Observations on Vintage 2023

I’ve put together some notes on the 2023 growing season and harvest. This is not a vintage overview, but rather comments on some of the highlights of an unusual year. In the future, climate change will exacerbate fluctuations in temperature and rainfall. These notes center around my observations in that regard.

Chardonnay millerandage (hens and chicks) and Merlot coulure (no berries) reduced yields around 10 to 20%. This was due to temperatures falling below 50°F during flowering. In the past we had only worried about rain during flowering. Now we can add another worry.

For the three summer months of summer we had just two rainfalls of any significance. This resulted in the easiest growing season in memory. Now I know why west coast growers are so laidback. Not much to do. Very little effort extended in leaf pulling, hedging, shoot positioning, cluster thinning, spraying, mowing, and weed control. Downy mildew was non-existent, but powdery mildew did make an appearance. For the first time in decades we saw some PM in chardonnay clusters. A number of years ago sulfur had been dropped from our June spray program (mainly because of eye irritation when doing hand canopy work). I may have to reintroduce low levels in Chardonnay.

The vines walked a fine line between hydric stress and severe drought stress (we don’t irrigate). Older vines (over ten years) and blocks on more water retentive soils (more clay) did fine and were in good balance. Young vines on shallow granite suffered. Small soil differences made big impacts.

Veraison arrived on schedule and was fast and completed early. Post veraison, ripening accelerated every week. Harvest began 7 to 10 days early and continued tracking early. I attribute this to the drought. The vines stopped their vegetative cycle in late July and were therefore able to put all their energy to ripening instead of growing additional unwanted leaves.

Juice and wine yields (amount of liquid per ton of grapes) were down due to small berries, thick skins and lots of pulp. Sorting tables ran fast and not many hands were requires. The reds destemmed cleaner than I have ever seen.

One concern was high brix (potential alcohol) and low YAN (yeast nutrients). Sauvignon Blanc juice was measured at 25 brix and 50 YAN. This set off alarms. The yeast could have trouble finishing fermentation. Sweet Sauvignon Blanc is not our style. We ceased adding yeast nutrients many years ago, but I was not comfortable taking a chance on the reliably obstinate Sauvignon Blanc. Jonathan (Linden’s winemaker) had other ideas. So started the great debate. Every source we consulted felt that in this case, additions were necessary. I was ready to order nutrients when Jonathan reminded me of the current quote on our winery black board: “The Courage to do Nothing”. We did nothing and the wine is finally dry after nearly ten weeks, several sleepless nights and a lot of stirring.

Reds also fermented slowly, but high alcohols seemed to prematurely pull out some bitterness from seed tannins. In some cases we drained and pressed before fermentation was complete.  Press fractions are uncommonly rich with velvety long tannins. They will be very important during blending trials.

Even with a few hiccups, 2023 will be a benchmark vintage.

Grape Press, December 2023

Jim LawGrape Press