The 2007 growing season is over.

It’s been the 3rd driest year on record. A particularly mild winter and spring got everything going early. Everyone was expecting early harvest and that proved to be true.
Baconbrook’s crop was about what we expected: we harvested 6.3 tons on Sept 25th. Brix was ideal at just over 25. It is currently fermenting like a champ.
Butterdragon kept getting put off. Suddenly, although the vineyard still looked strong, we started seeing quite a bit of dehydration. Panic mode (which seems to be the norm in farming at harvest time) set in. We harvested the 3 rows of Merlot on Sept 29. We brought in .82 tons of Merlot. Cary lowered the estimate of how much Cab we would be bringing in to Rombauer from 9 tons to 7. (Unlike in the past where we sold a set number of tons or half of our grapes to our grape buyer, this year the buyer had designated rows which meant anything not on those rows would go to us.) On October 1st, we trucked over 13.45 tons of Cab!! The crew at Rombauer certainly gave us a ribbing how our 7 tons became almost 14! Oh well. It remains to be seen if all that will make it into the final Butterdragon blend. I can say that although the brix was 27, the fruit tasted really great; particularly striking wa the taste of the skins. If we can avoid a stuck fermentation, it will probably be some monster juice.