New York Cork Report

Mud, Sprays, and Compromise: Veteran Lakewood Grower Explains How He Handled a Tough Vintage

 By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor

Dave Stamp, the vineyard manager at Lakewood Vineyards on Seneca Lake, wears shorts every day during harvest, which he says "might be tradition, and it might be just stupid." If it's the latter, then it's one of the only stupid things Dave does in the vineyard; everything else is carefully considered and based on 25 years of experience. That doesn't mean he makes the right call every time, and it doesn't mean every other grower will agree with his decisions.

But it does mean that there are few people more qualified to tell the story of this vintage than Dave. Eventually, when consumers taste the best wines of 2011, they might not fully understand just how much work went into their creation. So I wanted to talk to Dave Stamp about how it all went down.

By the way, Dave is an exceedingly nice and soft-spoken guy. He'll give you his thoughts, even on controversial subjects, but he never seeks to bring anyone else down. It's occasionally technical and always instructive for me and, I hope, for regular consumers who don't know all the details of growing.

NYCR: You've said that everyone will have a "mud story." What do you mean?

DS: That was the vintage. Just a lot of rain! As far as getting the fruit off, that was fun. It was muddy. We were down the road in our loading area, and it got so chewed up that turning the steering wheel was just funny. The machines were sliding on the hill, and it was a lot of work to keep the thing going where you wanted it!

NYCR: Do you have any fruit still hanging?

DS: Everything is in. We didn't feel it was going to be a good late-harvest year. With the rain and pressure, we figured it was better to cut our losses and get everything in.

NYCR: The rainy spring cranked up disease pressure, we're told.

DS: Right.

NYCR: Growers have told us that they had to spray more often this year. What kinds of sprays, exactly? What was your approach?

DS: Spring was wetter than normal, which was inconvenient. Summer dried off, a lot of heat, and we were smiling for a while. But we knew there would be disease somewhere after the spring. In September we had way too much rain. We had some splitting problems. But we think we kept the lid on it pretty well.

There was botrytis out there this year, but I think everyone was more scared of the sour rot. That was the concern this year.

When you get that much water, the berry gets wet, and it pumps that water up, and the skin can't handle it. It splits. Then you get sour rot in there. You can't have a lot of it before it really starts to affect the wine.

So a lot of our sprays come in the summer, and we try to back off closer to harvest. We start spraying when the buds are two or three inches long, and it depends on the year. We have two major diseases: powdery and downy mildew. If you can control them early, then you don't have to spray so close to harvest time. We try not to spray near harvest, cause we don't want to put it out there in the vineyard, but this year we had to do it a bit. Often we're done spraying by mid-August. In a dry summer we might not spray at all. This year we had to deal with botrytis.

We use sulphur for powdery mildew. It's a very nice product, very old, and it works. We also use newer stuff like Pristine and Resis, which attack proteins in the cell wall, and destroy the fungus that way. Those are prone to resistance, so we use them sparingly. Captan is good for downey mildew. It's a product that serves as a workhorse. There's Abound, which is a sterile inhibitor. It kills a lot of different diseases, black rot, powdery mildew.

NYCR: Is this the kind of vintage that affirms many growers' belief that organic viticulture can't be done in this region?

DS: You don't see organic growing around here. And somebody could be organic, and it doesn't mean they don't spray. It's just a different set of products. They're a little limited in what they can use. Some of the stuff they're putting on has not been tested like we test regular pesticides. I don't think that's a great idea. In the end, I think it's better to go with a mindset we call "sustainable." Look at the whole picture of things and choose the product that will work best for you with the least amount of side effects.

NYCR: Were you able to pick on dry days?

DS: For the most part, we picked when it was dry. We were fortunate that when we got the big rains, the stuff that was prone to rot, it was inside the harvest window, so we went ahead and picked them right before the rains. My brother would have preferred another brick on the riesling, sure, but we made the decision to get it in and avoid rot. That's the compromise. Just something we had to do this time around.

NYCR: We had two dry, warm stretches, two windows during harvest. One was in late September, the other in early October. How significant was that?

DS: Those two-dry stretches helped us out a lot. No question about it. We weren't getting high brix, but the acids still were down. Low acid, low brix, and the flavors came through. Things balanced out nicely. In the end, I think people will be happy with this vintage.

