2011 Vintage Overview

2011 Bordeaux-Styled Wines

With many of the 2011 US wines already on the market, there have been reports of cool, wet conditions in many of the west coast growing regions. They are true, but not universally: the 2011 vintage in Washington’s Columbia Valley started off cool, the second year in a row, about 5-10% cooler than average through most of July. But then August hit, with temperatures in the upper 80s to low 90s; it turned the corner on our vineyards as temperatures forced the berries to color up, accumulate sugar and move from a marginal to a very fine vintage. Surprisingly, the warmest temperatures came after Labor Day. While coastal California vineyards slogged through buckets of harvest rain, our September and October turned hot and cloudless.

Autumn carried on the work August had started and yielded wines of definition, vibrancy and texture. The implication for our red Bordeaux varieties was all positive: this radiant autumn allowed them additional hang time to develop plenty of flavor and ripeness: we harvested our last grapes early Halloween morning! We were once again reminded of one of our favorite axioms: It’s not just how much heat you get, but how you get your heat.

2011 Rhone-Inspired Wines

Many years ago during our study in France, we often heard the expression that “August makes the must”, the French way of expressing that August temperatures greatly influence wine quality by building sugar and ripeness in the grapes.

This was clearly the case in Washington’s Columbia Valley in 2011, where April through July saw cooler than normal temperatures, and surprisingly none of the typical mid July heat spikes. August turned the corner on our vineyards as warm to hot temperatures forced the berries to color up, accumulate sugar and move from a marginal to a very good vintage.

Surprisingly, the warmest temperatures came after Labor Day. While coastal California vineyards slogged through buckets of harvest rain, our September and October turned hot and cloudless. Autumn carried on the work August had started and yielded a very fine vintage, indeed.