Nature decided to put her foot down. Temperatures dropped as low as 20 degrees in areas of the Yakima and Walla Walla valleys, bringing harvest to an abrupt halt.
"Luckily, most of the vineyards I'm involved in saw it coming and finished harvest by the time it hit," said Norm McKibben, owner of Pepper Bridge Winery in Walla Walla, adding that he could not find a green leaf anywhere in the Walla Walla Valley after Oct. 10.
Wade Wolfe of Thurston Wolfe Winery in Prosser said it was historically cold.
"The most severe (frost) I remember was in 1978 when I first came up here," he said. "On Oct. 20, we had a series of days when the temperatures went into the high teens every night. This one happened on the 10th, so it was pretty early to have that cold of a temperature."
Co Dinn, director of winemaking for Hogue Cellars, called it a once-in-30-years event.
"Fortunately, we had picked 90 percent of our fruit," he said.
Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, which brought in about 90,000 tons of wine grapes this year, was just over halfway through harvest by the time the frost hit. It was able to bring in most of the rest of its grapes in the next 10 days, which meant the fruit came in relatively undamaged, said Doug Gore, vice president of winemaking and viticulture.
Damage was widespread. In addition to the Walla Walla Valley, vineyards in the Yakima Valley were hard hit, as was Red Mountain. Areas on the Wahluke Slope, especially on lower elevations, were toasted, too. The Horse Heaven Hills came through pretty well, however, with damage in some areas but not others.
And Lake Chelan also was hard hit, though most of the grapes were already harvested.
Kate Michaud, winemaker for Covey Run Winery in Sunnyside called it the shortest growing season on record.
"It was a good thing we were two weeks ahead or we would have been in a world of trouble when it froze."
Jarrod Boyle, owner/winemaker of Alexandria Nicole Cellars in Prosser, likes the quality.
"It's light in the vineyard but great in the bin," he said. "The berries are tiny, but the flavors are really intense. The skin-to-juice ratio is lower. And the Merlot is phenomenal this year. I've never tasted Merlot grapes this good."
Oregon
There's reason for optimism in Oregon, where harvest wrapped up during the third week of October in the Willamette Valley. In the warmer Southern Oregon AVA, it continued up to Halloween.
"The barometer needle stayed in the dry zone well into October, with the long growing season enabling full flavor development," Ted Farthing, executive director of the Oregon Wine Board, said in a news release. "Another classic vintage, by a whisker."
However, winemakers' hopes for an Indian summer were dashed soon after the arrival of fall.
Early season forecasts predicted a warm and dry harvest - critical for ripening and picking of the finicky and labor-intensive Pinot Noir. That changed, but the near-ideal growing conditions of July and August gave viticulturists and winemakers enough ripeness to work with.
Greg Jones, Southern Oregon University's world-renowned climatologist, produced data illustrating that despite the early arrival of fall temperatures, 2009 should have produced more ripeness than 2008 did.
Cumulative growing degree day values for the year show Milton-Freewater (3,402), Medford (3,384) and Roseburg (2,985) with increases ranging from 4 to 14 percent over 2008. Those figures are similar to the warm vintages of 2004 and 2006. McMinnville (2,161) came in similar to 2005 and 7 percent warmer than 2008, but it was a shade off of the current seven-year average.
Jones said a weather signature for 2009 was one of high week-to-week temperature variability. It meant wide swings between both record-high and record-low maximum temperatures, but the climatologist said that had little to no effect on fruit quality.
Rains during the Labor Day and Columbus Day weekends were not detrimental, either. Botrytis was relatively low, and according to growers, easily sorted on the crush pad. A final heat spike at harvest dehydrated many clusters, reducing yields and concentrating flavors.
Here is a collection of comments, gathered by the Oregon Wine Board, from some of Oregon's leaders:
Harry Pederson-Nedry of Chehalem: "This vintage is similar to 2002, with good weather during harvest and lots of fruit, therefore satisfying both winemakers and accountants."