NYCR: With the experience you've gained, do you see a difference between hand picking and machine picking?

DS: Well, we hand pick pinot noir, and just about everything else is machine picked. When you hand pick something, it sits on the ground, and it's there for a good chunk of the day before anything happens with it. When you machine pick it, it's often on the press within the hour. For me, it often boils down to what you've done in the vineyard. At the end of the day, I'm just not seeing hand-picked wines win all the awards. The machine-picked wines win lots of awards. The newer machines picks things a lot cleaner than they used to, so what matters most is whether you've done the right things in the vineyard.

NYCR: Are you glad it's over?

DS: (laughs) Well, it was a good-sized harvest for us, a lot of fruit. It was a lot of work! But maybe that's just grape-growing in the northeast.

Vineyard Visuals: Freedom Run Winery Drying Grapes for Appassimento wines

By Bryan Calandrelli, Niagara Editor

Here are a couple pictures of Larry Manning from Freedom Run Winery as he prepares racks of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and merlot grapes that will air dry in the estate's 190-year old barn for their second vintage Appassimento-style wine.

Most Demanding Vintage Ever? Sounds Like Hyperbole, but in the Finger Lakes, 2011 Just Might Be

By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor

Photos courtesy Lakewood Vineyards. Above: Vineyard Manager Dave Stamp rides the harvester on a gloomy harvest day. Below: Early October riesling grapes at Lakewood showed clean fruit with occasional affected berries

Up and down Seneca Lake, no one was sleeping. No one was going home. After weeks of slowly building rot among the vines, the rains departed and the sun had gloriously returned. It was the 10th day of October, and this was the window, the chance, the opportunity to do the work and pull the 2011 vintage out of the fires of rot and disease pressure. 

"Two months," one grower said to me, asking me not to use his name. "We basically did two months of work in eight days. Never seen anything like it."

At Billsboro Winery, Kim Aliperti kept the tasting room humming while rarely seeing her husband, winemaker Vinny Aliperti of both Billsboro and Atwater Estate Vineyards. Down at Lakewood Vineyards, the Stamp brothers looked like ragged warriors in their harvest beards. At Hermann J. Wiemer, winemaker Fred Merwarth and his wife Maressa welcomed their first child -- a healthy boy -- during a marathon session on the sorting line. (Fred and Maressa left the line to go to the hospital, but were back to work before the week was out.) Their colleagues made hot soup at midnight in between sorting sessions.

"We did things in the vineyard we'd never done before," said Oskar Bynke, a partner and marketing director at Hermann J. Wiemer. That's no surprise; the very best wineries adapt to the toughest tasks. More on their decision-making in a moment; the good news is that weather does not have the only say in wine. First, though, an explanation for what has made 2011 a grower's challenge.

Cold, then wet, then scorching, then wet

April and May were cold and wet - much moreso than normal. That got development off to a slow start, and yet fruit set was generally healthy and strong, and coming off a stunningly good vintage in 2010, that led to larger-than-normal crop sizes. 

Keep that in mind, because those crop sizes are about to start dropping.

By June, growers were begging for dry weather. They enjoyed a solid month, warm and sunny. Then, it became too much of a good thing. July was scorching, with one stretch of five straight days seeing 95 degrees or above, with no rain. The ground, once saturated, cracked and hissed. Some vineyards saw vines begin to shut down; heat is generally good, but over 90 degrees, vines desperately need water. Those vineyards were beginning to exhaust what they had gained just weeks earlier.

When the rains finally returned, they came hard. "It seems like we never got just a quarter inch," that same grower told me, still asking to have his name withheld. "Who wants to be quoted on the record? We'd have to tell you the weather sucked, or we could sort of massage it. But every time it rained, it poured, and you can't take too much of that without getting trouble in the fruit."

He's talking about rot. Specifically, he's talking about botrytis. Some grapes turned sour, but most that were affected simply shriveled and turned raisiny. In small quantities, this can make for rich, sweeter rieslings, but most varieties do not want botrytis. 

The first window to get the grapes in came with a burst of sunny, dry days in late September. Pinot comes first, and pinot vineyards were varied. Some lost fully half their crop to rot; others, like Chris Verrill's vineyard on the east side of Seneca Lake, saw pristine fruit. That's because Verrill has an irrigation system that allows him to keep the vines fed during brutal stretches of heat like the region saw in July. Consequently, those vines are better suited for rough patches closer to harvest. 

