Although September is officially California Wine Month, it’s doubtful too many winemakers are celebrating. This is the busiest time of their year: The harvest.
The gathering of the grapes sets off a chain of activities beyond the physical act of making wine. Based on industry stats and opinions of the influential critics in the wine press, wine consumers will begin making mental notes on whether to seek out the new vintage when it finally hits the shelves two or three years from now. The harvest is always news you can use–later.
“Every year is unique and has its own idiosyncrasies,” said Peter Marks, director of wine at COPIA, the American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts in Napa, Calif. And every year, ultimately, puts its stamp on the quality of the wine made.
If there is one constant, though, it would likely be the wry observation made by Doug Jeffirs, wine director for Binny’s Beverage Depot stores.
“The one thing you will see with California vintages is, to the winemakers, every vintage is the greatest vintage ever,” he said with a chuckle.
Jeffirs is right. You’ll never hear anyone say there’s a bad vintage. Instead, winemakers will, to quote Jeffirs, use phrases like “more variable,” “a few areas of concern” or, the big kicker, “challenging” to describe the season.
Yet Jeffirs doesn’t think the average consumer much cares for harvest reports. What matters is what’s on the shelf, he said, and most inexpensive wines remain unchanged from year-to-year.
Wine-savvy consumers and collectors who buy in the upper price ranges where vintages do matter will notice and remember the verdict on the harvest, he said, even though the wine won’t be on the shelves for years.
That’s what worries Gregg Wilson, wine buyer for The Artisan Cellar in Chicago.
“If people hear about a great vintage, they may want to wait around for that rather than buy what you have now,” Wilson said.
Such customers will have to be patient, however. Wilson noted some 2006 wines, such as the better cabernet sauvignons, won’t hit stores until 2009 and may need to be cellared at home even longer.
Though wines from good harvests “have more depth, concentration and ageability,” Marks said consumers should still focus more on the producer than the vintage year.
“I think the press makes a bigger story out of [the vintage] than they should,” he added. “The press always wants to know if it’s a good year or a bad year, and that’s not always the case.”
One factor helping wine drinkers is California’s relatively consistent climate. Some years may be rainier or hotter than others, but California is rarely as mercurial as, say, Bordeaux, where the undesirable weather can cause quality, and prices, to swing dramatically.
California’s vast size and multitude of microclimates works in its favor, said Gladys Horiuchi, communication manager for the San Francisco-based Wine Institute, a trade group. Bad weather may strike some spots, she said, while other wine-growing areas go on untouched.
So, how is the 2006 California harvest? The picking began in August and is expected to wind up in October, although Horiuchi said some areas might be harvesting as late as December.
The yield is expected to be relatively low, around 3.1 million tons, Horiuchi said. That’s quite a change from 2005, which Horiuchi said came in at a record-setting 3.7 million tons.
Yet, wine experts aren’t anxious about the lower tonnage because the productivity of grapevines naturally fluctuates from year to year.
Heavy rains in the spring delayed vine growth but replenished ground water supplies that proved helpful when California was hit with very hot temperatures in the summer.
Marks said many in California wine circles think the hot weather was a good thing. The heat “shocked” the vines, diverting energy from leaf growth to the grape clusters, he said.
“Things are looking very good,” Marks said, referring specifically to Napa and Sonoma, California’s most prestigious and well-known wine regions. “I’m hearing good things despite the weird weather patterns.”
Yet, winemakers still are not out of the woods. With harvest expected to continue into the fall, the chances of lousy weather grow higher. The late fall and winter are California’s rainy seasons and moisture could leave ripening grapes susceptible to rot.
“Once you start getting past the fall equinox, you start keeping a close eye on the Weather Channel,” Marks said.
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wdaley@tribune.com
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