DRINK WINE

Squinting into a late September sun and sucking the juice out of some remarkably sweet and juicy chardonnay grapes last week, I pondered the past couple of vintages that Washington had to endure.

Mother Nature has not been overly generous the past couple of years towards the wine industry. Both grape growers and winemakers in Washington had to contend with back to back harvests - 2010 and 2011 - that were difficult for the growers and challenging for the vintners to make good wine with what was salvaged off the vines. Some vineyards lost up to 30 percent of their total production. Cold snaps that destroyed buds and vines coupled with other seasonally inopportune problems drew a scenario where some vintners didn’t even bother pressing what grapes they did harvest to wine.

Thankfully the negative trend has done an about-face with the 2012 crop with aplomb. This year is “back to normal” according to Brett Isenhower, if one can define what normal is. Many of the vineyards have been brought in and the grapes are beautiful so there is a collective sigh of relief being raised by most everyone in the Washington wine industry - for very good reason. The annual $8.6 billion industry affects a broad swath of people and businesses every year so there is always a lot riding on a good vintage. The sigh is palpable.

There were however, as late as last week, some problems. The first week of October brought a sharp chill down from the north that had everyone putting on sweaters and turning the heaters on a bit earlier than usual also did some minor damage to the grapes in low-lying vineyards – notably some of the cabernet sauvignon, took a hit. The warming trend of this week will help with vineyards and fruit above 1,000 feet, but there are some vines that took it hard and those won’t recover until next year.

When we take a look at “normal” we are referring to the average heat units per day throughout the growing season, all the way up to harvest. The mild winter of 2011/2012, the warm spring and the hot dry summer that followed has yielded a grape harvest not only in terms of volume but in quality as well and that is due to the summer weather patterns falling into a statistical norm that has been tracked for decades. This year is like the golfers tee shot that goes right down the middle of the fairway.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Washington wine-grape harvest has yielded 185,000 tons, up 30 percent from last year, but the numbers from the growers put the total tonnage closer to 200,000. While 2012 is not a legendary vintage it just might be remembered as the vintage to remember in this decade that made classic Washington state wines – and lots of it.

Walla Walla Vintners has, for many years made one of the seminal bottles of Washington wine – the Sagemoor Vine- yards Cabernet Sauvignon.

“That’s already in and crushed” said Gordy Vinneri, long- time partner with Myles Anderson at Walla Walla Vintners claims – showcasing the classic growing season curve. “The weather this year has been pretty much perfect since the Fourth of July. After a cool spring the rest of this year has been great with sugars and acids in great balance.”

He went on to say that by Oct. 26 or 27 all the fruit will be in. After the cold snap we already experienced, this is making some vineyard managers nervous.

Sleight of Hand Cellars Trey Busch is more enthusiastic. His grapes are “absolutely rocking!” Busch’s overall tonnage is on the low side – a choice made jointly and early between vintner and grower -- has played positively into better fruit this year as well.

“I’m really high on the vintage,” he said.

While his lower block Pepperbridge fruit sustained a little damage from the cold snap last week, “we escaped freezing, which is always a damn good thing! The warming trend this week will bring the fruit right back on line and overall the reds are growing like crazy. We picked chardonnay at 3.5 tons per acre, which is right in line with a perfect year and it came in right on schedule.”

Speaking of Pepperbridge, a world-class vineyard that always has the potential to produce some of the best fruit on the West Coast, also comes with a small problem. Because of its lower elevation, this particular site can be one of the first to show the strain of a cold snap like the one we just had. I spoke with Norm McKibben who assured me that while there was a small amount of leaf fringe damage to the lowest blocks, overall the fruit came back just fine.

However the kind of snap that happened can lead to some very long days -- like 24 hour days. Norm, whose vineyards are like his children, has been cruising the vineyards on those cold nights while you’re asleep. He is especially impressed with the classic les Collines (“the foothills”) vineyard syrah, which is “black and inky this year with perfect sugars and acids shining through.”

But it’s not only the syrah that’s shining this year.

“The merlot is coming on strong and while the volume is up, the flavors are ripe and pure and the tannins are right where they should be,” he said.

Chuck Reininger is a guy known for making bold wines, and this year is giving him serious ammunition to make his signature rich, unctuous wines. While Reninger spreads his risk by sourcing grapes from a variety of vineyard sites, the warming trend this week is great for the grapes that need a little extra hang time on the vines.

“The sugars are in the sweet spot, but I’m waiting for a bit more phenolic ripeness,” he said.

This is the stage where the tannins mature and the – wait for it – methoxypyrazine levels decrease – making the grapes taste rounder, less green.

“Overall it’s looking really good,” Reninger said. “Stillwater vineyard at 1,400 feet and Phinney Hills Vineyard are both performing right down the middle of the curve.”

A bit of his cabernet sauvignon got burned out with the cold snap, but the potential for it to come back is strong over the next few days. Reiningers merlot “just wanted to grow” because normal growth has basically been thwarted since 2004. Grapes want to grow. It’s what they do and they do it vigorously – and when they don’t get to do it, because of whatever reasons a vintage throws at you, they are like a race horse that isn’t allowed to run – there is a lot of pent up energy to just let loose.

Brett Isenhower spoke of the higher brix, but lower acids that this harvest is seeing and smoke taint - the potential for many of the wines to show a smoky bitter quality because of the drastic Ellensburg fire that swept through that area recently. Not something that is a regular contender in the world of potential problems that winemakers face.

“It comes out in the finished wine more than the juice” he said.

When asked how that could be avoided, Isenhower said he is planning on less maceration – the time the skins are in contact with the juice after the crush – to lessen the potential for smoke notes to become apparent in the 2012 vintage. He also noted vigorous growth and bigger, juicier clusters of the 2012 season, something that has been lacking for vintners across the state.