The regional focus, of course, is on riesling. That would come later, during the second window, the one that will be remembered as the one that saved the riesling. Or, more accurately, as the one that gave growers a chance to save it, if they made the vital adjustments.

Some perspective from Cornell

Cornell has become a strong partner for growers, and Cornell's staff saw the struggles. But for Peter Landre, the executive director of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Yates County, the challenges in the Finger Lakes paled in comparison to what he was hearing in other parts of the state.

"I talk to farmers here, grape growers who say it's been a tough year," Landre said. "It has. But they've handled it. When we talk to our friends to the east, where the hurricane and tropical storm rains came through, it's devastation. You end up having a perspective."

And then there was that matter of fruit set. The larger-than-normal crop started to suffer, but because most growers started out with a big crop, some wineries will produce nearly as many cases of wine as last year. Some will produce quite a bit less. No one was totally wiped out.

One example of adaptation: How Wiemer made it work 

When the second window of warm, dry weather opened, growers needed some time to dry out the fruit. Over a span of just about a week and a half, many wineries had to bring in riesling alongside red varieties like cabernet franc. 

At Hermann J. Wiemer, vineyard crews routinely pick in three different passes: once early in the harvest season, preserving acidity; a second time within a week or two; and a final time to achieve the riper, richer flavors and more complexity. 

But they had never picked three times in a single day.

"Give Fred credit," Bynke said, referring to winemaker and owner Fred Merwarth. "He knew we had to find another way. So we hand-picked the botrytis first. Then we went back out and picked the best clean fruit. Finally we followed with machines to pick the rest of the riesling. All in one day."

The result has the potential to be remarkable for the vintage: Hermann J. Wiemer has entire tanks of riesling that are free of botrysized fruit. There are also tanks with almost entirely affected juice, and that will give Merwarth options. 

"We were fueled by caffeine, but that was the opportunity," Bynke said. "Last year everyone had options. This year, everyone had to figure out a different way."

What consumers need to know

The good news for consumers is that more wineries than ever before used sorting lines to hand-select the fruit. That's because there was so much rot, so much compromised fruit, that old techniques would generally not be enough. Some growers will say that they "sort in the vineyard," which makes a hand-sorting line unnecessary. Generally speaking, industry professionals report that this won't be enough in 2011 to produce excellent wine. General filtering and fining won't be enough to handle rot-affected juice.

What does that mean for consumers? Almost certainly, there will be more sub-standard wines than normal. There will be some bad wines, sure; some wineries are making few adaptations. But based on a wide range of reports, the regional approach has shifted to handle the weather and disease pressure. Growers adjusted spray schedules. The good wines will be worth celebrating, and there will indeed be very good wines. Consumers should not be afraid to ask a simple question in the tasting room, when the 2011 wines are for sale: Did you hand-sort the fruit that year? Or, how did you adapt to the challenging vintage? 

Many wineries will have riveting stories to share.

On Cayuga Lake, Sheldrake Point's Bob Madill described a scene of rigorous sorting, both in the vineyard and on the crush pad. And he said that Sheldrake Point is making other adjustments. "We are going to be a bit minimalist in chaptalization and leave the alcohol levels a bit lower," he said. "If the weight of the fruit is on the lower side, then a low alcohol is more likely to yield a balanced wine." Madill predicted that the sorting and the other decisions will lead to "wines that are much better than what one might think. Certainly a year to avoid extraction and go for delicacy and balance."

When I finally reached Merwarth by phone Tuesday morning, it was 9am and he was clearly woken up by my call. He had gotten to bed at 6am, when the previous day's work ended. By Tuesday night he did not remember our conversation. His son will turn 21 during the harvest of 2032. It will be fascinating to open a Wiemer 2011 Riesling more than two decades from now. It will tell the stories, it will remember this manic harvest, even if Merwarth doesn't.

