Harvest of 2015

Harvest is here folks!

The grapes are sweet and luscious, the vineyard is bright and green, and the cellar smells delicious. Harvest is here folks. The guys pulled in over two tons of fruit (Seyval Blanc) on Saturday the 22nd, and this was right before opening the doors for a beautiful Saturday at the winery.

And this is just the start of it—we are kicking events into high gear. The cellar must be prepped and ready, and we are sitting back and waiting for the crop to be just right. It is a bit of a waiting game: We have had a really nice stretch of warm dry weather that should continue into September which is just what we wanted! The warm weather is really helpful in developing both the structure and the concentrated flavor profiles in the grapes.

What we are seeing in Virginia, and speaking with other growers as well, it seems like most varietals are ripening at least a week early, and the vines in our vineyards are starting to shut down vegetative. This means that the canopy and the shoots are ceasing to grow and the vine can now really focus all of their energy on ripening the fruit.

Our Glenway chardonnay (the main vineyard) and Kennridge Viognier (plot just over the hill) are accumulating really nice flavors and sugars. If the weather continues in our favor, we should start seeing some Chardonnay and Viognier rolling in the first week of September. These cool nights are helpful at preserving the berries natural acidity so we should start seeing these blocks reach optimal ripeness within a couple of weeks. Until then we just wait and enjoy with you the most beautiful time of the year in Virginia.

Cheers,

-Teresa