2008 by the numbers…
Another day removed from harvest gives me a few minutes to dig into the nuts and bolts of our grapes for the year.
The end result is that we averaged 1.46 tons per acre over all of our vineyards – with only Ribbon Ridge coming in at our target of 2 tons (actually Ribbon Ridge was a little over, at about 2.2 tons per acre.) Several blocks of Momtazi were right at 1 tpa. In the blocks we farm biodynamically at Maresh, we had 1.82 tpa in the upper block and 1.32 tpa down below. Again, the quality was so nice everywhere – I just really wish we had more of it!
These are the lowest yields we’ve seen since 2004 & 2005, when we averaged just over 1 tpa across all sites in both of those years. Time will tell as to the ultimate character and quality of the resulting wines, but the vibe around the valley right now is that we all wish we had more…
Speaking of wishing for more, here’s a shout-out to Christophe & Sandrine Thibert at our stellar producer Thibert Père & Fils in the Mâconnais – they lost about 75% of their crop in Pouilly-Fuissé this year due to a 10-minute hailstorm that blew through in August. That simply sucks beyond words. We are so fortunate to not have the threat of summer hailstorms here in Oregon – and it makes me realize I absolutely can’t complain about a vintage with great quality and 1.46 tpa – we are truly blessed, in fact.
Here’s a shot of some vines in Pouilly-Fuissé this summer, before the hail took its toll…
