October 06, 2009

First fruit in today

We brought in the first pinot noir fruit for my new wine project Tuesday. 2.5 tons of a mix of Dijon clones from the Walnut Hill area of the Eola-Amity AVA. Nice volcanic soils, steep south slope, 10 year old vines, not to shabby produce in this hot year. There was definitely some dehydration in the grapes, but less than expected. The clusters were soft and more than ready to go physiologically. Flavors are pretty nice. Not much rot. Lots of leaves in the bins that were sorted out (thanks sorters!). All together, a nice start to this adventure. There's another ton on Pommard clone pinot noir from Zenith vineyard coming in Saturday, and then it's all about the winemaking process. Now, sleep.

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