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Monday, August 27th, marked the first day of Harvest 2001 as we began harvesting our Viognier. At Tablas Creek Vineyard all harvesting is done by hand into small picking bins in the early morning to take advantage of the cool temperatures. The grapes are then consolidated into 1/2 ton bins and immediately transferred to our estate winery.
When our white varietals are harvested, in this case Viognier, they are
introduced into our bladder press to undergo a light pressing. The
resulting juice is pumped into stainless steel tanks to begin fermentation.
In order to allow the fullest expression of our varietals and the terroir of
Tablas Creek Vineyard fermentation is completed by indigenous yeasts. Here
you see the Viognier bunches being introduced into the press and the
resulting juice.
On Tuesday, August 28th, our vineyard crew, having finished harvesting the
Viognier, began harvesting our Syrah. As with our whites, our reds, Syrah in
this case, are harvested by hand into small picking bins and then
consolidated into 1/2 ton macro bins as pictured here.
The macro bins are shuttled in from the vineyard to
our estate winery. At this point the reds are gently placed on a sorting
table. As they progress down the table we have one more opportunity to
check the quality of the fruit and remove any leaves. Our vineyard crew is
very skilled at selectively harvesting only the bunches of grapes which are
ready, which makes the winery crew's job at the sorting table easier. Here
you can see our cellar assistants, Robert and Phil, working the sorting
table.
The Syrah
bunches descend into a Vaslin Bucher de-stemming machine where the grapes
are gently plucked from their stems. The grapes are then moved to a holding
bin from which they are pumped into a stainless steel tank to undergo
fermentation, again by naturally occurring yeasts. The stems are collected
from the de-stemming machine and composted for later use as fertilizer in
the vineyard.
September 3 - 17
At the end of the first week of Harvest 2001, the weather cooled down
for several days. This cooler weather, along with overcast conditions we
experienced due to our proximity to the ocean, has slowed the final stages
of ripening in the vineyard. Thus we have had an on and off harvest where
we harvest rapidly for one or two days and then have to wait several days
for the next varietal to reach maturity.
Even with the slightly slowed harvesting, we are progressing nicely. During the first and second week of September we harvested our Roussanne and Grenache Blanc, which completed the harvesting of our white varietals. Two more of our red varietals, Mourvedre and Grenache Noir, were also harvested during the second week of September, joining our Syrah which was brought into the cellar last month. We are nearing the end of the Harvest 2001, a harvest that will, no doubt, produce a superb vintage. The fruit has universally been very well balanced and has fantastic intensity and flavor. Though we will not see an increase in production (in part a result of the decreased fruit set due to the late Spring frost), the increased intensity and complexity will make this a highly sought-after vintage.
September 18 - October 3
On September 18th & 19th we brought more Mourvèdre and the last of the Syrah into the cellar. The following week we made a second pass through several of the varietals to harvest any remaining bunches which benefited from a week or two of additional ripening time. On October 2nd we harvested the last of the Grenache Noir and on October 3rd we completed our harvest as we brought in the remaining Mourvèdre.
The final harvest by varietal is as follows:
Chardonnay Counoise Grenache Blanc Grenache Noir Marsanne Mourvèdre Roussanne Syrah Viognier Total 2001 Harvest |
.58 tons 3.12 tons 8.23 tons 12.58 tons 5.57 tons 20.44 tons 12.97 tons 15.42 tons 7.85 tons 86.75 tons |
For a retrospective of the 2000 Harvest click here.