An unseasonal harvest
October 6, 2008 by Katey Bacigalupi
Filed under In the vineyard
“The vines welcomed a difficult and challenging growing season this year. With one of the earliest grape harvests on record in Sonoma County, the contributing factors were a short growing season and cool start to harvest. Labor Day weekend marks the start of harvest for Bacigalupi Vineyards and this year was no different. The exception was the over 100 degrees heat spike that brought a significant amount of fruit ripe all at the same time.
Following a drought year in 2007, there were high hopes for rain in 2008. However warmer temperatures and lack of rain awakened the vines to an earlier then normal growing season. This leaves the young growth more susceptible to frost. With several consecutive nights of temperatures below 30 degrees the early growth was affected by the frost, resulting in some crop loss. An extreme heat wave contributed to some shatter in the vineyard but most of the heat’s effects were offset by the help of irrigation.
Eventually the summer fog returned to the valley, giving everyone some breathing room. The Wente and Pommard Pinot Noir was harvested on September 12th. Due to the Wente clone fruit the Pinot Noir color is suburb. The Zinfandel was brought in October 2nd. The higher than usual acid this year is reflective of the shorter growing season. This bright, natural acid is one of the main characteristics that Tyler, our winemaker highlights as one of the defining factors to our style of wines.
This year we crushed our first lot of Petite Sirah. This Foppiano clone was given to my father, Charles Bacigalupi by the Foppiano family in 1993. My father and Louis Foppiano Sr. have been friends, since 1956, the first year that we planted grapes in the Russian River Valley. My father would sell the Zinfandel, Mission and Golden Chaslis to Louis Sr. for the bulk wine. This went on for many years and my father and Louis Sr. and my father remain good friends to this day.
So even with all the obstacles. I have high hoopes for this year’s vintage. In all my years of farming, one thing I have learned is that sometimes the most difficult growing season produces the most memorable wine.”
~ John Bacigalupi