EDITORS NOTE: Some readers have asked about the description of the vintage as "challenging," which is the word we initially used in the title. It's not at all the same as referring to a vintage as "bad." When we use the term "challenging" or "demanding," it refers to the amount of work required to produce something excellent. In 2011, the excellent wines will be born of arduous work. (In 2010, excellent wines could come from just about everywhere.) A "bad" vintage refers to one in which there is not much a grower can do to provide the fruit that serves as the basis for great wine. A "challenging" or "demanding" vintage means it's still in reach. In the Finger Lakes, much of the fruit has been picked, but some wineries have fully half their crop still hanging. And as we know from experience, the true story of the vintage takes time to develop. 

2011 Harvest: Late-Season Thinning to Encourage Ripening at Clovis Point

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor

There is some rain in the forecast later this week, but we're in the midst of a week-long string of sunny, dry days -- conditions that were and are direly needed to keep disease pressure at bay in local vineyards and help grapes mature and ripen.

Before the sun came out late last week, many local vineyards -- including Clovis Point -- were working to thin red wine crops, hoping that the reduced crop load will ripen more fully.

According to Hal Ginsburg, managing partner at Clovis Point, the vineyard crew there dropped more than half of their merlot clusters to the ground (top picture is before thinning, the bottom picture after).

"Tonnage per acre before was around 4.5 tons per acre. Now, we are at less than 2 tons," he told me in an email.

In addition to being behind on ripening, disease pressure is high this year. Mostly rainy, cool weather over the last month has helped botrytis and sour rot establish themselves in local vineyards.

Merlot is sensitive to sour rot, something Ginsburg calls "especially worrisome," adding "So far, however, the merlot at Clovis is clean and ripening well, but slowly."

This brief Indian Summer could make all the difference with 2011 red wines.

I'm hoping to get some detailed updates from local growers later this week.

 

 

Harvest Update: At Hudson-Chatham Winery, Tough 2011 Slows Growth

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor

2011 was supposed to be a big harvest at Hudson-Chatham Winery where, according to owner Carlo DeVito, the plan was to harvest 20% more fruit than last year. Mother Nature -- largely in the form of Hurricane Irene -- had other plans.

"We probably just held serve, so we may experience some small growth because we still have some older wines, but we'll see a hiccup no doubt about it," Carlo told me.

The winery grows more four acres of vines itself, but depends on other growers -- in the Hudson River Region and elsewhere in the state -- for much of its production. Two of those vineyards were lost completely to Hurricane Irene and its associated flooding.

The Kinderhook AC Vineyard (seen behind the tree line in the photo above), which DeVito calls the "heart and soul" of his winery's Paperbirch Bannerman's Amber Cream Sherry-style wine, was decimated when the Kinderhook Creek flooded, covering the vineyard in more than four feet of water. "(The water) completely covered the fruit. The remaining fruit was covered in silt and unusable," he said.

More than 40 miles away in Ashland, NY the five-acre Woods Vineyard, which typically supplies Hudson-Chatham with Marquette, Noiret and Frontenac Gris grapes, had to be abandoned when flood waters washed out Route 23, cutting off car or truck access. "You'd have to four-wheel in and out of there, and the National Guard isn't letting people in," Carlo said.

To make up for the losses and maintain some -- if far less than anticipated -- growth Carlo told me "We ramped up production with several other vineyards. We rotated to some new growers and amped up our orders from others. We'll still have more wine than last year, but not as much as we were thinking."

Carlo is quick to put the challenges faced by his winery in perspective, telling me in an email "I don't want to sound lik the war-ravaged sister. We're going to be okay. At Palaia Vineyards, they lost one-third to one-half of their vineyard -- posts and all. They found their trellises two miles down river. They were wiped out."

 

Harvest 2011: Wild Ride for Niagara So Far

Pinot Noir grapes still hanging at Freedom Run Winery in Lockport, NY

By Bryan Calandrelli, Niagara Region Editor

For Jonathan Oakes, winemaker at Leonard Oakes Estate Winery and Schulze Vineyards and Winery, the 2011 growing season can be summed up in one word: wild.

“It’s been one of the wildest rides I’ve seen in a long time,” he said.

Thanks to Mother Nature, of course. It started with a cool and excessively wet late spring followed by an intensely hot and dry July. The good news for Oakes is that all that heat enabled the vines to catch up to where they needed to be mid-way through the season…just about the time for his family’s vineyard to get hit by a hail storm. Luckily, it was early enough in the season -- before sugars were accumulating in the grapes -- so the damage was minimal.

