2021 vintage?

DaveStandridge · October 5, 2021, 3:10am

My thoughts exactly for my newborn daughter!

Adam_Frisch · October 5, 2021, 3:17am

I’ve tried all outings, allt the artisanal, low-intervention, natural, organic, hipster ice creams at Wholefoods, Gelsons, Trader Joe’s, Sprouts etc and always come back to Haägen-Dasz. They are, for me, still at the top.

Andrew_K · October 5, 2021, 3:20am

Classic thread merge! Do you prefer the 2021 vintage of Häagen-Dazs?

larry_schaffer · October 5, 2021, 3:22am

Free range Häagen-Dazs only for me . . .

Adam_Frisch · October 5, 2021, 3:27am

Yes, that was meant for the ice cream thread. Don’t know what happened…

Marcus_Goodfellow · October 5, 2021, 4:21am

sounds promising!

I heard a little bit of chatter regarding some mildew pressure on grapes that were picked a little later this year. did you see much of this?

Mildew? No, we didn’t see any at all. Or botrytis either, as the later picks hung through some moisture. But nights have been cold, and fruit all came in extremely clean.

While there was a very brief(compared to normal) week of pressure early in the growing season, this has been one of the lowest years for mildew pressure at our sites.

Last pick is tomorrow. A weird, cold, Eastern side of the valley section of Sauvignon Blanc. Last Pinot pick was 10/01 and that was 2 blocks that are also odd ducks. We were done on 09/26 prior to that.

Most people will think we’re liars. Lower than expected sugars and pretty firm (not high but higher than you would think) acids. Yields, in my world, were pretty high. I have a lot of wine. But I’m also spread out more than the average winery.

I think the wines are good but it’s super early. Generally the later stuff is the best stuff and I still have stuff in early to mid-ferment.

It is not what people would expect reading weather reports. Can’t really explain it. Super healthy and outrageously foamy fermentations! I think there will be a lot of great wines and, at worst, a super high floor on the normale wine.

Expecting excellence from the Tempranillo rose’!

While YANs aren’t super high, everything is heavily weighted to alpha amino acids this year, and IMO that is when ferments are at their foamy best!

Whistling Ridge Beloved Acre first day of ferment and mid way along. This is after the biggest foamy point has subsided.

Vincent_Fritzsche · October 5, 2021, 5:18am

ive been seeing a lot of videos of Cali fermenters with a lot of fruit and very little juice.

so far all the producers ive seen reports from in oregon are pretty pleased with what theyve brought in. early harvest for them but good looking fruit for the most part

Pretty small clusters for us, so yields are low to ok. Quality is very good, we have a cool finish to August and good weather in September.

We picked from September 12th until today(Temperance Hill Chardonnay). So early but not crazy by any stretch. Some folks picked early but I don’t think the Brix boogeyman some were concerned about ever showed up. Our final Pinot Noir picks came in on Sept 27th with 22.6 and 22.7 for Brix(22.7 was the high for the year). Early looks at the first ferments show alcohols in the 12.4-13.4 range. Very good density, skins were very thick, and gallons/ton are about normal. Acids are excellent.

Ferments have been smooth sailing and it looks to be a very solid vintage for both white and red wines(pending another 20 months where nothing goes wrong). Just not really very much of it.

I was thinking of how to sum things up and seriously, 100% this. Very interesting year, powerful wines I expect but not high alcohol, mostly. I started picking 9/13 after waiting what felt like a while compared to others. Grapes were so firm, pulp not even close to feeling right in early September, but people were picking, some early sites and some that seemed like they must be pretty rare. By the week of the 13th I felt like things were right and sugars were still moderate, TAs high and pHs pretty low still. After a week of picking we had a rain break, after that sugars were all in the 21s-22s for red grapes with good acidity, hardly any rot to sort and fruit still in great condition. Just a classic vintage really, perhaps like ‘05 which for me is a favorite, sunny early and good ripe, then rain and even more nuance seems to develop. I’m legit excited for 2021 and who would have thought.

Michael_Baryla · October 5, 2021, 10:05pm

ive been seeing a lot of videos of Cali fermenters with a lot of fruit and very little juice.

so far all the producers ive seen reports from in oregon are pretty pleased with what theyve brought in. early harvest for them but good looking fruit for the most part

Pretty small clusters for us, so yields are low to ok. Quality is very good, we have a cool finish to August and good weather in September.

We picked from September 12th until today(Temperance Hill Chardonnay). So early but not crazy by any stretch. Some folks picked early but I don’t think the Brix boogeyman some were concerned about ever showed up. Our final Pinot Noir picks came in on Sept 27th with 22.6 and 22.7 for Brix(22.7 was the high for the year). Early looks at the first ferments show alcohols in the 12.4-13.4 range. Very good density, skins were very thick, and gallons/ton are about normal. Acids are excellent.

Ferments have been smooth sailing and it looks to be a very solid vintage for both white and red wines(pending another 20 months where nothing goes wrong). Just not really very much of it.

I was thinking of how to sum things up and seriously, 100% this. Very interesting year, powerful wines I expect but not high alcohol, mostly. I started picking 9/13 after waiting what felt like a while compared to others. Grapes were so firm, pulp not even close to feeling right in early September, but people were picking, some early sites and some that seemed like they must be pretty rare. By the week of the 13th I felt like things were right and sugars were still moderate, TAs high and pHs pretty low still. After a week of picking we had a rain break, after that sugars were all in the 21s-22s for red grapes with good acidity, hardly any rot to sort and fruit still in great condition. Just a classic vintage really, perhaps like ‘05 which for me is a favorite, sunny early and good ripe, then rain and even more nuance seems to develop. I’m legit excited for 2021 and who would have thought.

We started on the same weekend and completely agree although some of our SB was already hitting 24/3.17 on the 9th.
Just did the final pick of the year on Sunday - the Gamay down the street from you.

Jason_L · October 6, 2021, 5:59pm

update on yields, napa did indeed pick light. 75% of expected

John_Peacock · October 6, 2021, 6:38pm

For my Yakima Valley Grenache, picks were about two weeks earlier than 2020 with numbers in line with 2020. So far, fermenters have been smelling and tasting great. I’m about half way done with pressing lots and hope to be in barrel this weekend.

For the Willamette Valley Pinot producers at my winery, they also mentioned how foamy the ferments have been. 2021 will be the year of the foamy ferment!