Any early indications? I’ve heard vines were stressed form the drought and the yields were low. Curious.
Stan,
First and foremost - and I’ll be doing this more and more - would you mind changing the title to either ask about SLO County, Monterey County, or Santa Barbara County separately or all 3 of them together but state them all?
I know it sounds ‘trivial’, but it would be rare to hear a consumer talking about the 2015 ‘North Coast’ Harvest when they really want to know about Napa OR Sonoma OR Mendocino, etc . . .
SLO and SB Counties are so different from each other, and altogether different from Monterey County, that to discuss them all in painted in a wide brush, to me, does not do any of our areas justice.
Speaking from SB County’s perspective, it was a ‘challenging’ vintage with much lower than hoped for yields, but not surprising based on 1) poor weather during fruit set and bloom, 2) continued drought conditions and 3) record or near record crops for 3 years in a row. Some varieties, like Riesling, Chardonnay and even Grenache, did fairly well, but others, like Syrah and Pinot, were pretty hard hit.
I know that yields in Paso were hit hard as well, especially Syrah, where I understand yields were down up to 75% in some cases.
Cheers
Done.