The marathon millennium vintage of 2000 is finally over at Tablas Creek Vineyard. We started picking on August 26th and finished in brilliant sunshine with autumn colors on November 2nd. It has been a difficult harvest because of uneven ripening- there were several varieties in the vineyard that we picked through as many as four times to collect only the mature bunches, but patience paid off. We got ripe grapes.

We had a normal (for us) crop from our rapidly increasing blocks of bearing vines. In 1999 we harvested 56 tons and this year we have brought in a total of 150 tons from our estate vineyard. The harvest breaks down into 57 tons of white grapes (Marsanne, Roussane, Viognier, Grenache Blanc, Rolle) and 93 tons of red grapes (Mourvedre, Syrah, Counoise, Grenache Noir, Tannat). Overall yield was held to 3.5 tons per acre.

The harvesters put in many hours over two months- some under the hot sun and some in the cold mornings. Selective picking is very demanding and time consuming. All deserve our heartfelt thanks for their excellent work. By time the wine making season is over, the winery crew will have put in over three months of many 12 hour plus days while doing their thing: loading presses, pressing, destemming, filling fermenters, punching down, pumping over, racking, checking fermentations with lab analyses and the myriad of other tasks involved in wine making. We are grateful for their fantastic abilities and devotion. Due to their hard work we now have a cellar full of potentially wonderful wines: deep, rich, intense, fruity and yet very elegant. We look forward to the evolution of the wines of the 2000 vintage in the coming months.

Week of October 9th
The harvest of 2000 continues!

Ripening has been uneven for several of our varieties this year and quite a bit later than we expected in view of the early flowering which ended in April. We are about 85% through harvest at this time. Because of uneven ripening, we have harvested the Roussanne, Marsanne and Counoise in stages, going through the same vines as many as three times during the past month and a half in order to select only the ripe fruit and leaving the balance to continue ripening until maturity. We also still have blocks Counoise and Mourvedre to harvest in the coolest part of our vineyard. It will probably be another ten days to two weeks before they ripen.

François Perrin joins Bob Haas in the cellar at Tablas Creek Vineyard as Mourvedre is dumped into the receiving table and ushered down into the destemmer.

François Perrin reviews the Mourvedre and assists it into the destemmer

Cool temperatures were accompanied by showers and rainbows on Tuesday, October 10th.

We are currently sitting out an expected two days of showers and cool weather- a welcome break in the harvesting that is allowing us time to press some reds and make space in our fermenters. We will probably continue harvesting this week or early next week.

The quality of the white wines is exceptional~intense aromas and flavors. The reds are very good also and we expect concentrated wines with plenty of fruit.

All in all, so far, we are extremely enthusiastic about the 2000 vintage.

François Perrin and Bob Haas reflecting on the 2000 harvest to date

Bob Haas, Neil Collins and François Perrin enjoy a break in the hectic pace to review the harvest.

Week of October 2nd

In keeping with the rest of Harvest 2000, this week has been an exercise in patience. We completed our third harvest through the Roussanne block of the vineyard, hand harvesting only the clusters that were ready. Also brought into the winery were selections of Mourvedre, Viognier, and Marsanne as they had reached their optimum ripeness and balance. We continue daily sampling of the remaining blocks of Mourvedre and Roussanne in the vineyard to track their ripening progress. We anticipate that harvest will continue through the month of October.

Week of September 26th

The daytime temperature have warmed a bit (up to the high 80s) but we continue to experience cooler nights along with longer periods of dense coastal fog in the mornings. This photo captures the fog as it retreats back over the Santa Lucia Mountains.

Despite the climatic changes the fruit in the vineyard continues to ripen and we were able to bring in the French Mourvedre this week. A total of 13 tons has been harvested to date which leaves just a bit more French Mourvedre to be harvested as well as the American source Mourvedre which should be ready in a week or two. Our French Mourvedre is usually the last varietal to be coerced into the winery, but this year it has ripened nicely and has been harvested even before our Marsanne and Counoise. The medium berry size and medium cluster along with the dark color of the Mourvedre can be appreciated here.

