Past Vintages - South Willamette Valley
As I sit here on a Sunday in what has been certainly the mildest February on record, I've been thinking about past vintages and what impact weather has had here in the Eugene area. I decided to go over the vintages that I've been a part of as a winemaker and how they've impacted the grapes we grow including Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, and Riesling.
2006 - Great all the way around
My first crush working under our old wine maker Andy Gribscov. This vintage brought us a hot, long summer with a huge fruit set. Also dubbed year of the yellow jackets, as we had a long warm fall that when mixed with abundant sugary fruit kept the yellow jackets active all the way through harvest. Pinot Noir from this vintage is still tasting great. The only problems occuring with Pinot Noir from this vintage were the growers who didn't properly adjust their crop load. Pinot Noir looses a lot of flavor (varietal character) when there is much more than 2.5 to 3 tons cropped per acre. 2006 Riesling was also the best year I can remember with maybe 2014 as an exception. Riesling on our site turns out best during longer, warmer vintages.
2007 - Plentiful start, Painful finish
We had everything we could've asked for through 90% of this season. An early bud break, no late Spring frosts, and a nice, warm and dry summer. Then came September. In this growing region, we typically start thinking about picking in September up against the fall rain patterns. If it looks like it's going to rain for a day or two and then revert to a dry period of 5-7 days winemakers will typically decide to let the fruit hang. In 2007 most of us thought we'd reach a 5-7 day dry period when the rains came in the first week of September. It never happened. And in Oregon when the rain comes, the fruit fills with water, the birds come and start eating, and the botritus mildew sets in fast. Most Oregon wineries brought in water logged fruit that lacked in varying degrees of flavor, color, and structure. The vintage itself was really tainted by the media as the Pinots produced ended up tasting very good after some cellaring. Rieslings were a tough sell from 2007 as well due to quality and also following up a stellar 2006 vintage.
2008 - Year of the Pinots
This vintage wasn't a home run for growers, as there were some pollination issues with rain during flowering. We also had a cold, late bud break in late April followed by some early summer rains. The summer was long and generally dry, but not terribly warm. A long, warm summer, but not hot, sets the stage for some great Pinot Noir. The combination of a long, dry September and October with smaller fruit set created a fantastic situation for us to make some great Pinots!
2009 - The Roller Coaster
Year of the weather roller coaster, we had another late bud break followed by a summer for the record books. I recall three separate 100 degree plus three day periods during the summer with some longer, cooler periods with some unexpected rain here and there. I specifically remember that it rained for 24 hours straight on July 12th which is unheard of in this area. You can typically count on dry weather from July 4th through August 31st. The hot bursts tanned the grape skins and burned a few! This resulted in Pinot Noirs with hot, jammy fruit flavors much like the Pinots made down in California.
2010 - Short, Cold, Rainy.
I can't think of anything else when I think of this vintage. Oh wait, yes botritus! Botritus is a mildew that forms on the inside of the cluster, and if there are too many cold and rainy days in the growing season the mildew cannot be suppressed and will express itself through the cluster as a gray and/or black mold that turns the fruit to mush. It can also over-winter and cause damage to future year's crops. I must've lost 20-30% of my Riesling crop just to this mildew. This also marked the third year in a row with a late bud break.
2011 - Long and Cold, but not Wet
This vintage proved to be one for the record books. With the latest bud break in recent years over a month late, lots of growers decided to cut their primary buds mostly off all together figuring that there'd be no way to ripen much fruit in a super short growing season. For those of us who kept their fruit out there and focused on meticulous canopy management we ended up being rewarded in late October with an extremely long finish to the year with most importantly no rain.
2012 - The Best Pinot Noir Vintage of the Last 20 years
With the possible exceptions of 1998 and 1999, both years that were before my time, 2012 gave us a perfect growing season for Pinot Noir, as well as our first on time bud break since 2007. Everything was on time from bud break, to bloom and fruit set, veraison, and harvest. A perfect growing season made my job really easy with making the wine for everything except the Riesling. Some late season rain left the Riesling with a little to be desired, but all in all a great vintage and the best in recent memory along with 2014.
