The Harvest Diaries 2023

Late September of 2023 had us heading into wine country to film a bit of harvest with our core vineyards.  Fall is the time for harvest shoots!  Well, sort of…

Harvest 2023 is a bit different than the norm.  We had expected to shoot harvest in Paso Robles and Santa Barbara first and then head north to Oregon and Washington, but this year, much of California had been cool, and harvest was running a bit behind.

In Washington, they had a late bud break and flowering, but veraison (when the grapes start to change color) came a bit early!  A burst of warm days pushed them to a fairly early harvest across many regions in the state.

In Oregon, where Pinot Noir is king, they started slowly but got some heat spikes, which helped things catch up.  Early rains had some vineyards scrambling to get fruit in mid to late September.  Pinot Noir, with its tight clusters, is subject to mildew issues, and in the Willamette, often when the rains start, they don’t stop again.  This year, while many got their fruit in early, they did have some more sun, and we watched an early morning Pinot pick in early October after the rain event, where the fruit looked great.

Meanwhile, in California, the entire season has been cool and cloudy.  Many vineyards suffered “shatter” (when there is rain or wind during flowering and not all the flowers get fertilized).  The wet spring was great for replenishing water in regions that have been very dry, but the cool cloud-covered skies meant everything was slow to ripen, with many vineyards, even now, in the 2^nd week of October, less than ½ way into their harvest.