Heat Treatment

So the heat wave continues. I keep hoping for a break so we can catch our breath, but so far no luck. Our vineyard manager Mark Houser has the picking crews working fast and furiously to get the grapes picked before the sugar levels get out of control. He's been starting the crews well before dawn and they usually quit around 10 a.m. Mark calls it a big chess game which is what it really feels like.

Yesterday, Mark and I checked the Primitivo, which the crews picked fairly quickly. It's only about an acre block, but the vineyard is on a steep hillside way above the winery and the vineyard has to be hand-picked. The fruit looked very good which means we are likely to handle it as a separate varietal, probably for one of the Alexander School Top of the Crop wines, as we did with the 2005 Primitivo.

Despite the warm weather, I'm still very encouraged that this is going to be a great vintage. This has really been a textbook growing season with temperatures pretty moderate all summer. We're getting this heat now, but we had such good flavor development in the fruit before so I'm not too concerned about what the weather is throwing at us.