2013 - The Monsoon
With a one week early bud break, and a near perfect summer, once again it came down to September. For those of us around long enough to remember 2007 we saw a monsoon in the forecast for September 12th. The fruit wasn't quite ready and still needed a couple of weeks of hang time. I decided to pick in the most that we could two days previous to the rain and boy am I glad we did. We received a record 4 and a half inches of rain in the first of what would be a two day downpour of 6-7 inches! So, what we brought in early made the best wine. With two weeks of additional dry hang time after that rain the good news was that it wasn't a total repeat of 2007. We were able to salvage most of the grapes and it turned into a pretty average Pinot Noir and Gris. The Riesling however was severely damaged by botritus and we ended up skipping the 2013 vintage all together.
2014 - The Long Haul
In my mind the length of the vintage along with the steady, hot sunny days are what defines 2014. Bud break came three weeks early so we started the year a little scared with an extended early morning frost period. Mother nature never looked back though as the temperatures just continued to climb through April, May, and June with what ended up being a record breaking July of heat. Lots of 90 degree days persisted through August and then September as well. We started picking in Pinot Noir grapes on September 11th, almost a full three weeks earlier than usual. The Pinot Noirs and Gris' from this year will be awesome! But, that wasn't the end of the success. The Riesling was able to hang dry well into October.
2015 - The Long Haul #2
As if nature was defying herself we had the longest, warmest vintage of 2014 followed up by...a longer one. We ended up making our first Matthew's Reserve Riesling from this year's vintage. The vines were awake for almost nine months! It was hard to not think about climate change and a restructuring of what "normal" is in the Willamette Valley.
2016 - The Scorcher
This vintage was not as long as the two previous one's, but with yet another March bud break we were off to the races in what seemed like another hot, dry year. The problem with year's like this is with your Pinot Noirs. They need hang time at the end of the year and just didn't get it this year. Our harvest began in August for the first time in my 1o years here. The October rain was steady all month as well which lead to challenges with our Riesling. Harvest was over with by the time it usually begins.
If you'd like see photos and text insight into the day-to-day like of winemaking you can follow us on Twitter @lavellewine, or on Facebook at LaVelle Vineyards, or on Instagram @lavellevineyards.
2006 - Great all the way around
My first crush working under our old wine maker Andy Gribscov. This vintage brought us a hot, long summer with a huge fruit set. Also dubbed year of the yellow jackets, as we had a long warm fall that when mixed with abundant sugary fruit kept the yellow jackets active all the way through harvest. Pinot Noir from this vintage is still tasting great. The only problems occuring with Pinot Noir from this vintage were the growers who didn't properly adjust their crop load. Pinot Noir looses a lot of flavor (varietal character) when there is much more than 2.5 to 3 tons cropped per acre. 2006 Riesling was also the best year I can remember with maybe 2014 as an exception. Riesling on our site turns out best during longer, warmer vintages.
2007 - Plentiful start, Painful finish
We had everything we could've asked for through 90% of this season. An early bud break, no late Spring frosts, and a nice, warm and dry summer. Then came September. In this growing region, we typically start thinking about picking in September up against the fall rain patterns. If it looks like it's going to rain for a day or two and then revert to a dry period of 5-7 days winemakers will typically decide to let the fruit hang. In 2007 most of us thought we'd reach a 5-7 day dry period when the rains came in the first week of September. It never happened. And in Oregon when the rain comes, the fruit fills with water, the birds come and start eating, and the botritus mildew sets in fast. Most Oregon wineries brought in water logged fruit that lacked in varying degrees of flavor, color, and structure. The vintage itself was really tainted by the media as the Pinots produced ended up tasting very good after some cellaring. Rieslings were a tough sell from 2007 as well due to quality and also following up a stellar 2006 vintage.
2008 - Year of the Pinots
This vintage wasn't a home run for growers, as there were some pollination issues with rain during flowering. We also had a cold, late bud break in late April followed by some early summer rains. The summer was long and generally dry, but not terribly warm. A long, warm summer, but not hot, sets the stage for some great Pinot Noir. The combination of a long, dry September and October with smaller fruit set created a fantastic situation for us to make some great Pinots!
