We are monitoring our vineyards pretty closely and we had about .43 at both Orchard in Oak Knoll (merlot) and Tucker and Kreuzer in Coomsville (cab and cab franc). Fruit is fine and vines are still in good shape.
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I picked my Cabernet Sauvignon in Oak Knoll last week and am stoked with the quality. Bear in mind weāre going for something a little different - sugars in the 21s at great physiological ripeness, pillowy skins, acid ratio of tartaric to malic in the 2:1 zone that tells me in another way the fruit is ready. Do not enter if you want Cabernet without its varietal trademarks. Our two ferments have taken off and Iām really excited for their promise but weāll reserve judgement beyond that.
And yes we are an Oregon winery known for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay but last year I started a side project to make old school Napa cab. First wines to come next year, yes I need to update my list about all that but no rush. We have harvest work to finish up first!
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Look forward to trying that Vincent. Tasted a tank sample from the same vyd yesterday that was close to dry and looks to be pretty outstanding stuff.
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Sounds incredibleāwhat vineyard is this from?
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Welcome to berserkers and mazel tov on the baby! Good vintage planning. 
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All the ifs came out right:
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The Napa and Sonoma reds from those four years continue to sing.
A few '14 but no '13 Pipers for me 
@Roy_Piper ???
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This is great news. This will probably be the last vintage I go deep in. At 66 I donāt need that much more wine
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Its Bengier vineyard, formerly Vare planted by the late George Vare. West side of Oak Knoll just where Dry Creek Rd heads up to Mt Veeder.
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Wondering if Ketan still gets his fruit from there. His 16 vare is killer.
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Here we are in November and only one real rain thus far. But more is coming next week. There is still a good amount on the vine in southern Napa (Coombsville, Atlas Peak, Jamison Canyon area) that is lower brix than many winemakers would like (23-24 brix.) Many are hanging on as long as possible.This has to be a record hang-time vintage for Napa.
Now that many wines are done and in barrel, acid levels have proven to be higher and very 1980s/early-1990s levels. TAs are 5.5-7.5 out there. Malo will reduce the bite a little, but I think there is a slight āthrowbackā style to 2023s that I find quite appealing, with brix probably 1 to 1.5 lower than most recent vintages, although most wines will still finish 14.3-15.3% alc.
The higher tonnage will mean a lot of wine on the market in two years and the producers who make āNapaā blends at lower prices, such as Mike Smith, TRB, Aaron Pott, etc, will have many lots and cases to produce them from and the quality will be high. This will be a good vintage to find very good Napa Cabs at reasonable prices from a lot of producers AND the volume will allow top winemakers to make killer wines at the top of their pyramid of SKUs, as well.
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Paging Cameron Hughes/de Negoce, you have a call on line #1ā¦
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2005 as Average?
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Hi Roy, Iām new to talking about Brix and alcohol. I assume the two are really tightly correlated? So if Brix is a bit lower, why couldnāt we see Napa wines sub 14%? Or is the takeaway that Napa recently has been more of a 15-16% alc proposition (for dry wines without residual sugar) and so a lower brix this season is allowing for 14-15% instead of 15-16%? And there will be higher acids to also reduce the perception of alcohol and bring about more balance? So even in a great year like thisā¦ one doesnāt see 13.5% alcs prevail?
P.S. still havenāt had the chance to open one of your wines (I have the 18 and 19, missed the 21) but I have the 19 in my fridge soon (CT notes suggested trying 19 before 18, with a decant).
This is fantastic. Hope winemakers donāt get shook and deacidify things.
Could this be the GOAT vintage? 
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It has already been decided hehe
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We picked Orchard (our Oak Knoll merlot) yesterday and waiting for the final labs to come back. Today and tomorrow we bring in our CS and CF from Coombsville (both are in our target range of 25+). Coombsville is a cooler area due to the marine influence - first to see the fog at night and last to see it retreat in the morning. It is typical for this area to be picked later than most (but this vintage is a few weeks later than usual). Our CS and CF are both in our target range (prelim readings of 25+) so we are in good shape.
I was curious and checked our database - we have not picked in November since 2006 (and that was CS at Trailside Vineyard).
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