Baiocchi Wines (FairPlay/Eldorado County) - Harvest Report

Greg Baiocchi, owner and winemaker at Baiocchi Wines, sends his harvest report for his vineyards in Fair Play, El Dorado county:

HARVEST REPORT

"After the coolest spring and summer we have experienced since planting our 12 acre estate vineyard in FairPlay, I am excited about the potential wines of 2011. The vineyard, now in its 6^th leaf, looks tremendous as I walk through it taking samples this September.

Last September we started harvest on the 15^th and we were a little behind from a cool season then.  This year I am sampling fruit the 15^th of September, looking at harvest starting in our Upper Syrah blocks at the end of the month.

The fruit is exceptional this year, phenolic profiles are much riper at lower sugars than last year. Some of this could be age of the vines but more due to growing conditions this year. We did not have to drop as much fruit this year, 20% of our yield. Smaller berries, lighter clusters, the vineyard is telling me I can make some really concentrated, complex wines from the 2011 fruit.

I am tasting much riper flavors and nuttiness in the seeds at 20 Brix, still waiting for skins to soften a bit and the fruit to achieve total balance. I am very excited about harvesting some Syrah below 25 Brix something I was not able to do in our first two vintages.

Tempranillo should be next, in the first week of October. Grenache I would anticipate harvesting Mid October into November this year. From start to finish that would be two weeks later than last year as well. I believe the Mourvedre will be end of October/beginning of November as well, hopefully.

Mother Nature will have everything to do with our hang time. Looking for consistent heat and for Autumn to stay on the warm side in October with cool nights keeping our acids and sugars in balance, we have the potential for a truly great vintage that will enable great wines with complexity and balance."

About Baiocchi Wines, from his website:
"Situated among the rocky, granitic hillsides of the Sierra Nevada foothills, Baiocchi Wines is a family-run vineyard producing high quality, small lot wines from our estate-grown grapes. Our twelve acres of fruit, fed by a warm, dry growing season and cool evening breezes, are quite literally the foundation of the fruit of our labors: elegant wines crafted in the Southern Rhone and Rioja traditions."