Home | Wine Vintage | 2006
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2006 HARVEST REPORT I have been very delinquent in writing the vintage report for 2006. Purchasing our new estate vineyard, now called Zenith (formerly O'Connor Vineyard), planning, obtaining financing, constructing, and now moving to our new winery facility at Zenith are my only excuses. A full report will need to wait until after harvest 2007, but here are my comments in a nutshell. Bloom was shightly early, about June 19th amidst lovely weather. Fruit set was good and the crop would require thinning which occurred in early August. The summer was mostly dry (again) and by mid-September the younger vines were showing signs of water stress. Rain events in September gave some relief to the water problems, but the youngest vines were in areas that missed most of the shower activity. The last 10 days of September were warmer than usual, very sunny, and with low humidity. This added to the stress producing significant dehydration in the younger vines. Harvest began in late September with excellent fruit maturity. We finished eight days later with a record harvest of 130 tons. An additional 10 tons were harvested top make with for our partners in Zenith Vineyard to market under their own label. The water stress required some rehydration measures and acid additions to the fruit from younger vines, while the oldest vines managed well. The overall vintage charactor is a rich and forward fruit with ripe supporting tannins and full crops. We will have a bit more wine to sell in 2008 (when most of the '06's are released). Good quality and good quantity are about as good a report as I can give and 2006 certainly delivered. Thanks, Mark Vlossak, Winemaker |