Our fermentations are continuing along nicely as the naturally occurring yeasts do their work. Here Neil Collins, cellar master, and his assistant Ryan Hebert are joined by Robert Haas as they assess the progress of the Syrah fermentation in the open top fermenter. Later in the day the contents of this open top were pumped to the press and pressed off the skins.

Harvest continues next week as the Marsanne approaches ripeness, along with additional blocks of Roussanne, Counoise, Tannat and Mourvedre.

Thursday, September 21st

The temperatures which had been hovering around 100 degrees for the past two weeks and had assisted the grapes in ripening, have now taken an abrupt downturn. Our daily high is now between 65 and 75 degrees and the lower temperatures have been partnered with moist & foggy weather. The cooler and moister weather has brought an abrupt halt to the harvest just as we were to begin bringing in the Roussanne, Marsanne and Mourvedre. Though the cooler temps have slowed ripening, warmer temps are scheduled to return again by Monday, September 25th when we expect to recommence harvest.

Week of September 18th

We have had several slow starts to the 2000 harvest at Tablas Creek Vineyard but they all culminated into a dramatic crescendo this week as it seemed that almost all of our twelve varietals reached balanced ripeness simultaneously! Grenache Blanc, Vermentino and Viognier in the whites and Syrah and Grenache Noir in the reds were all harvested and brought into the estate winery over the last few days.

The Viognier harvest that started on September 8th (and is documented on the previous page) was completed this week. This beautiful cluster of Viognier has now been pressed and is in the winery. Our current harvest of Viognier totals to 7.5 tons.

This year we have harvested 6.5 tons of Grenache Blanc which will be a component in our Tablas Creek Vineyard Blanc 2000. The beauty of the Grenache Blanc cluster and leaves can be seen here.

At Tablas Creek Vineyard we utilize the native yeasts to initialize and perform the fermentations, we do not inoculate with commercial yeasts. Here we are monitoring density changes in the fermenting white wines. The density change is a measure of the amount of fermentation (conversion of the sugars in the grapes into alcohol) that has taken place. This daily monitoring allows us to track the progress of the fermentation.

The harvest of our Syrah blocks began on Monday, September 18th. The reds at Tablas Creek Vineyard are hand harvested to allow pickers to select only the clusters that are ready to be harvested. The grapes are brought immediately into our estate winery, placed onto a receiving table which moves them down into a destemmer.

After being hand harvested the clusters are destemmed and the fruit is placed in stainless steel tanks to begin whole berry fermentation, again using only native yeasts.
Jason Haas and Meghan Dunn review the syrah grapes and assist them down the receiving table on their way into the destemmer.

Neil Collins, Cellar Master at Tablas Creek Vineyard, oversees the syrah on its way into the destemmer.

Here you can see the grapes after the destemming process is completed and just prior to their introduction into the stainless steel fermentation tanks. The intense color of these syrah grapes that is seen here is matched by their very intense and complex aromas.

Pump overs, where the wine that settles to the bottom of the stainless steel tank is moved out and pumped through the cap of grape skins that floats to the top of the tank, will now be a daily occurrence for the red wines--Come back and see our winery staff in action!

Week of September 4th

We have recently experienced cooler days (80-90 F) and even cooler nights (40-55 F) followed by cloudy mornings. These conditions have caused the maturation of the grapes to slow a bit. But as of September 8th the temperatures are once again climbing as are the sugars in the grapes. Harvest has restarted with the Viognier that is seen here. We will continue to harvest through the month of September and quite possibly into October when the Mourvedre, the latest ripening varietal here at Tablas Creek Vineyard, is expected to be ready for harvest.

		The white varietals receive a light pressing after being hand harvested. Here the Viognier grapes are being introduced to the press.
		At Tablas Creek all harvesting is done in the early morning by hand into small picking bins which are then consolidated in 1/2 ton bins. Hand picking allows for the selection of only the best grapes.