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Oregon VintagesPinot noir is sensitive to everything. The soil, the elevation and exposition of the vineyard, the specifics of the vineyard planting: clone, spacing, and trellising, the crop level, the time of picking, and the way it is fermented and aged. All of these can be manipulated by the grower and winemaker. Their choices can be modified with varying levels of ease. It is tough to move a vineyard to a new location and easy to thin to a lower crop level or change the temperature of a fermentation. Another major influence on Pinot noir can not be modified. This is the vintage. The weather patterns, the amount of heat accumulated throughout the growing season, the amount of rainfall as well as the details of when it was sunny, when it was cold, and when it rained can have a significant on not only the quality of the grapes at harvest, but on their character. The quantity of grapes is strongly influenced by late spring weather. Grapes are self-pollinated and the temperature and amount of sun during their 1-2 day bloom period largely determines the percentage of flowers that fertilize. Cool, wet weather can result in a very poor set with only 10-20% of the berries "setting" fruit. The result are ragged clusters with lots of stem and few berries. The normal 80-100 berries per cluster can be reduced to 1-2 dozen. The normal mature weight of 80-100 grams per cluster can average 30-50 grams under these conditions. Yields can easily be below one ton per acre making it very difficult for growers to recoup the cost to farm from the sale price of their fruit. Vintages like 1988, 1994, and 1998 produced very low crops for this reason. Warm sunny, but not hot, weather during the bloom period can result a very high percentage of fertilization. The clusters can be very large, tight, and heavy with berry number exceeding 120 and cluster weights exceeding 130 grams. Grapegrowers and winemakers often thin heavily in these vintages attempting to reduce the total yield per acre. The vines can only do so much work during the growing season and if crop load exceeds the ability of the plant to mature that amount of fruit, the grapes will not ripen. Unripe grapes have high acid levels, poorly developed tannins, and low sugars. Wines made from those grapes taste sharp with acid, have green, herbal flavors with little fruit, and harsh, unpleasant bitter qualities. Vintages like 1997, 2001, 2002, 2009 produced large clusters and were thinned significantly; sometimes 30-50% of the fruit was removed from individual plants to control the yield. Reducing the number of clusters to reduce the yield per acre of the vineyard is not a simple task. The timing of thinning is critical. If you thin too late, the vine's energy has already been expended and the fruit will still not ripen properly. If you thin very early, it is very difficult to determine the exact amount of fruit hanging in the vineyard and you may over or under thin significantly. The crop level chosen by the winemaker can also vary with the specifics of the growing season. The timing of bloom is an important vintage factor. Warm, sunny springs can advance the time of bud break and if the weather continues to be warm, the plants will bloom earlier in the season. The time from bloom to harvest is relatively fixed, in Burgundy about 100 days and in Oregon, about 110. Our growing season is limited in the fall by repeated episodes of cool, wet weather that coincide with the Jet Stream moving southward sometime in October. Although unpredictable, earlier blooms generally mean that harvest will begin earlier, reducing the risk of the cold rains prematurely terminating the growing season. In those years, winemakers may opt to increase the yield slightly to delay maturity and final ripening to cooler conditions in October looking for longer hang time. In years with a late bloom, winemakers will often select a lower crop level, hoping to get the fruit fully ripe before the weather deteriorates. Warm, early years were 1992 (the earliest ever), 2000, 2002, and 2006 and late blooms occurred in 1993, 1999, 2005 and 2008. The most important factor in the vintage equation is the weather during the final ripening phase. For the first 70-80 days after bloom, the berries are hard, green, and flavorless. All of the flavor, color, and tannins we associate with quality Pinot noir develop in those last 3-4 weeks. During the same time sun, and more importantly, heat are softening the berries, reducing the acidity, and raising the sugar level. The trick is to achieve the optimal flavor profile before the sugars get too high, the acids too low, and berry decomposes into bird food. The timing of harvest is a very winemaker specific choice and will vary with the specifics of the weather, the weather forecast, the vineyard, and condition of the fruit. This crucial decision sets the stage for all the winemaking decisions that follow. The links to the specific vintages provide you with the specific details, opportunities, challenges, and stories of that harvest. Vintage variations provide the winemaker with the varied pallet of "colors" that we use to create our art. In some vintages our job is relatively easy and in others, more difficult. Luckily it is possible to make good and even great wine in almost every vintage. Thanks, |
