2025 Harvest Recap
The 2025 Harvest: Another High Quality Vintage
Back in June, Paul predicted, “if it dries up tomorrow and stays that way, nobody will remember that it was wet earlier in the season.” Boy, was he right! Despite a cold, wet spring, 2025 will be remembered as a very dry year. The rainy pattern stopped during bloom (late June), and we experienced below-average rainfall in July, August and September. It got so dry that a drought was officially declared for our area in August and September.
How would you characterize the 2025 vintage? The drought resulted in smaller berries, and therefore lower yields. However, it also meant warm days with plenty of sunshine to ripen the crop. We harvested really ripe fruit with low acid, high sugar, and great flavor development. The lack of water also led to lower pH in the grapes, which is favorable for long-term aging of the wines. The bottom line? We will have smaller volumes of some of your favorite wines, but the wines will be stellar and age-worthy.
Will there be any particular stand-out grapes or wines from 2025? Paul says the color in the reds seem to be really well developed, so reds should have higher color concentrations and tannins. Also, Riesling flavors are really good and the lower acidity will favor dry and medium-dry styles.
Paul looks pleased with this Riesling!
Are there any new wines in the works? You may remember in our September newsletter that we are making great strides in organic vineyard methods. We were able to farm our new Good Earth Block Riesling 100% organically in 2025. We decided to keep these grapes separate and will bottle it as a new Riesling. This wine will replace the Gridley Bluff Point Vineyard Riesling that we have made since 2012. The Gridleys retired a few years ago and sold their vineyard, so we no longer have access to those grapes. We wish Donna and Louis all the best in retirement, and look forward to sharing some Gridley Rieslings from the library with our club members in the coming years. Be sure to savor the 2023 Gridley Vyd. Riesling in this month’s club pack because it is the final one!
Meet our new assistant winemaker! 2025 was the first Silver Thread harvest for our new assistant winemaker/assistant vineyard manager, Phil Simmons. Phil joined the team back in February, so he was instrumental in helping to grow and ferment the 2025 vintage. He is a graduate of Finger Lakes Community College’s Viticulture and Wine Technology program (where he was a student of Paul’s), and then went on to complete his Bachelor’s in Viticulture and Enology at Cornell. We are so lucky to have someone with a great education and such a positive attitude on our team!
Welcome, Phil, our Assistant Winemaker/Vineyard Manager!