Late September rains forced some growers, including Oakes to bring in the whites all at once to avoid the disease pressure associated with the conditions.

“We got pushed into this tight window where most of the whites were ripe at the same time,” Oakes said.

Arrowhead Spring Vineyards owner Duncan Ross foresees a successful harvest of his chardonnay (currently at 23.5 brix) this week and if things stay dry as forecasted, he is considering pulling merlot in as soon as Sunday.

Randy Biehl, owner of Eveningside Vineyards, started his estate harvest on September 24 by pulling chardonnay. I was one of many volunteers who showed up to pitch in and can vouch for the ripeness and overall health of the fruit we brought in. 

Closer to the Lake Ontario, Schulze Vineyards will begin harvesting their Siegfried Riesling grapes this week, and grower Martin Schulze is pleased with how all of his grapes are looking at this point in the season.

“We’ve still got a ways to go for the reds but the stems are ripe and the grapes have a lot of flavor,” says Schulze.

We can’t discuss the growing season in Niagara without mentioning pinot noir and the progress of the largest plantings -- Leland’s Vineyard and Freedom Run Winery’s -- pretty much tell the story of the challenges and benefits of 2011.

I’ve written about Leland’s Vineyard in the past and once again their challenge this season was not only in working with the weather but still raising the fruiting zone and re-trellising. The varying soil types in this large vineyard haven’t made things easy on owner Leland Mote and manager Don Demaison, as the difference in vigor from one end to the vineyard is obvious.

With some botrytis pressure and the all-too-realistic fear that the upcoming weather would only worsen the situation, the decision to pull pinot on September 20 came a week earlier than anticipated. I personally pulled some fruit for my own wine and was pleased with the flavors and overall health of the grapes. Other local buyers of pinot noir from the vineyard include Eveningside Vineyards, Arrowhead Spring Vineyards and Gust Of Sun Winery.

Down the road, the pinot noir grapes in the vineyards of Freedom Run Winery are still hanging and will be harvested October 5. The somewhat-extreme leaf pulling strategy the winery employs seems to pay off in years like this. Other than some raisining, the pinot grapes along with most of the other varieties are in good shape. Expect sugar levels to be close to the range the winery saw in 2010 ranging from 22.5 to 24 brix.

There seems to be a consensus that this year will be average to above-average in terms of quality for what is currently coming in -- that is whites and pinot noir for now. Other than this last week of wet weather, Niagara had pretty much avoided the other instances of prolonged excessive rains that affected regions further downstate.

But given that we may still have another month to go in the season though any speculation on overall quality would be presumptive.

Harvest Update: Sorting Pinot for the New Forge Cellars

By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor

Get used to this image: sorting lines, rare in the Finger Lakes, will be making regular appearances as wineries deal with fruit that varies wildly in quality.

At the new Forge Cellars (a small project run by winemaker Justin Boyette, Rick Rainey, and Frenchman Louis Barruol from Gigondas), sorting will be a routine part of the operation. In this photo, Boyette inspects the fruit with the crew.

Rainey's comment is particularly telling: "See you in the wee hours," he said. "Luckily, we have beer!"

The commitment to sorting would benefit every winery that doesn't currently perform the practice. Rainey reported that the pinot, from a handful of Seneca Lake vineyards, varied from spotless to significantly affected by rot. But with rigorous sorting, only the best fruit makes it through.

Harvest Update: Most Finger Lakes Pinot is in, as Seen at Keuka Lake Vineyards

By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor

Photo courtesy Tricia Barry

Pinot noir is always one of the first off the vine, as it ripens early in the season. Many Finger Lakes wineries picked their pinot during a long stretch of sunshine that lasted from the middle of last week until this past Tuesday. Only a small percentage of vineyards still have pinot hanging, and most will wait until another forecasted run of warmth and sun that could last for much of the next week.

It has been a struggle.

Disease pressure has soared this year, thanks to wildly inconsistent weather (and that's being kind). Pinot has thin skins and tight clusters, so it's more prone to rot. Some vineyards report 20% or more of the fruit being lost; others have seen only a tiny fraction of damage.

Already, more wineries are hand-sorting the picked clusters than ever before. And that is a development that can only help the region.