Ted Casteel of Bethel Heights Vineyard: "We ended up with that rare combination of excellent quality and quantity." He added, "Here at Bethel Heights Vineyard, we left soft fruit hang for longer than I can remember in 30-plus vintages, and that has to be a good thing."
Sam Tannahill, whose A to Z Wineworks processes more fruit than anyone in the state, said, "The fruit just kept rolling in, and we never had to work all that hard. The wine is pretty forward with rounder tannin. Great color, higher alcohol, better acid and more freshness than 2006, but similar."
In the Columbia Gorge, there seemed to be many reasons for excitement.
"We picked our earliest ever, beginning in the last few days of September," said Bob Morus of Phelps Creek Vineyard in Hood River. "The harvest was relatively compact, with most fruit in by Oct. 10. I see the flavors of 2009 being complex and immensely pleasurable. Expect big, crowd-pleasing wines."
In Southern Oregon, some sites were off by 30 percent, and the crush pads were electric because of the condensed harvest.
"We started 10 days after our expected first pick and were in a picking frenzy," said Earl Jones, founder of Abacela and father of Greg Jones. "The sudden warmth during flowering had accelerated phenology on early, middle and late varieties, such that fruit maturity also occurred at the same time, thus the need to pick everything at once."
British Columbia
Walter Gehringer's first vintage in the Okanagan Valley was 1985, so he's seen a lot of strange things in nearly a quarter-century of grape growing and winemaking. But he's seen nothing as weird as 2009.
"It has been a year of extremes, yet everybody has their crop," said the co-owner and winemaker of Gehringer Brothers Estate Winery in Oliver.
It started with a hard, cold winter that caused enough bud damage to reduce the crop by 20 percent. This was followed by an erratic bud break that started the growing season three weeks late. However, a warm late spring and summer followed, helping the vineyards to catch up within eight weeks.
Then came Oct. 10. Temperatures dropped dramatically, as low as -8 Celsius (18 Fahrenheit), which frosted most vineyards in the valley.
"Everybody in the south got decimated, even above the frost zone," he said. "The next morning, grapes were frozen. And that was the end of the season."
Gehringer said he had everything harvested except for Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and some Riesling.
Roland Kruger of Wild Goose Vineyards in Okanagan Falls said his harvest lasted exactly 30 days, a record in his family's quarter-century of grape growing.
"We've never experienced that," he said.
Left to harvest still is ice wine because temperatures immediately warmed after Oct. 10 and have stayed that way through November.
Despite the compacted nature of the season, Gehringer is reasonably optimistic about quality.
"The wines are tasting good, even though everything matured in a shorter period than ever before," he said. "It's a pretty good vintage."
Idaho
The cool start and hot summer manifested itself a bit differently in Idaho's Snake River Valley.
"We started off the season much like 2008 with bud break 2-3 weeks later than what we've come to think of as normal," reported Gary Cunningham of 3 Horse Ranch Vineyards in Eagle. "With record rainfall in June and August, the threat of powdery mildew and concern over canopy management were real issues, but August and September brought welcomed sunshine for ripening."
On Oct. 9-10, potential damage from the cold episode was mitigated either by the appellation's high elevation or the protective breeze that typically swirls through the valley, noted Moya Schatz, director of the Idaho Grape Growers and Wine Producers Commission.
Ripening temperatures returned as Cabernet Sauvignon and Riesling hit their targeted sugar levels.
"It was a great harvest this year," said Ron Bitner, who first planted his Caldwell vineyard in 1980. "Even though we picked our Cabernet Sauvignon on Oct. 27 with snow in the air, we still hit 26.5 brix with wonderful fruit flavors." e
ERIC DEGERMAN is Wine Press Northwest's managing editor. ANDY PERDUE is editor-in-chief of Wine Press Northwest.
Print
E-Mail
