Harvest 2007

So the day of reckoning is finally upon us, that time that is the focus of everything we do around here at AVV. Harvest 2007 has arrived. It's a bit earlier than usual...quite a bit compared to last year.

You never really know what to expect when you go into it every year. All that work in the vineyard, the leaf pulling and the crop thinning, you hope the endgame is worth it all. But a spate of really warm weather or an early storm can really throw all of your plans out of whack. At this stage, however, there is no reason not to be optimistic.

The first truck to roll into our crush pad brought Pinot Noir from our vineyard along the Russian River. Pinot is usually the first varietal to ripen, but that usually doesn't happen until sometime around Labor Day. Last year, the first Pinot didn't arrive until September 14.

The crews began picking at daybreak, around 6:30 this morning. The weather was cool, perfect picking weather. Some of our vineyards are machine harvested, but Pinot is delicate and has a short peduncle--the stem that attaches the bunch to the vine--so it really needs to be hand-picked.

Five hours later, they were done and the first truck arrived at the winery with the Pinot, 12 tons of it. The clusters look good as they tumbled from the gondola into the crusher.

At Alexander Valley Vineyards, we have this great tradition when the first grapes show up. All the employees gather around the crushpad, we pop a couple of bottles of Champagne and toast the new vintage. It instills a lot of camaraderie and brings everyone together, not that they really need that since they are going to be seeing a lot of each other over the next several weeks.