2009 - The Roller Coaster
Year of the weather roller coaster, we had another late bud break followed by a summer for the record books. I recall three separate 100 degree plus three day periods during the summer with some longer, cooler periods with some unexpected rain here and there. I specifically remember that it rained for 24 hours straight on July 12th which is unheard of in this area. You can typically count on dry weather from July 4th through August 31st. The hot bursts tanned the grape skins and burned a few! This resulted in Pinot Noirs with hot, jammy fruit flavors much like the Pinots made down in California.
2010 - Short, Cold, Rainy.
I can't think of anything else when I think of this vintage. Oh wait, yes botritus! Botritus is a mildew that forms on the inside of the cluster, and if there are too many cold and rainy days in the growing season the mildew cannot be suppressed and will express itself through the cluster as a gray and/or black mold that turns the fruit to mush. It can also over-winter and cause damage to future year's crops. I must've lost 20-30% of my Riesling crop just to this mildew. This also marked the third year in a row with a late bud break.
2011 - Long and Cold, but not Wet
This vintage proved to be one for the record books. With the latest bud break in recent years over a month late, lots of growers decided to cut their primary buds mostly off all together figuring that there'd be no way to ripen much fruit in a super short growing season. For those of us who kept their fruit out there and focused on meticulous canopy management we ended up being rewarded in late October with an extremely long finish to the year with most importantly no rain.
2012 - The Best Pinot Noir Vintage of the Last 20 years
With the possible exceptions of 1998 and 1999, both years that were before my time, 2012 gave us a perfect growing season for Pinot Noir, as well as our first on time bud break since 2007. Everything was on time from bud break, to bloom and fruit set, veraison, and harvest. A perfect growing season made my job really easy with making the wine for everything except the Riesling. Some late season rain left the Riesling with a little to be desired, but all in all a great vintage and the best in recent memory along with 2014.
2013 - The Monsoon
With a one week early bud break, and a near perfect summer, once again it came down to September. For those of us around long enough to remember 2007 we saw a monsoon in the forecast for September 12th. The fruit wasn't quite ready and still needed a couple of weeks of hang time. I decided to pick in the most that we could two days previous to the rain and boy am I glad we did. We received a record 4 and a half inches of rain in the first of what would be a two day downpour of 6-7 inches! So, what we brought in early made the best wine. With two weeks of additional dry hang time after that rain the good news was that it wasn't a total repeat of 2007. We were able to salvage most of the grapes and it turned into a pretty average Pinot Noir and Gris. The Riesling however was severely damaged by botritus and we ended up skipping the 2013 vintage all together.
2014 - The Long Haul
In my mind the length of the vintage along with the steady, hot sunny days are what defines 2014. Bud break came three weeks early so we started the year a little scared with an extended early morning frost period. Mother nature never looked back though as the temperatures just continued to climb through April, May, and June with what ended up being a record breaking July of heat. Lots of 90 degree days persisted through August and then September as well. We started picking in Pinot Noir grapes on September 11th, almost a full three weeks earlier than usual. The Pinot Noirs and Gris' from this year will be awesome! But, that wasn't the end of the success. The Riesling was able to hang dry well into October.
2015 - The Long Haul #2
As if nature was defying herself we had the longest, warmest vintage of 2014 followed up by...a longer one. We ended up making our first Matthew's Reserve Riesling from this year's vintage. The vines were awake for almost nine months! It was hard to not think about climate change and a restructuring of what "normal" is in the Willamette Valley.
2016 - The Scorcher
This vintage was not as long as the two previous one's, but with yet another March bud break we were off to the races in what seemed like another hot, dry year. The problem with year's like this is with your Pinot Noirs. They need hang time at the end of the year and just didn't get it this year. Our harvest began in August for the first time in my 1o years here. The October rain was steady all month as well which lead to challenges with our Riesling. Harvest was over with by the time it usually begins.
If you'd like see photos and text insight into the day-to-day like of winemaking you can follow us on Twitter @lavellewine, or on Facebook at LaVelle Vineyards, or on Instagram @lavellevineyards.
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