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Bringing the heat

Have we all finally emerged from one of the coolest springs on record? One would think so throughout the Northwest, which is basking in warm temperatures.

Here in the heart of Washington's Columbia Valley, we're enjoying our third straight day of temperatures in the 80s and 90s. Today, we're expected to hit triple digits. Vines that were slow to emerge because of cool temperatures (heck, it snowed a week ago on Snoqualmie Pass), surely are catching up right now.

I just strolled through my little backyard vineyard and discovered a tangle of leaves and seemingly hundreds of tiny clusters. I thought I had a lot last year, but this is the fifth leaf for these vines, which means they're just now hitting their stride.

Within the next several weeks, these clusters will flower and grapes will begin to form. By the first week of August, they will begin to turn red, signaling the watch for harvest, which will start in September and run through October.

By aperdue at May 17 2008 - 12:40pm | viticulture | aperdue's blog | 376 reads

Wine Tasting in the Heat

What a fabulous weekend! The heat felt great and we found some great wines we had not tasted before.
We came up through The Dalles and stopped at Erin Glenn and bought two bottles of their Gewurtz...sweet beginning but finishing off dry. It was wonderful.
We also tried the Barbara at Cascade Cliffs, as well as the rest of their wines, and Naked Wines as well. All were fabulous and we will be going back there to purchase in the near future. That Barbara was to die for....
After reading this blog for awhile, we decided to go find Vitner Village and the Winemaker's Loft. What a treasure. Airfield has an unoaked Chardonnay that we ended up buying, and a rose' that was excellent as well. Masquerade Wine, a very new winery, had excellent wine and I had never been to Thurston Wolfe so we stopped there and I came home with another rose'. I have not really been a fan of rose' but the current ones are not too sweet.
We also visited the Loft and got a couple of bottles there..a Cab and another rose'! We want to come back and focus on Prosser a little more. In all, we visited 18 wineries in 2 days, but these were the highlights for us.
By the way, we had the doggy with us and everyone let us bring him inside to lie on the floor where it was cool. That was very much appreciated!

By cjmath at Wed, 05/21/2008 - 6:24pm | login or register to post comments

Bringing the heat

Talking to one winemaker about the recent heat wave might cause some negative effects as well. One disease that might crop up could be bunch stem necrosis.

Here is an explanation from WSU's website:
http://winegrapes.wsu.edu/archivedTOM/topic11-06.html

Probably nothing to worry about but I am hoping for the best,
David

By dvolmut at Mon, 05/19/2008 - 11:48am | login or register to post comments

The heat is ON!

This heat feels particularly wonderful to us, being from the soggy west side of the mountains!

We are over here doing our quarterly wine tasting..will post later about what we have found on this trip. But I wanted to post a clarification about an earlier comment I made. At this point, I am hearing various versions of the story and I will continue to attempt to find out the truth..apparently the winery I had said was sold is going to continue in business, but surrounding acreage WAS sold. There are still OPEN FOR BUSINESS signs along the highway, as of today. The same buyer has also purchased Sandhill winery as well.

By cjmath at Sat, 05/17/2008 - 4:08pm | login or register to post comments

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