Oakville East – Harvest Notes 2016

We have been blessed once again with a very good growing season for the grapes in Napa and Sonoma. The early bud break and warm conditions during bloom allowed more generous yields than in 2015. We harvested in average about 20% more crop over last year but stayed still shied of being a average crop year.

The mild summer up to late September was ideal for getting perfect clusters/berries at harvest and those mild conditions helped us not to rush any picking decisions for all the early vineyards including Chardonnay, Pinot and Cabernets. The heat waves of late September increased the sugar level for the later vineyards without compromising the overall quality.

The whites came with very balanced chemistry and the fermentations were successful creating very clean and focus flavors. For the reds, the early phenolics analysis revealed low level of tannins allowing our Atelier team to be more aggressive with extraction by warmer and longer macerations. The surprise of the vintage was late unexpected sugar release during fermentation pushing Alcohol levels higher than expected.

The first wines tasted, are fresh and very aromatics for the whites, the Pinots have deep colors and are very varietal focus and the Bordeaux varietals show lots of color as well, dark aromas and refined tannins. Overall, I am very excited to follow the aging and the development of those wines.

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