At Keuka Lake Vineyards, winemaker Ian Barry had some help from his son, Declan. Both Barrys were happy with the berries they were seeing.

"It was beautiful, spotless fruit," the winemaker said. He reported totals of 20.8 brix, 8.8 TA and a pH of 3.38. "Those are really good numbers for a challenging year, and more importantly, the flavors are fully ripe," Barry said.

This vintage, Barry is doing a partial whole-cluster fermentation for the pinot, using neutral barrels that are stood upright with the heads removed. 

At Ravines Wine Cellars, Relying on Honesty with Customers About a Challenging Growing Year

By Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes Editor

Winery owners can spin all they like, but consumers won't forget how miserable the early spring was, or how brutal July became. And it doesn't take an expert grower to know that these are not ideal vineyard conditions.

And yet spin is a common part of any business, wine not the least among them.

So when grower Sam Argetsinger (blue shirt at right) and Ravines Wine Cellars winemaker Morten Hallgren addressed the annual Ravinous Club luncheon, it was refreshing to hear tell their customers exactly what they were thinking.

"Spring started wet and cold, but then..." Argetsinger said, then smiled. "It got wetter and colder."

The crowd laughed. Argetsinger did, too. Why try to shine up an ugly spring? What matters is the end result.

Argetsinger said that Mother Nature always wins. "You can't fight her," he said. "You can try, but you'll lose. She is beautiful, and sometimes she's angry, but she's always right."

Hallgren told the gathering that next to 2010, this year has been a tall challenge. "But of course, most years are not like 2010," he said. "We know that. It's part of cool climate winemaking. So our job is to make decisions to improve the conditions as much as possible."

This meant more spraying to lessen disease pressure than many growers would prefer. It meant careful and constant attention, more hours spent among the vines. And in some cases, it meant dropping fruit that had turned to rot.

"It's nice to hear them tell it like it is," one customer told me as lunch was winding down. "We know that it's not always perfect, but sometimes it seems like every winery wants you to think it's always ideal."

Even the Bordelais have had to back off there hyperbole in 2011, a remarkable downshift after four "vintages of the century" in the last ten years.

So what does this mean for the harvest? The strongest growers have been glad to see a glorious stretch of warm and dry weather in late September, and many vineyards are seeing ripening at the average track -- not near the record pace fo 2010, but nowhere close to the sluggish pace of 2009. Vineyards with irrigation fended off the oppressive July heat with more success, allowing vines and developing berries a better chance to maintain development in rough conditions.

Argetsinger brought five varieties of grapes not only to show Ravines' customers, but to let them taste the development. The pinot noir in particular was ripe, with small berries in tight, healthy clusters. "They weren't all pretty clusters," Sam said with another smile.

And that's just fine. It's nice to see some of the top growers and winemakers show the faith in their customers to present them with all the facts.

"Vintage variation is a fact," Hallgren said. "We don't want each year to be the same, and no matter how much anyone wants to convince you otherwise, you're going to see things change. You have to accept that."

He knows that the rest of the fall holds the most sway over his harvest. But no matter the outcome, he'll tell Ravines customers exactly how it goes down.

Harvest 2011: Peconic Bay Winery Picks Chardonnay for Sparkling Wine

Assistant winemaker Zander Hargrave (l) and winemaker Greg Gove processing chardonnay this morning at Peconic Bay Winery.

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor

Peconic Bay Winery harvested about 3.5 tons of chardonnay this morning from their Oregon Road vineyard -- all intended for sparkling wine. The fruit came in at 18 brix on average.

According to winemaker Greg Gove "The fruit is nice and clean. Charlie Hargrave is my hero."

Hargrave is the the winery's vineyard manager. The fact that the fruit was clean -- after a growing season that presented several challenges -- speaks to his diligence and acumen.

This is the estate's third harvest for traditional sparkling wine production. The Winery plans to release it's first methode champenoise sparkling wine -- which has yet to be named -- in time for New Year's Eve this year.

 

Harvest 2011: Bedell Cellars' Annual Indigenous Yeast Ceremony

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor

Earlier today Rich Olsen-Harbich, winemaker at Bedell Cellars sent me the following email to describe the unique picture at right:

"This is the second year of our annual indigenous yeast ceremony. We used ten gallons of freshly pressed chardonnay juice for the base. Everyone at Bedell was asked to bring an item that was both local and special to them in some way.

As the bright Fall sun shone down on us, our staff gathered around the demi-john of chardonnay juice. Kip (Bedell) brought an oyster shell and Trent (Preszler) brought some wild roses and shells from Indian Neck Point beach. Other items included in the culture were wildflowers like Jerusalem Artichoke, chicory and mountain laurel. Water from both the Peconic Bay and Long Island Sound was also added, baptizing our culture with the breath of the surrounding waters. The Lynne family provided an apple from their orchard.

This year, our ceremony was held in Michael Lynne’s cottage garden in the center of a series of concentric plantings of boxwood, lavender and native sea grass. The cottage garden is part of the original site of the original David Homestead circa 1640.

It’s a way for us to start the harvest with tradition, ceremony and celebration -- as well as providing a base culture of indigenous yeast to start our first white wine fermentations. Everyone in the company feels involved in the process and can also feel that a little part of them (and the natural bounty of the North Fork) is in every bottle of our wine. This culture will grow for a couple more days before being added to our first wine -- the 2011 Bedell Blanc de Blancs sparkler. The culture will also be used in all of our white wines this year."

2011 Harvest: Chardonnay for Sparkling Wine at Paumanok Vineyards

Photo courtesy of Paumanok Vineyards

I received this picture in an email from Kareem Massoud, winemaker at Paumanok, saying that they've picked chardonnay for sparkling this morning.

Kareem is busy processing this fruit at the moment, but I'm hoping to get some tonnage and other numbers on the fruit.

Wineries Say Heavy Rains Will Have Little Impact on 2011 Long Island Grape Harvest

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor

It has been raining for more than 36 hours here at my house and it's showing few signs of letting up. I don't measure rainwater totals here, but I can say definiteively that it's rained "a lot" across the East End of Long Island.

Ever since around 20" of October rain wrought havoc on the 2005 harvest and vintage, many observers pay far closer attention to rain here in Long Island wine country, but they needn't worry. Sure, this is a lot of rain, but it's fairly well timed and should have little-to-no impact on the 2011 vintage.

"We’re not worried about it," said Bedell Cellars winemaker Rich Olsen-Harbich, "It’s just about the beginning of veraison and it’s a good time for the vines to get water going into the fall. A lot of research has been done surrounding water relations at veraison showing that vines lacking sufficient water at the onset of ripening can run into too much stress later on in the fall and cause lower levels of fruit maturity. We’re used to it and we plan for it during the course of any season. It’s all part of growing grapes in a maritime climate and what makes our wines taste so unique."

When Olsen-Harbich emailed me earlier today, he reported about two inches of rain in the Bedell vineyards.

At Pindar Vineyards, assistant winemaker Edward Lovaas reported one of the highest numbers I've heard today -- 4 1/2 to 5 inches of rain. He too characterized the rains as "No worry now. Just need sun and a nice breeze for a few days. But we do need the rain to stop."

Still, any moisture can bring problems in a vineyard. Charlie Hargrave, vineyard manager at Peconic Bay Winery, who reported just under three inches of rain this morning, told me "The amount of rain is not as much of a concern as the duration of the event. Obviously a rain like this is less of an issue than if we were in the middle of harvest. My biggest disease worry is botrytis. Thankfully I sprayed all bearing vineyards for botrytis before the rain."

Charles Massoud points out that what comes after the storm is what matters most. "At the prevailing temperatures (the rain) increases the chances of fungal diseases. We are netting and hedging today. We are likely to be spraying as well tomorrow," he said, adding "It is too early to assess whether this event is detrimental or not. If it is followed by good hot and dry weather then we will have 'weathered that storm'."

2011 Harvest: Cassis Season Has Begun in the Hudson Valley

By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor

This year's first harvest report comes courtesy of Carlo DeVito, owner of Hudson-Chatham Winery in Ghent, NY.

"Hudson-Chatham Winery, Brookview Station Winery and Tousey Winery have started their cassis crush. Black currants usually come in the middle of July. All over the valley, they're making cassis. Somewhere between 12,000 to 15,000 bottles of cassis will be made in the Hudson Valley this year. The region is the largest maker of artisanal cassis in North America.

Here's an up close photo of the cassis being punched down."